new Boeing high flying torpedo

would change the whole ASW paradigm if it works.

Sea Power June2005
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3738/is_200506/ai_n13644061

Boeing Eyes High-Flying Torpedo
Sea Power, Jun 2005 by Burgess, Richard R

Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is proposing a new weapon that would enable subhunting aircraft to fire at targets from high altitudes, reducing the time between target acquisition and attack.

Steven L. Wingfield, manager of JDAM Business Development for the Boeing unit, said the proposed antisubmarine warfare (ASW) weapon for the High-Altitude ASW Weapon Concept (HAAWC), would be launched from the P-8A Multimission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) at an altitude of 30,000 feet and glide seven to 10 minutes to the water entry point, where it would shed its wings and activate a parachute to lower the torpedo into the water to begin its run toward the target.

Currently, ASW aircraft such as the P-3 have to make a time-consuming descent from their surveillance altitudes of 30,000 feet to a release altitude of 300-1,000 feet and release a torpedo, Wingfield said. “That descent down to the release point and then the climb back up to surveillance altitude uses a lot of [fuel], reducing orbit and surveillance time. While you are climbing, (it) reduces your ability to survive, as well.”

The HAAWC would enable the P-8 to launch the weapon from a high altitude based on targeting information generated by its own sensors or the sensors of other platforms. This would save time in deploying a weapon, and obviate the need for the aircraft or other ASW platforms to enter threat zones.

“I don’t know what the descent rate of MMA will be,” said Steve Morrow, Boeing’s manager for advanced development of naval weapons, “but it’s intuitive that we can probably get a torpedo down from altitude faster than you can get the airplane down.” That would be an advantage in “a fast-reaction attack based on a pop-up radar contact of a periscope,” he said.

Wingfield said the HAAWC proposal is a derivative of the new Mk 54 antisubmarine torpedo that entered service in 2004. The Mk 54 is an all-digital lightweight torpedo that marries technology from the older Mk 46 and Mk 50 air- and surface-launched torpedoes with advanced software algorithms from the large submarine-launched Mk 48 torpedo.

Stephen G. Sherrick, manager of business development for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, said that last fall “one of the Mk 54 torpedo guys asked us, ‘Hey, can you put a wing on that thing and guide it for us?'”

The HAAWC comprises parts from other munitions. An Mk 54 would be fitted with the wings designed for a Standoff Land-Attack Missile-Expanded Response cruise missile to enable it to glide to the target area. The tail assembly would include the guidance kit designed for the Joint Direct-Attack Munition, which contains a Global Positioning System receiver for precision guidance.

The HAAWC also could be equipped with a data link to transmit target position updates while the weapon is in flight, further improving the weapon’s accuracy, Wingfield said.

The HAAWC concept, with its standoff capability, may offer tactical collateral advantages to offset some of those submarines have in the cat-and-mouse game of ASW. When running silent underwater, a submarine’s sensitive hull-mounted or towed-array hydrophones can detect a helicopter or patrol plane as it flies overhead. In addition, an attack on hostile submarines operating in the vicinity of enemy air-defense ships or shore-based air-defense networks currently would put the attacking aircraft at risk.

Boeing “has provided NAVSEA (Naval Sea Systems Command) and the Naval Air Systems Command with a technical feasibility assessment and a [rough] cost assessment to conduct a high-altitude ASW weapon concept demonstration,” Morrow said. The information was provided at the request of those commands, he said.

Spokespeople for the two systems commands and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center declined comment on the HAAWC because it is not a program of record.
………….

By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor

Copyright Navy League of the United States Jun 2005
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved