P-8A Poseidon Demonstration Van at NASP 29-30 Oct

[Brett327]

MAD is a great confirming sensor, but you (i.e. flight crew) and the maintainers have to stay on top of it with comps, etc. I can't tell you how many times I heard "madman, madman, madman" either in the WST or at AUTEC, followed by my "roger, weapon away," all leading to a spot-on torp drop.

I don't know how it's done now, but I can assure you that there's been plenty of ASW done at 20,000 feet. My 3rd grader uses my old TACCO clipboard to do homework on the couch while watching Hannah Montana. The clipboard has a buoy drop/OTPI error chart laminated on one side, with altitudes from 1000 to 25k feet and windspeeds up to 70 kts. Plot stab was definitely more difficult at altitude, but we still tracked 'em. Of course, MAD was useless up there, but I don't think the P-8 will be staying high to drop torps.

I know the Nimrod folks had some way of picking up their buoys on radar, thus plot-stab problem fixed. I can't imagine that the P-8 won't have something more sophisticated then OTPI and MOT every single buoy. Maybe MAD is an antiquated tactic, but the last time I saw a P-3 MAD system, it had a paper gram.

Brett

 

[Flugelman]

I know the Nimrod folks had some way of picking up their buoys on radar, thus plot-stab problem fixed. I can't imagine that the P-8 won't have something more sophisticated then OTPI and MOT every single buoy. Maybe MAD is an antiquated tactic, but the last time I saw a P-3 MAD system, it had a paper gram.

Brett

Heh.. I installed a paper MAD recorder in an S3 at VX1. It was needed for calibration for some Op-Eval event. The only S3 to ever have one as far as I know.

 

[Gatordev]

For the helo side, IF the MAD works, it's still used and gives you a nice warm fuzzy on your attack run (tactics permitting).

 

[Hozer]

It definitely took some massaging...but the 60B ASQ-81 towed body was great, but the -208 digital MAD was fantastic.
Good times...

 

[OnTopTime]

I know the Nimrod folks had some way of picking up their buoys on radar, thus plot-stab problem fixed. I can't imagine that the P-8 won't have something more sophisticated then OTPI and MOT every single buoy.

How about a GPS chip in each buoy that sends position along with all the acoustic info? No more plot stab issues. Of course, unless it's encoded somehow, everyone else in the vicinity will know exactly where your buoys are too.

It definitely took some massaging...but the 60B ASQ-81 towed body was great, but the -208 digital MAD was fantastic.
Good times...

In my first tour squadron, I was part of a crew that took one of our birds to Pax River to have a digital MAD installed for test purposes. Unfortunately, we didn't get the maintenace or operational support from the manufacturer (CAE, I believe) that was required, and the equipment was removed several years later without a positive recommendation. I always had the feeling that if there had been an aggressive program to maintain the system and instruct in its use, things would have turned out much differently.

 

[Hozer]

AMPO had half a dozen -208 kits back in the 90's. But no formal support, so it was up to the resident trons to maintain the stuff on the side.
Had lots of HULTEC possibilities...