This is the nickname for the S3-B Sea Viking due to its unique sounding engines. They have a strange high pitched noise not normally associated with a regular jet engine. Of course they are the only carrier plane that flies with a turbo fan engine, TF-34-GE-400B turbofan engines to be exact.

The S3 was built by Lockheed during the 1970’s and is on the verge of being retired from active service with the Navy due to its age. The S-3B Viking is an all-weather, carrier-based jet aircraft, providing protection against hostile surface combatants while also functioning as the Carrier Battle Groups' primary overhead/mission tanker. Extremely versatile, the aircraft is equipped for many missions, including day/night surveillance, electronic countermeasures, command/control/communications warfare, and search and rescue.

The S-3B's high-speed computer system processes and displays information generated by its targeting-sensor systems. These systems include; Inverse/Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR/SAR), infrared (IR) sensor and an Electronic Support (ESM) system. To engage and destroy targets, the S-3B Viking employs an impressive array of airborne weaponry including the AGM 84 Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile, AGM 65 Maverick IR missile and a wide selection of conventional bombs and torpedoes. Future Viking aircraft will also have a control capability for the AGM 84 Standoff Land Attack Missile Extended Range (SLAM-ER) missile. The S-3B provides the fleet with a very effective fixed-wing, "over-the-horizon" aircraft to combat the significant and varied threats presented by modern maritime combatants.

The aircrafts original mission was ASW, anti-submarine warfare. However with the decline of Russian Naval forces the aircraft has switched to an anti surface role. Following the removal of all A-6 aircraft the S3 has also been switched to the primary refuler for the fleet.

Starting in 2004 Viking squadrons have been slowly withdrawn from active service as more and more Super Hornets come onboard carriers. There are currently just over 30 aircraft operating with the fleet. These will be retired sometime in 2009.

Being home ported with the carrier which was in our battle group the Scott had to play air dog with the carrier while her pilots qualified each time we went out. You could hear the Viking coming from a ways off, and it sure did sound like a vacuum cleaner. They are nice looking plane sand they will be missed.