Day out at Cosford

[deathjester]

Our first visit to the RAF Museum - really cool.  Went to see XR220, Bristol 188 etc, but came across something weird on the description board for the WE177 bombs.

In the description of the weapon was a list of aircraft cleared to carry the bomb - one of which was purportedly the Sea King!!

You'd have to be a proper, foaming at the mouth nutter to fly into combat in a Sea King, with one of those things strapped to your bird! 

Surely this must be a misprint?

[Thorvic]

Nope the RN used a variant of the weapon as Nuclear depth charge, there are pics of it on the Wessex & Wasp too !

[TsrJoe]

Seaking   http://nuclear-weapons.info/images/027-Sea-King-NDB-drop.png

Wessex   http://nuclear-weapons.info/images/we177-wessex-edited.jpg   

Wasp      http://nuclear-weapons.info/images/we177-wasp.jpg

from Brian Burnell's excellent resource site ...

http://www.nuclear-weapons.info/vw.htm#WE.177

[kitnut617]

Err! would that be on a strickly voluntary ( and one way) basis Joe ?   

[PR19_Kit]

I can't see how using a WE177 dropped from a helicopter could be anything other than a kamikazi type mission! It'd be pointless using a time delay fuse to give the chopper time to get clear as the target sub would hear the entry splash and move off as well.

What was the point?

[Thorvic]

Don't forget they dialed down the yield of these weapons and exploded them at depth so the Helicopter could well clear the worst of what air blast explosion, however the shockwave under water should crush or rupture most submarine pressure hulls. The Depth charge probably had a better survivability rate than the Genie AA rocket !!!

[rickshaw]

You'd have to judge the wind direction pretty accurately though, to avoid the water spout which would have been a little bit too "warm" for comfort!

I assume the picture of the Sea King dropping that depth charge is a dummy, test round?

[lenny100]

when it was dropped it was from a altitude of around 10,000 feet and a very large drogue chute, almost the size of a man rated parachute was deployed also giving a drop time of around 4 to 5 mins, giving time for the cab to get out of there, the yield was dialed down to 0.5 kt also
any sub in 5 miles of the splash point would be crushed by the blast wave underwater shock and within 20 miles severely damaged

[deathjester]

Don't forget they dialed down the yield of these weapons and exploded them at depth so the Helicopter could well clear the worst of what air blast explosion, however the shockwave under water should crush or rupture most submarine pressure hulls. The Depth charge probably had a better survivability rate than the Genie AA rocket !!!

At least with the Genie, you can turn round and hoof it once the weapon is away!