De eneste P-8 Poseidon med MAD er de indiske. Om Norge følger dem eller USN vet jeg ikke. Seahawk bør erstatte NH90, mener jeg. (Red.)
Navy MH-60R Seahawks To Get Magnetic Anomaly Detectors To Help Hunt Enemy Submarines
The Navy had initially declined to fit the MH-60Rs with magnetic anomaly detectors, which had been a feature on the SH-60B Seahawks they replaced.
Navy MH-60R Seahawks are set to
get magnetic anomaly detectors, or MADs, which will
give them another tool for hunting down enemy submarines. The MH-60R had
replaced the earlier SH-60B, which had a MAD system, but this capability was
not carried over onto the new helicopters. The decision to add this equipment
onto these newer Seahawks comes as Russia and China continue to develop and field new, more advanced submarines and step up their
underwater activity in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Arctic region.
Canadian defense
contractor CAE announced on Nov. 18, 2020,
that Lockheed Martin had hired it to integrate its MAD-XR system on the MH-60R
for the Navy. In September, that service had awarded Lockheed Martin,
now the parent company of Seahawk-manufacturer Sikorsky, a contract worth just
over $28.5 million for "Phase 1" of the development of a MAD system
for these helicopters.
HOW WARSHIPS HUNT FOR ENEMY
SUBMARINES FROM A VETERAN SUBMARINER WHO HAS BEEN HUNTED MANY TIMESBy
Aaron AmickPosted in THE
WAR ZONE
THE NAVY HAS DOZENS MORE MH-60R
HELICOPTERS THAN IT NEEDS DUE TO LCS DEBACLEBy
Joseph TrevithickPosted in THE WAR ZONE
THE NAVY IS BUILDING A NETWORK
OF DRONE SUBMARINES AND SENSOR BUOYS IN THE ARCTICBy
Joseph TrevithickPosted in THE WAR ZONE
THE NAVY WANTS A RAPIDLY
DEPLOYABLE VERSION OF ITS COLD WAR ERA SUBMARINE MONITORING NETWORKBy
Joseph TrevithickPosted in THE WAR ZONE
RUSSIAN SUBMARINES GETTING
COUNTERMEASURES THAT JAM SONOBUOYS DROPPED BY ENEMY AIRCRAFTBy
Joseph TrevithickPosted in THE WAR ZONE
CAE's MAD-XR was the
obvious choice. Starting in 2017, the company, together with Lockheed Martin
and the Navy, had conducted flight tests of an MH-60R
fitted with this system as part of a Cooperative Research and Development
Agreement (CRADA). A CRADA a non-traditional research and development mechanism
by which elements of the U.S. military can pool resources with private
companies and other organizations to pursue mutually-beneficial work without a
typical contract or even money necessary changing hands.
The MAD-XR system.
A picture CAE previously released of an
MH-60R Seahawk from Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 48 (HSM-48) that was
equipped with the MAD-XR system and flight tested as part of a Cooperative
Research and Development Agreement. It's not clear where the system might be
fitted to this helicopter, but it does feature a fairing under the tail boom
that is painted bright orange, a color often used to denote the installation of
temporary equipment for testing.
"Over the past
several years we have conducted several trials with the U.S. Navy to confirm
the capabilities of the MAD-XR system on the MH-60R helicopter," Thomas
Kane, Lockheed Martin's Director of Naval Helicopter Programs, said in a statement regarding its
latest deal with CAE. "Adding this to the MH-60R’s sensor suite will
further advance the capabilities of the world’s most advanced anti-submarine
warfare helicopter."
CAE says that MAD-XR has
the same capabilities as its previous AN/ASQ-508 Advanced
Integrated Magnetic Anomaly Detection System, or AIMS, but in a much smaller
package. The core AIMS equipment weighs just under 60 pounds (27 kilograms),
while MAD-XR is only 3.3 (1.5 kilograms) pounds. The Canadian firm has said
that its new system, production of which began in 2019, opens up the
possibility of adding this system onto a wide array of helicopters, as well as
smaller unmanned platforms. The AIMS is in service on a number of larger
maritime patrol aircraft, including India's P-8I Poseidons, Canada's CP-140 Auroras, Japan's P-1, and variants of the P-3 Orion in South Korean
and Brazilian service, among others.
