Retired Vikings Work As Security Guards

The recent retirement of the U.S. Navy's S-3 "Viking" anti-submarine aircraft was interrupted when it was realized that four of these S-3s could be used to replace P-3 and C-130 aircraft used to patrol the Pacific missile test range in Hawaii.

This instrumented (it's got lots of sensors to monitor what happens when weapons are launched) is in Hawaii, and contains 109,000 square kilometers of airspace that has to be patrolled, before a test, to make sure no ships have wandered into the area.

The jet propelled S-3, which normally operates on carriers, is faster than the propeller driven P-3s and C-130s that have long done the patrol work.

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