People forget that the kinda dopey-looking Grumman S-2 Tracker ASW aircraft, known by the VS-squadron members that operated them as “Stoofs,” could carry a staggering amount of ordinance.
They could tote a 4,800-pound payload in the internal bomb bay and on six under-wing hardpoints and still operate from WWII-sized aircraft carriers. This included not only a wide array of torpedos, depth charges, and naval mines, but also rockets, dumb bombs, and other assorted party favors. By comparison, the Army’s North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers that bombed Toyko with Doolittle in 1942 could only carry 3,600-pounds of bombs.
S-2 Tracker of VS-32 at Quonset Point, RI late 1960’s. Note the lineup.
Grumman S-2E Tracker Anti-Submarine Warfare aircraft (Bureau # 152339), of Anti-Submarine Squadron 37 (VS-37) from USS Ticonderoga (CVS-14) In flight over the Chocolate Mountain Weapons Testing Range, Yuma, Arizona in June 1970. This plane carries a four-rocket pod of Zuni 5-inch Folding-Fin Aircraft Rockets below its port wing. Photo USN 1148263
Argentine S-2 tracker belly showing off LAU-68 (FFAR) launchers designed for launching ballistic 2.75 MK-4 Mighty Mouse rockets. Practice bombs are also visible on her wings
Not bad for what is commonly just thought of as a “support aircraft” during the Cold War.