Meet the S-3B Viking: the Hoover, by the numbers 86ef63b

Third aboard is the submarine’s worst day: an S-3B Viking of VS-37, the Sawbucks — NL 700 on the tall fin, answering to SAWBUCK 700. They call the real jet the Hoover for the sound of those two big fans. The card:

1. Crew: four — two pilots up front, tactical coordinator and sensor operator behind — in a cockpit more airliner than fighter.
2. Powerplant: two GE TF34 turbofans, 9,275 lbf each, in pods slung under the high wing — the same engine family that powers the A-10.
3. The kit: sonobuoys by the dozen (the chute dots on our model’s belly), a magnetic anomaly detector in the tail stinger, and room in the bay for torpedoes. The boom out the back gives the profile away every time.
4. 1994 squadron: VS-37 Sawbucks, NAS North Island, Carrier Air Wing 15 — on their final cruise that summer and autumn, which included a famous October week keeping tabs on a Han-class submarine. VS-37 took the 1994 Battle E and stood down 1 March 1995.
5. Dimensions: 53 ft 4 in long, 68 ft 8 in span, carrier-based from first flight to retirement.
6. In the bay: SAWBUCK 700 flies the deck cycle off the Big E — launch, pattern, trap, park — boom out, hook down. Blue on the scope and the map, spectate with J, printable STL on the store.