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What's a Sonobuoy?
p3skyking
Member Posts: 25,750 ✭
Most of you have heard the term and probably wondered what they actually were. I found this clip and thought why not. There's several different types for different jobs. Some just listen, some have active sonar, some just read temps.
The one shown in the clip gives bearing and is probably set at 90 feet due to the amount of ambient light available. It can also go as deep as 1000 feet.
A standard buoy search pattern is 16 buoys in a 4x4 grid with a spacing of usually one to five miles.
Enjoy!
http://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/underwater-tracking/incredible-p3-sonobuoy-deployment/3475366502001/
The one shown in the clip gives bearing and is probably set at 90 feet due to the amount of ambient light available. It can also go as deep as 1000 feet.
A standard buoy search pattern is 16 buoys in a 4x4 grid with a spacing of usually one to five miles.
Enjoy!
http://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/underwater-tracking/incredible-p3-sonobuoy-deployment/3475366502001/
Comments
I did not know that they opened up like an underwater umbrella. That was new to me.
Usually, (and those with knowledge please feel free to correct me, as my knowledge comes from books and not real life experience) they are dropped in an alternating pattern above and below the thermocline, which is a temperature/salinity boundary in the water that does strange things to sound waves.
In the old days, the LOFAR buoys were sometimes droped in an alternating pattern since they only picked up sound with one hydrophone. It's was at the mission commanders, or the TACCO's judgement.
Most buoys now have more than one hydrophone so it's a moot point whether they are above or below. It still affects torp settings however.
I've heard rumors, from my uncle who served on Ohio SSBNs and from books with knowledge from the Soviet Navy that tracking an Ohio is like trying to track a ghost.
Michael, did you ever have to try to track an Ohio-Class SSBN while you were on P3s?
I've heard rumors, from my uncle who served on Ohio SSBNs and from books with knowledge from the Soviet Navy that tracking an Ohio is like trying to track a ghost.
Never exercised with an Ohio. We played with SSN's or diesel electrics, no SSBN's ever. It was a security thing. Sometimes tracking Soviet boats, we accidently discovered they had a "tail". The recorders were immediately turned off and we would depart station.
Truth be known, diesel electrics are as tough if not tougher to track than nukes. They have no cooling pumps when on batteries.
I do miss those days...[:I]
quote:Originally posted by Viktor
Michael, did you ever have to try to track an Ohio-Class SSBN while you were on P3s?
I've heard rumors, from my uncle who served on Ohio SSBNs and from books with knowledge from the Soviet Navy that tracking an Ohio is like trying to track a ghost.
Never exercised with an Ohio. We played with SSN's or diesel electrics, no SSBN's ever. It was a security thing. Sometimes tracking Soviet boats, we accidently discovered they had a "tail". The recorders were immediately turned off and we would depart station.
Truth be known, diesel electrics are as tough if not tougher to track than nukes. They have no cooling pumps when on batteries.
I do miss those days...[:I]
ASW is one area of military operations that I have a fascination of. If I could go back and do it all over, I would go into the ASW field.
Clancy must have had some inside info.
Good movie too. Alec Baldwin may be a wacky lib but he was perfect as the CIA hero of the movie. Sean Connery was also great, a Russian sub commander with a Scottish accent but he pulled it off with aplomb.
I read Hunt for Red October. That is a great book on the subject.
Clancy must have had some inside info.
Good movie too. Alec Baldwin may be a wacky lib but he was perfect as the CIA hero of the movie. Sean Connery was also great, a Russian sub commander with a Scottish accent but he pulled it off with aplomb.
Great movie.
I read Hunt for Red October. That is a great book on the subject.
Clancy must have had some inside info.
Good movie too. Alec Baldwin may be a wacky lib but he was perfect as the CIA hero of the movie. Sean Connery was also great, a Russian sub commander with a Scottish accent but he pulled it off with aplomb.
Red Storm Rising was a much better book for the ASW aspect.
quote:Originally posted by p3skyking
quote:Originally posted by Viktor
Michael, did you ever have to try to track an Ohio-Class SSBN while you were on P3s?
