Gringo-Gaucho



Gringo-Gaucho are a set of maneuvers performed between the Argentine Naval Aviation and United States Navy's aircraft carriers. The US Navy refers to them as Southern Seas in their last edition.

History


The Argentine Navy continuously operated an aircraft carrier from 1959 to 1990. When ARA Veinticinco de Mayo was retired, it was decided to keep an embarked air group with the hope of operating a carrier again in the future. In order to qualify the pilots, the traditional friendship with the Brazilian Navy has meant that Argentine naval aviators have continued to operate from the deck of the Brazilian aircraft carriers Minas Gerais and São Paulo during ARAEX exercises. video The only other choice available was with the United States. As the United States Navy does not maintain regular deployments of aircraft carriers in the South Atlantic it is necessary to wait for one of them to perform a transit within Argentine coastal waters. The opportunities occur when the ships perform a transit around South America to move between the East and West coasts of the United States since they cannot fit through the Panama Canal. The exercise is coordinated by US Naval Forces Southern Command and unlike with the Sao Paulo the Argentine aircraft perform Touch-and-go landings only and do not fully embark on the carriers.

Aircraft

 * Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard ( 2da Escuadrilla Aeronaval de Caza y Ataque )
 * Grumman/IAI S-2T Turbo Tracker ( Naval Antisubmarine Squadron )
 * Alouette III and Eurocopter Fennec ( 2nd Naval Helicopter Squadron ) as SAR aircraft
 * Sikorsky/Agusta S-61 Sea King ( 1st Naval Helicopter Squadron ) for general support duties

List of operations

 * 1990, March: USS Constellation (CV-64) on transit for her Service Life Extension Program (SLEP)
 * 1990, October: USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72)
 * 1991, November: USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), including port visit to Mar del Plata
 * 1993: USS Constellation on the way back to the Pacific Ocean after SLEP
 * 2001: USS Nimitz (CVN-68). Cancelled due budget restrictions per Argentine economic crisis
 * 2004: USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) video
 * 2008:USS George Washington (CVN-73)
 * 2010: USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70)video