The Tracker was eventually superseded in U.S. military service by the
Lockheed S-3 Viking; the last USN Tracker operational squadron (VS-37 with S-2G models) was disestablished in 1976. The last Navy S-2 was withdrawn from service on 29 August 1976. For many years the TS-2A version of the Tracker was used by U.S. Navy training units, culminating with its use by
Training Squadron 27 (
VT-27),
Training Squadron 28 (
VT-28) and
Training Squadron 31 (
VT-31) for Student
Naval Aviator training in the multi-engine pipeline with Training Air Wing FOUR (TRAWING 4) at
Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas. A number of Trackers live on as
firefighting aircraft while the design also continued to provide excellent service with the naval forces of other countries for years after the U.S. retired them. For example, the
Royal Australian Navy continued to use Trackers as front line ASW assets until the mid-1980s.
Argentina S-2T Turbo Tracker in hangar with wings folded.
Argentine Naval Aviation received seven S-2As in 1962, six S-2Es in 1978, and three S-2Gs in the 1990s. They were operated from both aircraft carriers, and , and used in the
carrier onboard delivery (COD) (US-2A conversions,) maritime patrol, and ASW roles. They were extensively used in the 1982
Falklands War, first from
ARA Veinticinco de Mayo, from where they detected the British task force on 1 May 1982 in the failed naval strike attempt carried by Argentinean Naval forces, and then from the mainland when the carrier returned to port after the sinking of the cruiser , During that trip back to port the S-2E carried ASW sorties including the attack of submarine contacts with aerial torpedoes. and with U.S. Navy aircraft carriers during
Gringo-Gaucho maneuvers. at least one S-2T was reported still operational in the maritime surveillance role. The last Argentine S-2T was formally retired on 1 December 2025.
Australia Between 1967 and 1984 the
Royal Australian Navy operated two Squadrons of S-2E and S-2G variants, based at
NAS Nowra (). These aircraft served with the RAN's
816 Squadron, which embarked aboard the as part of the 21st Carrier Air Group whenever that ship was deployed; and with
851 Squadron, the S-2 training squadron. During approximately 17 years of operation of the Tracker, the RAN lost only one S-2 during aircraft operations due to an accident at sea on 10 February 1975. This saw the introduction of AQA-7 acoustic gear into RAN service and all RAN operational Trackers were subsequently modified to this standard.
Brazil The Brazilian Air Force flew Trackers from the aircraft carrier NAeL . Both the S-2A and S-2E were used (respectively as P-16A and P-16E). At the end of its service in Brazilian Air Force, one S-2T Turbo Tracker was evaluated as a possible upgrade, but due high costs the program was canceled. However, in 2010 the Brazilian Navy contracted
Marsh Aviation to convert four S-2Ts to
Airborne Early Warning configuration and upgrade four additional
Grumman C-1 Traders for tanking and carrier onboard delivery transport duties. The latter were scheduled to be back in service by 2015 and were expected to operate from the successor of
Minas Gerais,
NAe São Paulo. Following the bankruptcy of Marsh Aviation in 2009 the program suffered delays and the upgrade of the airframes was resumed in partnership with
Elbit Systems's subsidiary,
M7 Aerospace. The decommissioning of the São Paulo in 2017 means that the Brazilian Navy does not have an immediate need for carrier-based tankers, transports and AEW aircraft, however the navy proceeded with procurement and the delivery of four tanker aircraft are expected by 2021. As noted under
Argentina above, Trackers of that country have been flown from the
São Paulo until its decommissioning in early 2017.
Canada CP-121 Tracker from VU-33 folds its wings while taxiing at
CFB Moose Jaw in 1982 In 1954, de Havilland Canada (DHC) entered into a contract to build 100 Trackers under license to replace the outmoded
Grumman TBM-3E Avengers being used by the
Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). 99 Trackers were actually built by DHC, with the first Canadian-built aircraft flying on 31 May 1956. From 1957 onwards, these aircraft operated from the newly deployed aircraft carrier and various shore bases. All the Canadian Trackers were built to the earlier "A" model airframe design with a length of (cf. for later model Trackers) in order to fit in
Bonaventures hangar. In 1960–1961, 17 CS2F-1 aircraft, which had been relegated to training and utility duties by the CS2F-2, were transferred to the
Royal Netherlands Navy. From 1964, 45 CS2F-2s were upgraded by fitting revised electronic equipment and sensors, becoming CS2F-3s. Also in 1964, a pair of CS2F-1 aircraft were stripped of armament and ASW electronics, converted to transports, and subsequently used for carrier onboard delivery. The CS2F-1, -2, and -3 were redesignated as the CP-121 Mk.1, Mk. 2, and Mk. 3 respectively following the
unification of Canadian forces in 1968. After
Bonaventure was decommissioned in 1970, all remaining Canadian Trackers were transferred to shore bases. This limited their usefulness for ASW patrols, and between 1974 and 1981 gradually all but 20 were placed in storage and the remainder were stripped of their ASW gear. The remaining active-duty Trackers served until 1990 on
fisheries protection and maritime patrol duties. A handful of Trackers were kept in flying condition until the late 1990s but were no longer used for active service. DHC purchased a single U.S.-built S2F-1 from Grumman for testing avionics and anti-submarine systems and also for evaluating Engineering Change Proposals created by Grumman; it was initially given RCN serial number
1500 and counted as one of the 100 contracted airframes. In 1954, this aircraft was transferred to the RCN for operational testing, and assigned the test code
X-500. In 1956, it was upgraded to CS2F-1 standards and assigned serial number
1501; it was last used as a stationary instructional airframe at
Shearwater until 1972. It is not known whether this aircraft was ever assigned a U.S. Navy
bureau number.
