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The Nan-Ship Was a Great Anti-submarine Weapon System
NOTE: The operations exercises described here were with our own U.S. ships and submarines. The submarines acted as the enemy and all sinkings were simulated. This was the period of the "Cold War".
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I
was an Electronics Technician on a blimp crew of 18 officers
and men from 1954 to 1956. We flew often in antisubmarine warfare exercises
with the fleet in the Atlantic Ocean. The purpose of these exercises was
to develop effective tactics for protecting ships from enemy submarines.
Our role was to find and intercept the sub before it targeted the carrier
and other ships in the task force. Of course we practiced with our own U.S.
Navy subs and used rubber-nosed homing torpedoes or harmless depth
charges.
The latest model airship at that time was the ZPG-2N. It was the N model of the letter designated airships. The Z was for lighter than air, the P for patrol, and the G for Goodyear, who made it. We always called them "Nan ships" - in polite company.
The submarines in those days were
powered by diesel engines and battery driven electric motors. When they attacked
the task force, they approached as close as they dared using their diesel engines.
They saved their batteries for escape after their attack. However, in order
to use diesel engines, they had to have the snorkel above the water for air
intake and exhaust. Our powerful radar could usually track that snorkel as
they approached the ships, if the sea wasn't too rough.
Shown here is a Fleet GUPPY submarine that worked with us. She has just finished surfacing and is switching over from the snorkel exhaust to the external side exhaust, where diesel smoke and water vapor are coming out. I bet the crew was surprised to find us waiting for them when they surfaced!
When we detected
the sub snorkel or periscope on the radar, it was reported to our Combat
Information Center (CIC) officer and the plotter. In those days our high
tech plotting board consisted of a round horizontal Plexiglas covered table
with a light underneath, and tracing paper on the Plexiglas. The table was set up like the radar
scope with range marks on the Plexiglas that showed through the paper. By
marking time and position of sub and ships on the paper, a record of the
exercise was maintained and kept for later review. With this crude setup at least we never
had to stop the "war" because the "computer was down". Once, though,
I had to make an emergency light bulb replacement just before the exercise
started. What a panic! My years of electronics schooling was paying off! I changed the light
bulb in record time. ;-)
When the sub's snorkel or periscope was identified on the radar scope, we headed for the sub at top speed - about 65 knots. That is about 75 mph or 120 kmh. When the sub detected us approaching, the sub would shut down the diesel engines, dive well below the surface, and operate on battery motors. Of course the sub would take evasive maneuvers below the surface and we would not know exactly where it was headed, but we had a good idea within a half mile or so, if we went there fast.
After we arrived in the
general area of the sub's last sighting, we dropped a circle of sonobuoys
in the water where we thought the sub might be. The sonobuoys were about
3-foot long by 6 inches in diameter, and floated upright in the water. When they
hit the water, an antenna popped up (it was like a steel tape measure), a
hydrophone (an underwater microphone) dropped down on a cable, and the saltwater
batteries activated a radio transmitter. We could tune a special sonobuoy
FM receiver to each sonobuoy frequency and hear the underwater sounds from
the hydrophone. Usually one or more of the hydrophones could pickup the sounds
of the sub's screws. Using the known location of the loudest sonobuoys, we
could determine the sub's approximate location. If needed, we dropped more
sonobuoys to get a better "fix" on the sub. This required the pilot to fly low and make very tight turns. It was scary but exciting as we raced against time.
We then flew down very close to the water surface and operated our magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) electronic equipment. It could detect the presence of the metal submarine, if we were close enough.
When we detected a magnetic signal from the sub on our MAD equipment, we dropped a bright yellow dye marker and white smoke-float on the water. We made a few more high speed, low altitude, tight turns and passes over the sub, and tried to get three good MAD contacts. On the third positive MAD contact we dropped a homing torpedo or depth charge. Of course they were nondestructive types. If we were close enough for a real "kill", the sub would release a big bubble of air. We usually were successful in intercepting the GUPPY type submarines before they targeted a ship in the task force and were very proud of our team efforts.
Here
is what the MAD chart recorder would show when we made a pass over a sub.
The magnetic anomaly detection equipment was originally designed
for geological studies, finding mineral deposits, and locating oil fields.
It also worked very well for pinpointing the location of a submarine.
On this recording the small needle swings are noise and the big needle swing is a definite
change in the Earth's magnetic field caused by the mass of the metal submarine.
Airships were an excellent platform for carrying the MAD equipment because there
was very little metal close to the magnetic detector out on the
bow (front) of the airship. One time I was just messing around with the MAD
gear as we were flying low across the New Jersey pines and I noticed a pretty
good size signal. I thought at first that I had found oil in New Jersey!
When I looked out the window to see what it was, it turned out that I had
picked up railroad tracks and a train.
We practiced variations of this hunt and kill scenario for days at a time.
Our missions were 30 to 40 hours long usually. Each crew member would be on duty 4 hours
and then off for 4 hours. Sometimes I got really burned out but the excitement kept me going.
Sometimes our airship crew operated as a pure combat information center (CIC) to direct the
operations.
Then we would
radio the aircraft carrier to launch some aircraft and we would use our radar to guide them
to where we thought the submarine was running submerged. The aircraft would drop the sonobuoys and use MAD
gear, but they could not do nearly as well as a blimp. Sometimes blimps worked in pairs, with one
operating as the CIC and the other blimp intercepting
the sub and making the "kill". That worked better than using the aircraft from the carrier.
The most fun was when our
single airship and crew would do both the search and the "kill".
Airships really are a better platform for that type work. Our unofficial
motto was, "We fly low and slow!" With all things considered, our airships and crews were the
best weapon against the diesel/battery subs of that time.
This picture is of me at the radar scope. In the air I was both the electronics equipment operator
and maintenance technician. Years later after I was in the Air Force
I only did the maintenance work and "operators" did the long hours of searching.
Everyone is a "specialist" in the Air Force!
In the Navy I worked my butt off but I got a lot of satisfaction out
of making a significant difference in the end results of our operations.
I worked on that radar so
often that I had major parts of the schematic memorized. It had a million
watts of peak power and was the best airborne radar available at that time. However, often it
was either arcing and sparking where it shouldn't
be or it was completely dead from a massive burn out. Because of all that power concentrated in
a small area, heat and arcing were a constant problem.
Some components had to be changed about every 12 to 24 hours from burnout. Most of the radar
equipment was
under the deck. I spent
a large part of my flying time down in the airship bilges working
on --and cursing-- that contrary radar. However, it was a most exciting adventure for
a young guy like me then!
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© 2007 Larry Rodrigues. All rights reserved.