re: #181 eon

While unarmed, the Hawkeye is protected by the fleet-defense fighters it controls. Simply put, to get to the E-2, an enemy first has to get past the shooters that the E-2 is busy vectoring in on his a$$.

Here’s one of the comments on the E-2 article that I linked above:

I always liked it when the E-2 drivers would come into the AF officers clubs and brag about being the most heavily armed aircraft in the fleet. The AF guys would bite and ask what they were armed with. The pilots would say “Four F-14s”. Their patches had the Hawk with the Tomcat perched on the wing saying “Sic Em!”. Navy Humor…gotta love it.