Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: A NASTY attack sub idea
Message-ID: <7102@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 3 Jun 89 04:53:06 GMT
References: <7065@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker)

In article <7065@cbnews.ATT.COM> nak@cbnews.ATT.COM (Neil A. Kirby) writes:
>
>
>	What would a Tomahawk cruise missile do to a helo or an Orion?  Or
>	a Harpoon for that matter?

As others have pointed out, these are surface-to-surface missiles, lacking
the guidance to hit an evading helicopter.  Your best best would be to
get directly underneath the helo and hope for a lucky hit with a
vertically-launched SSM 8-)

>	Can anybody comment on the possibility of Anti-air capabilities on 
>	subs?

In the October '87 issue of USNI "Proceedings" there's an article
titled "Keeping the Orion a Hunter", which discusses the various threats
to that ASW aircraft.  Among them are sub-launched AA weapons.

They claim that the British have developed a sub-launched antiaircraft
missile (SLAM) using their Blowpipe missile and a television sighting
system in their attack periscope.  Sea trials were conducted in 1972 (!)
aboard a RN Oberon-class sub.

The Swedes and Germans have also proposed SAM's for their diesel boats;
the Swedes are looking at a modified AIM-9L Sidewinder, which is ejected
from the sub in a buoyant capsule and launched from the surface.
Mid-course guidance is provided by the sub's original targetting data,
with terminal heat-seeking guidance internal to the missile.  The article
comments, though, that it is difficult for a sub to accurately gage the
altitude of a high-flying aircraft, making the mid-course guidance data
tenuous;  by flying above 10,000 feet, the P-3 could make targetting
difficult, and completely evade shorter-range SAM's; of course, flying
at this altitude makes it very difficult to drop a homing torpedo within
its 2500-yard search radius of the sub.

The article references Bill Gunston's _The Illustrated Encyclopedia of
the World's Rockets and Missiles_ (1979) for other SLAM systems.

>      They shoot frigates, don't they,

Um, that's "canoes."  "They Shoot Canoes, Don't They ?"  8-)
	(inside joke for Pat McMannis fans)


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Bill Thacker      moderator, sci.military      military@att.att.com
		      (614) 860-5294
"War is a matter of vital importance to the State; the province of life
or death; the road to survival or ruin. It is mandatory that it be 
thoroughly studied."   -  Sun Tzu