Ask a Naval Aircrewman

[Haasino]

Originally Posted by CTT1(SW)Griffin

Haas,

In regards to AWR and AWS, what's the big difference? Do AWRs still do much tactical work or is it all Rescue Swimmer? Are they each designated for specific air-frames?

/r
CTT1

The biggest difference is that AWR's do anti-submarine warfare and limited anti-surface warfare, while AWS' do Vertical Replenishment. AWR is more tactically-oriented, so they tend to do the CSAR missions whereas AWS' are utility and whatnot. Both overlap into the CSAR and NSW support world to an extent... but the biggest thing is the ASW/ASuW element. Neither one focuses on the rescue swimmer element... some do a lot of SAR stuff, others never do real-world SAR.

Platform-wise, now that the Navy has consolidated their helos, AWR's are on the MH-60R, while AWS' are on the MH-60S... they don't cross-platform.