Newsgroups: sci.military
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!cbfsb!cbnewsc!cbnews!cbnews!military
From: aoki@hermes.Berkeley.EDU (Paul M. Aoki)
Subject: Re: Unmanned ASW Helo (Was Re: Helicopter resupply mission)
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 90 01:49:30 GMT
Approved: military@att.att.com
Message-ID: <1990Nov29.014930.25321@cbnews.att.com>
References: <1990Nov25.223324.14409@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Lines: 27



From: aoki@hermes.Berkeley.EDU (Paul M. Aoki)
>From: arthur@Eng.Sun.COM (Arthur Leung)
>didn't the US Navy have a remotely controlled ASW helo drone?  i
>know that lots of older frigates still in commission have the
>small hangar designed for this drone (most have since been
>extended to support the manned ASW helos).  as i understood it,
>the ASW drone was discontinued for "loss of control" problems.
>is this the full story, or was it a datalink limitation with
>the parent?  or did the Navy find that a human "out there"
>was better?  or was a helo that could carry more than torps
>more useful?

Some of the anecdotal problems with (sea stories about) DASH, the
Drone ASw Helicopter, were:
- The control freq(s) overlapped with certain US Navy radar freqs.
- It carried two torpedos but tipped over when it carried one
  (with obvious and catastrophic results).
- It was very difficult to control and recover.

You can get a laugh out of a few old salts when you mention DASH..
The DASH ships still in the fleet have been refitted to support 
LAMPS Mk I (Kaman SH-2).
--
    Paul M. Aoki   |   aoki@postgres.Berkeley.EDU   |   ...!ucbvax!aoki