MAD
systems of any kind use a magnetometer to detect discrepancies in the Earth's
naturally-occurring magnetic field, which denote the presence of a metal
object, such as a submarine. "The range of the MAD system varies, but will
generally detect anomalies at approximately 1,200 metres [sic; ~1,312
yards]," according to CAE's MAD-XR product sheet.
Once
the system has spotted something, it alerts the crew of the aircraft or
helicopter carrying it and provided additional information about the contact
and its location. "CAE developed new software that allows for submarine
location in the form of lateral and vertical separation (left/right indication)
at the closest point of approach (CPA)," the company's MAD-XR brochure
adds. "This new algorithm opens the route for recommended tactical flight
path to optimize target localization and detection. The inclusion of high
bandwidth frequency to digital conversion provides better detection due to
reduced background noise in higher frequencies as well as potential classification
on the signature of the submarine."
Additional sensors, such
as air-dropped sonobuoys and helicopters equipped with dipping sonar, can be in
concert with MAD to further investigate and continue tracking the contact. You
can read more about how aircraft and helicopters, as well as ships, go about
using MAD and other sensors to spot and track submarines in this War Zone feature.
Under
its existing contract, Lockheed Martin will now integrate MAD-XR onto six
MH-60Rs for further test and evaluation. The clear plan, however, is to add
this capability to a significant portion, if not all of the service's MH-60R
fleet. These helicopters already have the ability to launch sonobuoys and
dipping sonar, among other capabilities, as seen in the video below.
However, a MAD system
offers an additional method of detecting submarines that isn't based on the
sounds they make. Submarine design philosophy, broadly, is based around making them as quiet as possible
in order to make it difficult for opponents to
spot and track them. Newer Russian and Chinese designs, unsurprisingly, have
features intended to further reduce their acoustic signatures compared to older
designs. Modern military submarines often carry expendable acoustic countermeasures, as well, and Russia
announced earlier this year that it planned to give its boats expendable sonobuoy jammers, too.
While countermeasures
also exist for MAD, a mixture of sensors would only give the Navy's MH-60R
helicopters more options for hunting enemy submarines. As noted, this was a
capability that the previous SH-60Bs had in the form of their towed AN/ASQ-81
MAD system, another CAE product. The service had also notably declined to
include MAD equipment on its new P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol
planes. At present, India's P-8Is, with their AN/ASQ-508s, are the only
Poseidons in service anywhere in the world with this capability.
An SH-60B Seahawk, in front, flies with
an SH-60F Seahawk. The SH-60B's red-and-yellow-painted AN/ASQ-81 towed MAD
system is visible in its stowed position on the side of the tail boom. The
MH-60R replaced both of these helicopter types in US Navy service.
It's not necessarily
surprising that the Navy has reversed course now. In recent years, the service
has been regularly sounding the alarm about the threats
and challenges posed by increased submarine activity among potential
adversaries, especially Russia and China. It has engaged in a host of other
developments aimed at improving its capabilities to track submarines and
otherwise monitor underwater activity, especially in the increasingly strategic Arctic region and the broad expanses of the Pacific
Ocean, as well as around Europe.
Anti-submarine warfare,
in general, is seeing something of a renaissance within the U.S. military, with
the Marine Corps also now looking to get into that
particular fight, as well as in other countries around the world. With regards
to the integration of MAD-XR on the MH-60R, this is a development that could
have significant international appeal among other countries that operate Seahawk variants now or are set to receive examples in the near
future. At the time of writing, 14 countries, in addition to the U.S. Navy,
operated versions of the Seahawk or had MH-60Rs, specifically, on order.
As CAE has noted,
MAD-XR's compact size would make it ideal for integration on unmanned
platforms, as well. This could make it an attractive addition to the
Navy's MQ-8B Fire Scout drone helicopters,
or the larger, more capable MQ-8Cs that are entering service now. Other
drones, like those that the Marine Corps may operate in an anti-submarine
warfare role, could also leverage this miniaturized MAD technology.
An MQ-8C drone helicopter.
No
matter what else might happen, restoring a MAD capability to the Navy's Seahawk
community will give it another important tool in the anti-submarine warfare
arena.
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