Japan S2F-1 at
Kanoya Air Base The
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force received 60 S2F-1s in 1957 from U.S. stocks, and they were operated until 1984. After being received, six S2F-1s were reconfigured into four S2F-U and two S2F-C variants. The S2F-1 was nicknamed
Aotaka (あおたか, Blue Hawk). They were replaced by the
Lockheed P-3 Orion.
Netherlands The
Netherlands Naval Aviation Service (Marineluchtvaartdienst - MLD), the air arm of the
Royal Netherlands Navy, received 28 S-2A (S2F-1) aircraft under MDAP from the US Navy in 1960. An additional 17 Canadian-built CS-2A (CS2F-1) aircraft formerly operated by the
Royal Canadian Navy were delivered between December 1960 and September 1961 after being overhauled by Fairey Canada. These aircraft were operated from
Valkenburg Naval Air Base as well as from the light aircraft carrier until a fire in 1968 took that ship out of Dutch service. A total of 18 aircraft were converted to S-2N (for Netherlands) standard by Fairey Canada in 1968–1970 for ASW and MR use with 1 Sqn (at
Hato International Airport), of which four were converted to US-2N trainer/transport standards in May 1971. Most of the de Havilland Canada-built CS-2As were scrapped by 1970 or used for ground instruction. The last Tracker in MLD service was withdrawn in January 1976, with some transferred to the Turkish Navy. The 27 S-2Ts upgraded were transferred to the ROCN Aviation Command on 1 July 1999. In 2013, the S-2s were transferred back into ROCAF service. In May 2017, all S-2Ts were withdrawn from active service.
Turkey The
Turkish Navy received a number of ex-U.S. Navy S-2E Trackers under the MAP program and operated them from the Cengiz Topel Naval Air Base starting in the 1960s. These were later supplemented by retired S-2A (or S-2N as called by the Dutch) airframes from Netherlands. Turkish Trackers were retired in 1994 after a series of accidents caused by the advanced age and fatigue of the airframes.
Civilian use From the late 1970s until the mid-1990s
Conair Aviation of
Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada took possession of retired Canadian and U.S. Trackers and converted them into
Firecats, with a four-door fire retardant tank replacing the weapons bay and adjacent mid-fuselage section. Firecats were made in two variants: the piston-engined Firecat and the turboprop-powered Turbo Firecat. In 1958,
CAL FIRE, then CDF, contracted with a private air tanker service for the use of their converted World War II aircraft. By 1970 the department began to evaluate the use of former military Grumman S-2 aircraft. Over the next ten years CAL FIRE continued to build up its fleet of S-2A air tankers and in 1987, CAL FIRE began the process of converting their piston engines to turboprop. By 2005 all of CAL FIRE's airtanker fleet had been converted to S-2T air tankers.
Turkey The Tracker was considered for Turkey's firefighting aircraft project. The Turkish Navy had retired its entire Tracker fleet 1994, so these aircraft were readily available for modification.
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) undertook a study in 1997 to investigate if it was possible to convert any of these S-2Es for firefighting. After re-engining with
Honeywell TPE331 turboprop engines, at a cost of about $3 million per aircraft, it was expected to provide at least twenty years of service. TAI ordered an S-2T Turbo Tracker upgrade kit for conversion of one of the S-2Es. Following its conversion in 1999, the aircraft was used during the 1999 Antalya wildfires and the
Tüpraş Izmit Oil Refinery fire, started after the
1999 İzmit earthquake. Although up to fifteen aircraft were intended to be converted, the project was cancelled in 2002 for unclear reasons. TAI's Flight Test Engineering Group flew the lone converted aircraft as a testbed for new technology until the mid-2010s. ==Variants==