During the early years of the Cold War, the primary threat to
the superiority of the U.S. Navy was not an enemy surface fleet
but the numerous Soviet submarines that regularly patrolled the
world's oceans. In response to this very real threat, Grumman
designed the S2F-1 in the early 1950s as the U.S. Navy's premier
sub hunter. Outfitted with the latest submarine detection
equipment, the S2F-1 Tracker revolutionized anti-submarine
warfare (ASW). Variations of the basic S2F-1 design were
developed to serve many functions including: fire bombing,
target towing, photo-reconnaissance, Carrier Onboard Delivery
(COD) and multi-engine proficiency training. Also called the
“Stoof” (S-Two-F), the Tracker's twin engines and crew of four
allowed the plane to search hundreds of miles of ocean on each
patrol, ensuring that American carrier groups could proceed
without harassment from Soviet subs. The S2F carried a search
radar mounted on the bottom of the fuselage in a retractable
radome, a retractable magnetic anomaly det