Ice-penetrating sonobuoys?
 

I am preparing a paper on Arctic sovereignty patrols. I have found what I guess is a patent for air-delivered, ice-penetrating sonobuoys. I found a bibliography referencing Barrette, J. Rene and John Courtenay Lewis. “Ice-penetrating Sonobuoy System Breaks the High Arctic Barrier,” Sea Technology 29(10):63-67 October 1988 however I do not have access to this article.

I am curious, does anyone know if air-delivered, ice-penetrating sonobuoys really exist? How well could/do they work? Have they ever been deployed in any military?

EDIT: Damn, I meant to post this in general topics. Could a mod please move? Thanks.

I looked this up in the most recent edition of Ships and Aircraft of the US Fleet, apparently there was a program underway when the Cold War ended that utilized a sonobouy with a lithium tip, which could melt through ice up to 10 feet thick. I would imagine it ended up being canceled though.:hmm:

Interesting, thanks for the info! I supposed we'd need to come up with some ice-penetrating torpedos to make those sonobuoys worth it ;)

Still, I'd think that it would be hard for the sonobuoy to penetrate correctly. Won't it tumble or break when it hits the surface of the ice?

My guess is that it was either meant to be parachute retarded, or that it was designed in such a way that it would fall straight down, with a pointed tip.

So what else an ice melting torpedo?

Couldn't you just naplam the ice? Then drop the torp throught the hole?

You could but that would take space in the payload away from torpedos.

I suppose you could vector friendly subs to a contact via satilite. You don't have to attack by air.

By the way, how well does sound penetrate ice? Could sonobuoys simply be placed on the surface?

Sound penetrates ice as good as water goes through four feet of steel. It doesn't work. Period.


Even if you did hear above the noise of the weather, you'd just hear the ice.

I tested this program. We droped hundreds of these bouys and they all schattered on impact. Not one of them survived the deployment on the ice. It was droped from a P-3C Orion aircraft.

Fly Navy
P-3 Flight Engineer

That is a really neat bit of info, thank you! Unfortunately the magazine with my paper has already gone to print :cry:

And hey, welcome to SUBSIM :up:

You mean DW, when you talk about 'this program'?
I tested the sonabuoys long time ago, and they penetrated ice as they penetrated water.

PS: Just tested 104 and they still penetrate.

No in real life. I was great watching a grown man cry when his million dollar bouy smashed against the ice. We would test them up in the greenland area on the ice shelf in the winter time. When we would return from our missions back to iceland we would help out and do the drops for them.