Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!bellcore!att!cbnews!military
From: bucsb!brianb@cs.purdue.edu (Brian Bresnahan)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: A NASTY attack sub idea
Message-ID: <7101@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 3 Jun 89 04:53:02 GMT
References: <7065@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: Boston Univ Comp. Sci.
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Approved: military@att.att.com



From: bucsb!brianb@cs.purdue.edu (Brian Bresnahan)

In article <7065@cbnews.ATT.COM> nak@cbnews.ATT.COM (Neil A. Kirby) writes:
>
>
>From: nak@cbnews.ATT.COM (Neil A. Kirby)
>	As I was playing 688 at lunch the other day, and I had an idea that
>    I want a reality check for.  
>	Here's the situation: I'm at scope depth.  Some clown in a helo is
>    dipping and pinging me with his active sonar.  There isn't a thing that
>    I can do to this damn helo.  Or is there?

	In reality, the only thing you can do is call for support. US
	attack subs(Los Angeles, improved Los Angeles, Sturgeon etc.)
	have no anti-air ability.  They have no air capable missiles,
	they have no guidance radar. 
	
>
>	What would a Tomahawk cruise missile do to a helo or an Orion?  Or
>	a Harpoon for that matter?

	Not much, those missiles were not designed attack air targets,
	and to the best of my knowledge have no real chance of
	enagaging air targets.  They are self guided cruise missiles
	designed to attack surface ships or land targets. They operate
	at an altitude lower than most helos fly.  They are also
	impact weapons, not airburst, which means only a direct hit
	is a kill.
	

>
>	Can anybody comment on the possibility of Anti-air capabilities on 
>	subs?
>
	None currently.
 	
>	This one also has the problem of exposure, you have to be close to
>    the surface to do it.  But as a contingency measure, I find it
>    appealing.
	
	Apparently the naval designers of the US and USSR do not.
	There are lot of problems involved, the biggest of which is
	the space required for an air defense system, which requires
	tracking radars, weapons directors, fire control systems 
	and the SAMs themselves.  This would detract from the primary
	mission of sinking ships/launching ballistic missiles. I
	have heardd of experiments of trying to equip subs, with
	simple IR SAMs, but I have no heard of any results.

>    Neil Kirby
>    ...cbsck!nak

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Brian Bresnahan
brianb@bucsf.bu.edu
engf0ic@BUACCA.bitnet