Almansur: When Bugs get Bones

BUGS WITH BONES

That might be a unique and dubious evolutionary path, but the Grumman F-14 Tomcats were not getting any younger. The Jolly Rogers officially transitioned to the F/A-18F in March 2005.

They transitioned to the Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet, and VF-103 became VFA-103. In July 2004, while the squadron was at sea aboard the Kennedy for the final Tomcat cruise, the first Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet for VF-103 was rolling out of the assembly line.

The Bones got on the tails of the Bugs, although they were very discreet, on the roll-out of the unit's first bird at Boeing in July 2004. The following are VF-103 photos, via my friend Brian Marbrey:

These markings are for identification purposes only. The birds will be repainted at the squadron with a more suiting rendering of the Bones and the colors.

VFA-103 was be the first operational squadron using the Advanced Aft Crew Station, that for the first time provided the WSOs with larger displays and "decoupled" cockpit stations. One of the advantages is that these Block 26 aircraft can perform air-to-air and air-to-ground missions simultaneously, with each crew member operating independently the sensors and the weapons. The Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared sensor (ATFLIR) gives the Super Hornet targeting abilities superior to the Tomcat / LANTIRN combo.

John Gabor took the following phootograph at NAS Leemore on the first week of September 2004:

This one must be the devil's ship, by the look of the 666 that's imbedded on his Bureau Number.

In early November, Gerry Clarke was at NAS Oceana to see the arrival of this bird already in full colors, in preparation for the home coming of the Jolly Rogers from their last Tomcat cruise. The following photographs by Gerry Clarke show pretty much what was expected in terms of markings:

Dave Brown took the following first picture of the new modex 100, carrying the BuNo 166621, at Oceana in December. The squadron now has two F/A-18Fs.

On December 12 modex 103 was on the Oceana ramp for the homecoming of the Jolly Rogers, who where returning from their scheduled cruise aboard the Kennedy.

Although Dave's still reluctant to embrace the Rhino, he is starting to like it, and it is starting to show in his work:

Gerry Clarke is also partial to this angle, as shown on the following picture he took:

A far less colorful squadron aircraft was caught by Gerry at the same occasion:

In February 2005, two of the squadron's Rhinos were pictured at NAS Key West by Joe Steimann (photo via Mark Nankivil):

Glenn E. Bloore shot this low-viz example at Chino, California, during an air show:

A fellow enthusiast and scale modeler, Daniel McLain, is an USN Photographer's Mate, and took the following pictures at the Langley air show in May 14 2005:

It became known in June that VFA-103 will have its first cruise aboard the Eisenhower, as the second squadron of CVW-7. It looks like this is a temporary reallocation, with VFA-103 returning to CVW-17 after the cruise.

To conform to these orders, the Jolly Rogers birds are being repainted with modex numbers in the 200 range, and the tail codes are going from AA to AG.

My friend Gerry Clarke sent me these first pictures of the CO bird in its new scheme. Still lacking the USS Dwight D Eisenhower carrier markings, but in otherwise definitive first cruise colors.

You can see the old and new scheme on the first picture (click it for a better view):

And a closer view of modex 200, in this scheme:

Modex 200 got a personalized, non-regulation, G on the tail code. Modex 201 received the code in regulation lettering. Gerry Clarke got both birds documented side by side:

201 was pictured on July 28 doing carrier qualifications aboard the USS Harry Truman:

This far less colorful example, 211, was pictured at the same date and location:

The Jolly Rogers got their initial certification, "Safe for Flight", on 15 July. That meant that the Jolly Rogers became responsible for their own F/A-18F flight operations, and were no longer dependent on the RAG (VFA-122). With the carrier qualifications under way, everything is going well in preparation for the first cruise aboard the Eisenhower. Now they'll have to go through weapons and tactics training.