The S-3A Needs a Shot in the Arm, Not Major Surgery

Amidst allegations of the S-3A Viking being only marginally effective, the battle lines have been drawn for a fight between the Navy and the Defense Department which will decide the aircraft’s future. Before anyone takes a torch to the Navy’s existing Vikings to make room for the mail, then tacks on a tanker package for good measure, let us examine the problems that have prompted these radical proposals and some less drastic solutions.