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Sonobuoy Deployment
p3skyking
Member Posts: 23,916 ✭✭✭
This is a very cool clip. Sonobuoys are the primary detection device used in ASW. We had RADAR, MAD, the old MK 1 MOD 0 eyeball, but buoys were our bread and butter.
The P-8 also uses them.
Not sure what buoy this is as we had bathythermographs, pingers, Gertie (talks to subs) and DIFAR, plus a few other types.
I'm pretty sure this is a DIFAR simply because of the numerous hydrophones and no transducer. The DIFAR buoys give a bearing to the target, but not a range (pingers do range and bearing, but let the sub know you got his *). Drop two or three buoys in contact and you get a three line fix on the target you can put a torp on.
Anyway, enjoy the clip as it's really cool. It's probably set on 60 or 90 feet for the video. They can be set to go below the layer too.
https://youtu.be/eidMDdMK38s
The P-8 also uses them.
Not sure what buoy this is as we had bathythermographs, pingers, Gertie (talks to subs) and DIFAR, plus a few other types.
I'm pretty sure this is a DIFAR simply because of the numerous hydrophones and no transducer. The DIFAR buoys give a bearing to the target, but not a range (pingers do range and bearing, but let the sub know you got his *). Drop two or three buoys in contact and you get a three line fix on the target you can put a torp on.
Anyway, enjoy the clip as it's really cool. It's probably set on 60 or 90 feet for the video. They can be set to go below the layer too.
https://youtu.be/eidMDdMK38s
Comments
I like they way it deployed after hitting the water
interesting
I like they way it deployed after hitting the water
+1
Thank for posting it. That was something all new to me.
Usually by the time the buoys were dropped we were going battle stations.
The bathythermograph and antique LOFAR buoys looked like a fishing line with 7 temp probes or hydrophones along a straight line to the bottom.
The pingers were about the same as the LOFAR but with a SONAR transducer at the bottom to paint the target aurally.
I didn't know cans used buoys unless they had a helo. I thought they used a towed array
But DICASS (active buoys) were always my favorites of course. We would use them when we went Winchester on regular DIFARS. Single buoy tracking...oh yeah!
Thanks for the link, P3! I think minimum depth for DIFARs was 90 feet?
I liked the old VLADs..."Vertical Line Array Difars". HUGE footprint in the water. If you weren't careful a sub could drive over the entire array!
But DICASS (active buoys) were always my favorites of course. We would use them when we went Winchester on regular DIFARS. Single buoy tracking...oh yeah!
Thanks for the link, P3! I think minimum depth for DIFARs was 90 feet?
Yeah, for the SSQ 53 AND 83 it was 90. The old LOFAR 41'S and 57's were 60 or 300.
Pretty amazing technology. I know from nothing about items like this but, as I re-read Clancy's "Red Storm Rising" the use of sonobuouys figures prominently. Not sure how much of the technology side of things is fiction but it's a damn interesting read.
I read The Hunt for Red October while flying patrol around Diego Garcia. I smeared a finger full of exhaust soot from the number 2 engine on the blank page in the back. Clancy's books were accurate for the most part.
The only redundant thing I noticed was having crewmembers explain stuff to each other using the proper nomenclature. He wrote like that to aid the reader in understanding.
We didn't say the APPS 115 RADAR UNIT or the JEU-25A NUCLEAR POWER DISTRIBUTION INTERCONNECTION BOX. We said FORWARD RADAR and JEW BOX. :-) We all taught each other our jobs in case someone needed a relief. I was Ordnance, but could fuel the plane or run radar too. I in turn taught the AW's and IFT how to load and launch internal buoys, smokes, and SUS. No one was qualified on paper to do other jobs, but we did, and we did it well.
And even now, there's somebody out there who secretly needs to have WTH explained...
SWO, they didn't all look like that.
The bathythermograph and antique LOFAR buoys looked like a fishing line with 7 temp probes or hydrophones along a straight line to the bottom.
The pingers were about the same as the LOFAR but with a SONAR transducer at the bottom to paint the target aurally.
I didn't know cans used buoys unless they had a helo. I thought they used a towed array
I was on the old Adams class destroyer we did not have helos. The drop was from a helo from carriers that were part of our battle group. I never did see one close up. Just saw the drop in a distance. Once they make a contact our sonar started pinging. At that time we were usually getting general quarters over the 1MC and being a Snipe I headed to either my damage control locker or engine room and did not see much else.
I don't recall us ever towing an array.
Rocky/Mike, thanks for the insight. Always nice to learn something from those who have "been there". If you enjoyed "Hunt for Red October" take a look at "Red Storm Rising", though it's set in the fictional 80's, Clancy, at times, was quite prescient where future politics and related issues were concerned. The Russian vs NATO activity in "Red Storm Rising" can, quite easily, be related to current activities of Putin, NATO, etc. It's a really good read.
Thanks Chris.
I've got a complete set of the Clancy hardbacks. My Red October is a first edition published by the Naval Institute Press as they were the only people that would touch Clancy's first book.
If you liked RSR, try this one out. it's even better. Dated for sure, but had Reagan not pushed SDI, it might have happened.
https://www.amazon.com/Third-World-War-August-1985/dp/0425101924