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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 2, 2011 9:41:20 GMT 12
Hi Chris, welcome back!
The RNZAF sank a few submarines with bombs in WWII. They have their place still. And think of the element of surprise, the enemy will never suspect that a slow old Orion is about to drop bombs on them!
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Post by turboNZ on Dec 2, 2011 10:04:19 GMT 12
Cheers Dave,. I guess that's the same theory why the Swordfish was quite an effective aircraft initially. It flew so slow that the enemy gunners used too much deflection in aiming and were firing in front of them !!
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Post by phil on Dec 2, 2011 10:53:57 GMT 12
Heya,..long time no post for me...butt slap time !! Reading this,...question has to be raised,...why would an Orion be doing dumb bomb dropping? I fairly vulnerable aircraft, even at 400 knots has to fly over the target area to do this rather than stand-off and surely would be subjected to the fairly sophisticated AAA the bad world has to offer. I know the short answer is "we ain't got nothing else to use",...but just a thought anyway? Not many submarines have AAA. The rather sad attempt at a weapon is the Mk 82 Depth Bomb. Which is just a Mk 82 with a delay.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 2, 2011 15:28:05 GMT 12
For use in water Phil? Or on land?
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Post by skyhawkdon on Dec 2, 2011 17:57:56 GMT 12
The 500lb bombs our P-3s drop are basically shallow water depth charges - while they can drop them over land (and do at Kaipara) their accuracy leaves a lot to be desired! The P-3 has no gunsight/HUD and no air-to-ground weapon aiming computer - it is very much a TLAR (That Looks About Right) system!
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Post by mumbles on Dec 2, 2011 19:08:28 GMT 12
A little known fact is that the rotary 'Weapon Selector Switch' still fitted in the RNZAF P-3s have a NUC (Nuclear) Weapon position. Mk 57 Nuclear Bomb I think...? (fitted for but not with...) Shush.........don't tell Aunty Helen... Pretty much everything ASW oriented had provision for nuclear depth charges back in the day, even the mighty Sea King. It is also my understanding that the A-4's retained certain wiring etc for 'specials' for a while. Wouldn't be surprising given that's what the A-4 was originally designed for.
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Post by McFly on Dec 2, 2011 19:51:48 GMT 12
The P-3 has no gunsight/HUD and no air-to-ground weapon aiming computer - it is very much a TLAR (That Looks About Right) system! Sort of Don. The RNZAF P-3's used to do quite a bit of rocketry in the 60's & 70's with pylon mounted 5" Zuni rockets that utilised an optical sight mounted on the pilots instrument combing and plugged into a power receptacle. After rocketry ceased (75 Sqn took all the Zuni's...!!) the sights were packed away and forgotten about. Travel forward to the mid/late 90's when HE bombing was (re)introduced using Mk82 'dumb' bombs, and a suitable 'targeting' system needed to be employed for greater accuracy. Out from the dusty box comes the long forgotten optical rocket sights, now refitted and trialled with the 500lb Retarded HE bombs. However trying to adapt rocket sights that are designed for alignment with the aircraft's direction/heading for rocketry to a lob/drop technique for an HE bomb, required the sights to be wound to full 'down' and the captains seat to be set forward and up to allow him to sight down onto the target and manually pickle off the bomb when everything lined up. IIRC it was fairly accurate and a good kiwi adaptation of an existing bit of kit, although agree with the TLAR... (U.S. NAVY (VP-45) P-3 Orions launching Zuni rockets).
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Post by skyhawkdon on Dec 3, 2011 7:00:24 GMT 12
I knew about the original Zuni rocket sights but didn't realise we still had them and they have been adapted for straght and level bombing! Would be good to get some forward firing weapons on the P-3 again (rockets and a proper ASM).
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Post by meo4 on Dec 3, 2011 10:32:43 GMT 12
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Post by meo4 on Dec 3, 2011 10:45:16 GMT 12
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