page_title: List of United States Navy aircraft squadrons
section_title: Fleet Air Reconnaissance (VQ)
hierarchical_section_title: List of United States Navy aircraft squadrons / Fixed Wing Squadrons / Fleet Air Reconnaissance (VQ)
caption_attribution_description: The first completed U.S. Navy Lockheed EP-3E Aries II conversion aircraft departs from the L-3 Communications modification facility in Waco (Texas , USA). The aircraft is used for electronic intelligence (ELINT). The aircraft is a new version of the P-3C aircraft and was heading to Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River (Maryland, USA), for testing and fleet training on 29 Mar 2006.
context_page_description: This is a list of active United States Navy aircraft squadrons. Deactivated or disestablished squadrons are listed in the List of Inactive United States Navy aircraft squadrons.
  Navy aircraft squadrons are composed of several aircraft, the officers who fly them, the officers and sailors who maintain them and administrative support officers and sailors. Some of the units listed in this article are not technically "squadrons", but they all operate U.S. Navy aircraft in some capacity.
  Squadrons and their history are listed in the Dictionary of American Naval Aviation Squadrons.
context_section_description: The VQ designation was created in 1955 to designate "Electronic Countermeasures Squadron" and did so though 1959. By 1960 the VQ squadrons, rather than simply jamming communications and electronic signals, had been equipped to collect them for intelligence purposes. In January 1960 this new role of the VQ squadrons was recognized by changing the VQ designation from "Electronic Countermeasures Squadron" to "Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron." Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron ONE is currently the Navy's only overt signals intelligence (SIGINT) and communications intelligence (COMINT) reconnaissance squadron. The 13 EP-3E aircraft in the Navy's inventory are based on the Orion P-3 airframe and provide fleet and theater commanders worldwide with near real-time tactical SIGINT and COMINT. With sensitive receivers and high-gain dish antennas, the EP-3E exploits a wide range of electronic emissions from deep within targeted territory.
  Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadrons THREE and FOUR carry the VQ designation, but they are not reconnaissance squadrons; they are airborne command and control, and communications relay squadrons which provide survivable, reliable, and endurable airborne command, control, and communications between the National Command Authority (NCA) and U.S. strategic and non-strategic forces. The squadrons' E-6B aircraft are dual-mission aircraft, capable of fulfilling both the airborne strategic command post mission equipped with an airborne launch control system (ALCS) which is capable of launching U.S. land based intercontinental ballistic missiles and fulfilling the TACAMO ("Take Charge and Move Out") mission which links the NCA with Navy ballistic missile submarine forces during times of crisis. The aircraft carries a very low frequency communication system with dual trailing wire antennae for that communications relay mission.
  Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron SEVEN is the E-6B Fleet Replacement Squadron, providing initial and requalification training for pilots, aircrewmen, and maintainers.  It operates E-6Bs on loan from VQ-3 and VQ-4, having returned a 737-600 it had previously operated on lease from Lauda Air.
caption: EP-3E Aries II
exif: {}