Sub-Hunting from the Air
During February and March HMAS Rankin, one of Australia’s Collins-class submarines, visited New Zealand to undergo maintenance in Devonport prior to sailing to Napier and exercising with the RNZAF before returning to Melbourne. No.5 and No.6 Squadrons were there to fight the other side of the battle against the submarine.
The Rankin's periscope view of the P-3K Orion. (WN-080020-80-tn).
Royal Australian Navy Leading Combat Systems Specialist (LCSS) Quintin Monk gives his take on the Anti-Submarine Warfare Exercises, looking down on it from the skies above.
On the day that No. 5 Squadron were going out to ‘detect and prosecute’ the HMS Rankin, LCSS Westbrook and I drove out to Whenuapai, for a ride in a P-3 Orion during a CASEX (Combined Anti-Submarine Exercise). The day started at 0800 hrs with a brief on No.5 Squadron, their roles and the many things that they do around New Zealand. Following this we sat in on the Crew Brief for that day’s sortie, which was going to be a detection and prosecution of the submarine - if all went well!
With all the briefs out of the way it was off to the Security Office to sign their forms; finally, it was off to the aircraft for boarding. Once on the aircraft we were shown round and given the normal flight safety brief - where to sit, when we could get up and move around the cabin and where to get out of the aircraft in an emergency.
At around 1000 hrs we were all strapped in and the P-3K accelerated down the runway; once in the air we proceeded to the operating areas to try and find the elusive Rankin. While the aircraft Ops Team were hard at work searching for the sub, Shane and I gave a hand with the tea and coffee. They actually have a small galley on-board and during the flight they served some snacks and lunch.
After about an hour in the air we arrived where we thought the submarine might be. The Ops Team had done all their calculations and it was time to start dropping sonobuoys to help us find the target. With the buoys in the water it was time to start hunting; it was no longer a smooth aeroplane ride! Instead the P-3K acted like it was a rollercoaster, going up and down and doing big turns in a race track past the buoys that had been dropped – and all this below 1500 ft.
When the Ops crew thought that they had the boat, they commenced their attacks. These continued for several hours and, on completion, the submarine came to the surface for a radio debrief with the P-3K crew. This discussion helped the P-3K crew assess the success of their tracking, and helped the submarine crew assess whether or not they had avoided us. Tracking a submarine is a difficult task as they are designed for stealth so any experience like this is good to learn from – both for the Orion crew and for other surface units involved in trying to hunt a submarine. We headed back to Whenuapai and when the sortie was over we thanked the crew for a very interesting day and an opportunity that we don’t normally get. For Combat Systems Operators such as myself and Shane, this sort of opportunity is a great experience; in our job we are often working with the P-3K so it’s good to be able to see things from their perspective and understand how they ‘fight the battle’.
Reprinted from May 08 RNZN Navy Today.