By Graham Warwick in Washington DC
Lockheed Martin is to demonstrate high-altitude, stand-off delivery of a torpedo from a P-3C Orion under a 12-month, $3 million US Navy contract. The navy’s Mk54 lightweight torpedo will be fitted with the company’s LongShot wingkit for the High Altitude Anti-Submarine Warfare Weapons Concept (HAAWC) project.
Currently P-3s have to descend to 500ft (150m) to release the Mk54. The LongShot range extension kit, which includes pop-out wings, GPS navigation and autopilot, will allow the torpedo to be launched at altitudes of around 20,000ft (6,000m), avoiding the need to descend, reducing fatigue on the airframe and increasing survivability.
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After release from the aircraft, the LongShot-equipped but otherwise unmodified torpedo will glide to its normal launch altitude, jettison the wingkit, deploy its parachute, enter the water and begin searching for its target. Two demonstration drops are planned for November, says HWAAC programme director Alan Jackson.
The demonstration requirement is for a stand-off range of at least 9km (5nm), but simulations suggest the weapon can achieve a 33-37km range, says Jackson. The wingkit will include a UHF weapon datalink, connected to a laptop in the aircraft, that will allow the crew to retarget the torpedo in flight by sending a new release point and heading.
Jackson says the HWAAC would help extend the P-3’s airframe life and could have application to its successor, the Boeing P-8 Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) now under development. “A turbojet like the P-8 does not like to come down to low altitude, and this would allow the navy to use existing munitions on the MMA and do it stand-off and at high altitude,” he says.
Lockheed has designs for similar concepts to deploy sea mines and sonobuoys from high altitude, and is seeking US Navy funding to build prototypes.
The sonobuoys could be containerised and the wingkit programmed to disperse them, Jackson says. The company has completed separation tests of LongShot-equipped Mk83 and GBU-16 bombs on the F-16 and is marketing the range extension kit to international customers.
The stand-off capability opens up the potential of using the Mk54 torpedo against surface targets, Lockheed says, by allowing the aircraft to launch from outside the range of ship defences. Also, says Jackson, the wingkit is stable after release of the torpedo and could fly on to do a secondary mission.
Source: Flight International
