-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
MV-22 Osprey
- Thread starter MarineAir
- Start date
Would the speed on the osprey make it sort of a bastard S3 for this role?
AircraftGeek513
Active Member
I saw another article a year or two ago of them tossing buoys out of a UH-1Y
EDIT: Tried posting this yesterday, but apparently it didn't land...
That seems to be a test/eval flight, given the several contractors onboard. They also seem to be dropping all manner of buoys, including a BT buoy, which no one would really have a way of recording the data other than on those laptops, and they would have to make sure they were ready to start.
It kind of seems like this was more about dropping/checking function versus any kind of localization/tracking.
In 2021, some Hueys out of Camp Pen had a bunch of DVIDs coverage of them dropping buoys as part of a Marine exercise, with no mention of anyone else playing. It seemed like a proof of concept without proving it would actually be useful to the people deploying the buoys.
What was more interesting was what was not said...why were they doing this? To assist with the Navy doing ASW while island hopping was the basic non-answer, but would it actually be effective? I don't know. To me it seems like a way to deploy a localized SOSUS for some entity nearby. The question I haven't seen answered is who is asking for this? The the Marines in the same vein as the H-60S torp truck that no one asked for, or Navy for future capability. I'm guessing the latter.
It looks like they were pre-programmed, given the Sharpie channels on each buoy. Trying to get a junior AW to program what you planned was often an exercise in frustration...imagine having a Marine logistics crewman doing it!
Probably no one. To my knowledge, there is not a funding program associated with procuring any significant ASW capability for Marines. It requires way too much DOTMLPF investment overhead at this point to get it going. However, in light of doctrinal change inside the Marines, it would not surprise me if we are asked or convinced to provide this capability at some point given current operational designs for Navy force employment during major theater conflicts. We did this type of stuff in WWII, so it’s not entirely without precedent.
It’s hard to control any battle space in the littorals if you can’t sense and provide effects. Hence the reason MACG exists, and why MLR insists on having some AC2 capabilities. If anything, and it’s a long shot - it’s another extension of command and control in the void of a 21st century no mans land. A expeditionary SOSUS-like capability is way more feasible (in my opinion) than getting into the HSM and MPRA business. Although, admittedly, I am well short of knowledge on the technical feasibility of ASW in general.