I've heard rumors, from my uncle who served on Ohio SSBNs and from books with knowledge from the Soviet Navy that tracking an Ohio is like trying to track a ghost.
Never exercised with an Ohio. We played with SSN's or diesel electrics, no SSBN's ever. It was a security thing. Sometimes tracking Soviet boats, we accidently discovered they had a "tail". The recorders were immediately turned off and we would depart station.
Truth be known, diesel electrics are as tough if not tougher to track than nukes. They have no cooling pumps when on batteries.
I do miss those days...[:I]
ASW is one area of military operations that I have a fascination of. If I could go back and do it all over, I would go into the ASW field.
Viktor,
It was the most exciting time of my life. Ronnie was prez, we had a 600 ship Navy, Maggie Thatcher was running the UK, and Gorbi was a decent guy. I would do it all again. My only disappointment was never being on top of an Akula.[8D]
quote:Originally posted by Viktor
quote:Originally posted by p3skyking
quote:Originally posted by Viktor
Michael, did you ever have to try to track an Ohio-Class SSBN while you were on P3s?
I've heard rumors, from my uncle who served on Ohio SSBNs and from books with knowledge from the Soviet Navy that tracking an Ohio is like trying to track a ghost.
Never exercised with an Ohio. We played with SSN's or diesel electrics, no SSBN's ever. It was a security thing. Sometimes tracking Soviet boats, we accidently discovered they had a "tail". The recorders were immediately turned off and we would depart station.
Truth be known, diesel electrics are as tough if not tougher to track than nukes. They have no cooling pumps when on batteries.
I do miss those days...[:I]
ASW is one area of military operations that I have a fascination of. If I could go back and do it all over, I would go into the ASW field.
Viktor,
It was the most exciting time of my life. Ronnie was prez, we had a 600 ship Navy, Maggie Thatcher was running the UK, and Gorbi was a decent guy. I would do it all again. My only disappointment was never being on top of an Akula.[8D]
They didn't make very many of those. I think only 15 were completed.
Is it true that Akulas could outrun American Mk 48 torpedoes?
Did you ever happen upon any Soviet SSBNs? I'd love to hear how Typhoons compared to American SSNs as far as radiated noise was concerned. I read that Typhoons had 4 separate pressure hulls, which is why they were oval-shaped, instead of a round tube.
They didn't let the Typhoons out much when I was flying so we never tracked one. We did track older Soviet SSBN's however.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VA-111_Shkval
I still don't understand why the US never developed their own rocket-powered torpedos. The Russians made one that I know of that had a maximum submerged speed of 200+ knots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VA-111_Shkval
We had ASROC and SUBROC which were/are rocket thrown torpedos. The benefit is that the target never hears them coming until they are right on top of them.
It would be hard to have a wire guided torp underwater traveling at 200 kts without breaking the wire (I would think.
It looked boring as hell from my vantage point, but I'm guessing it was all kinds of interesting from inside the helicopter.
I loved the SH3's, never flew in one, but if that is all between a carrier and a sub, pop a liferaft. The best thing a SH3 could do was drop the dipping sonar and ping the hell out of it. MAYBE it scare off a sub until an S-3 could localize and kill it.
Plink,
I loved the SH3's, never flew in one, but if that is all between a carrier and a sub, pop a liferaft. The best thing a SH3 could do was drop the dipping sonar and ping the hell out of it. MAYBE it scare off a sub until an S-3 could localize and kill it.
Sometimes, ya have to wonder how we came out of the Cold War intact...
My Mission Commander check ride was real world...just outside the Persian Gulf. MUCH better luck that day against the best the Iranian "Navy" could put up! HA!
Ah, those were the days...
I was Air Force and not up on sub warfare, but I'm pretty sure a 200-knot torpedo would be "blind" because no acoustic sensor would work at that speed. It'd be an "aim, shoot, and hope" situation at best.
But with the short range the Russian fish have, you'd have to be pretty damn close to be able to even fire it. The closer you are to your target with a 200-kt torpedo, the less chance that something could possibly go wrong there is.