navwarcol
Posts: 637
Joined: 12/2/2009 Status: offline
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I think you three, are misunderstanding what I wrote. I am not saying "run calcs on your fuel, and set the buoy line there" What I am saying is, that if the buoy line is correctly placed, it will already be near there, to begin with. Of course, if you plan to place a buoy line 5 minutes flight out from your ships, that is entirely your prerogative. But if a submarine is able to evade that buoy line, that close on your formation's location, your ships are likely to resemble those in Herman's "Harplonk" picture..whereas, if you keep the buoy line out further, it gives you time to prosecute the contact, before the contact sinks your shiny cans There are no calculations, etc, necessary. My point is that if the buoy line is placed correctly there will be no need to worry about the fuel. And, as I stated, I agree in principle, that you should not need to go through an entire squadron maintaining a buoy line. As a last note, the fixed wing aircraft, based upon carriers, are much further back anyway, than the helos which typically are based upon the ASW screen ships. . This also serves to account for a range difference. Also fixed wing a/c are rarely used for Sonobuoy line work, anyway, as their own noise often 'voids out' the passive sonobuoys.The carrier based Helos (SH-60F) do not have sonobuoy processors, and use their dipping sonar primarily.And, as for the multiple helo types, for the most part, navies only carry 1 type..US surface ships have SH-60B, US carriers SH-60F(and not used for sonbuoys) Britain SeaKings, etc. It would be quite irregular to have different ASW/Sonobuoy helos in the same formation, and even most EU surface units, were they to be in a combined task force, have helos that are roughly the same in range and capacity.
< Message edited by navwarcol -- 12/15/2009 8:31:23 AM >
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