Sonobuoy launchers

[Hobbes]

As far as I can tell, there are two basic systems for storing and launching sonobuoys:

1. the 'cheese grater' approach, used on e.g. the Orion, where each buoy sits in a tube and can be launched on command.
Pro: no manual labor, high rate of fire
con: you can only carry as many buoys as there are tubes.

2. the manual approach, used on e.g. Nimrod, where the buoys sit in a magazine, and the operator loads them one by one into a launch tube.
pro: easier to carry extra buoys
con: manual labor, lower rate of fire

Are there more considerations?

the practical application: I need to decide whether to make a cheese grater panel for my A-319.

[rickshaw]

The manually loaded system allows some degree of flexibility which is lacking in the preloaded chutes.  You can use the same launcher for sonabuoys, flares, smokepots, etc., as required by the situation.  However, that comes at the cost of both complexity and rate of dropping.   It is also easier to achieve a pattern with the preloaded chutes than it is with the manually loaded system, though.

[Weaver]

Actually, the Nimrod system was a bit more complex that that. there were four tubes with manually reloaded revolver-magazines over them (I forget the capacity) which could spit out a pattern of buoys at a high rate, and there were also pure manual tubes (I forget how many) for sonobuoys, bathythermographs, smoke floats etc.. Best of both worlds: high RoF AND manual flexibility. The price of course, is complexity and cost.

The sheer number of buoys needed to track a modern sub has pretty much wiped out all but the biggest ASW platforms from conducting any kind of prolonged or area search with sonobuoys: every mark of Nimrod hit the problem of running out after x years of submarine development, and every subsequent mark had yet more sonobuoy storage. This is effectively what wiped out the S-3 Viking.

And just for the Yanks, "buoy" is pronounced "boy", not "boowi"......

Weaver
Ducking and running.....

[rickshaw]

I was fairly sure that the Nimrod used a revolver system but wasn't able to verify it quickly.  Sonabuoys were/are going to be replaced by SLAR if I read the entrails of the science articles right.  It looks for the "hump" that the submarine makes in the ocean surface.  I think you'd still need sonabuoys for final location but for broad area coverage apparently SLAR is the future gee-whizz. 

[Hobbes]

Thanks guys, that's given me a good idea for the A-319.

[PR19_Kit]

It looks for the "hump" that the submarine makes in the ocean surface. 

Eh? 

Haven't they heard of waves? Very few oceans don't have them..............

[rickshaw]

It looks for the "hump" that the submarine makes in the ocean surface. 

Eh? 

Haven't they heard of waves? Very few oceans don't have them..............

Even with waves, there is apparently a discernible "hump" created by a submerged object.   They first started experimenting with this back in the late 1980s from satellites, found it worked and are apparently adapting it to high flying aircraft.  Dunno if we'll see it in the next decade but its a possibility.   Might explain why the USN is willing to accept the P-8 over a lower flying P-3 type system.

[GTX]

Sonobuoys are still used since they also allow other sensing (e.g. temperature gradients) to be undertaken.  Another advantage with Sonobuoy launchers (especially the non-pre-loaded variety - which can be either magazine or simple manual loaded) is that other things including UAVs can be launched:



Regards,

Greg

[rallymodeller]

Plus, LOFAR-types lower a microphone below the layer and listen passively, often for hours and hours.

[Burncycle]

I wonder if they could give each sonobuoy glide kits and GPS

Imagine flying at 30,000 feet and dropping an entire grid at once, each buoy finding it's own precise aimpoint

[Army of One]

So....as per the original question....would the a/c have a cheese grater style launcher or one/two ejection ports...? I suppose it don't really matter as this is whiff world and I could do what I want.....I have a 1/144 A319 with the same sort of idea.....

[GTX]

Really could go either way.  I think the non-cheese grater solution is the future though.

[Litvyak]

I love ASW... ever since I got a ride on a CP-140...

I find the vision of future ASW ops fascinating, with UAVs to do the lawnmowing and deploying a manned aircraft later, after a contact has been made.

This could be some interesting whiffery here... what would an ASW UAV look like? At the very least I assume it'd be a flying sonobuoy launcher?

[sandiego89]

So....as per the original question....would the a/c have a cheese grater style launcher or one/two ejection ports...? I suppose it don't really matter as this is whiff world and I could do what I want.....I have a 1/144 A319 with the same sort of idea.....

Either is fine for your A319, but would imagine the 2 to 4 ports would be less costly and easier for an airliner conversion and would likely be the fit for such an aircraft.   However I would suggest that cheese grater looks much better to give it the full ASW look.

[scooter]

So....as per the original question....would the a/c have a cheese grater style launcher or one/two ejection ports...? I suppose it don't really matter as this is whiff world and I could do what I want.....I have a 1/144 A319 with the same sort of idea.....

Mix and match?  Cheese grater and a couple of separate manual loaded tubes?