Mad Viper Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 What is the thing the red circle.. We have a discusion about it on a Dutch Forum. I say that's the Dipping Sonar. Another member says that's the MAD detector. But i never heard of MAD on the Seahawk only on the S-3B Viking. Link to post Share on other sites
Hajo L. Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 I´m not more expert than any other modeller, but that´s a MAD-detector. Even your dutch Sea Lynx have this. :) HAJO Link to post Share on other sites
A6BSTARM Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 MAD is an abbreviation for Magnetic Anomaly Detector. It is bascially a giant metal detector. It was designed by the Allies during world war 2 and used to help hunt Axis submarines. This style of MAD dart as it is know has been carried by most of the US Navy's SH-60B units. What they do is fly along about 100 to 150ft off the water and string this out on a cable and the airflow around it keeps it up sort of like a dart and it detects the magnetic differences between the earth's field and anything that disturbs it, like a submarine. The display inside looks what you would see for a sisemograph, in that there is a bit of graph paper and a needle that draws a line across the paper. When they hit a metalltic object the needle jumps draws a spike. How big the spike is drawn is how big the object is. Nearly every ASW aircraft has a MAD sensor of some sort. The US P-3's, European Atlantiques, and the UK Nimrods all have them on a boom that sticks out at the tail. HSL-51 CAG bird with one as shot from the rear HSL-43 SH-60B, hovering over the stern of the guided missile frigate USS CROMMELIN (FFG 37). The helicopter is equipped with AN/ASQ-81 magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) gear An upclose shot of the MAD Pylon Even the US's SH-3H's carried them back in the 80's Another shot of a SH-3H carrying one. This is how you can usually tell an SH-3H from anyone of the other variants operated by the US is if they have the MAD dart. If they don't then they are probably a UH-3H or VH-3H version. Link to post Share on other sites
Mad Viper Posted January 15, 2006 Author Share Posted January 15, 2006 Thanks for the info guys. Link to post Share on other sites
Collin Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 (edited) How big the spike is drawn is how big the object is. Well....The needle moves dependent on the distrubance in the compensated magnetic fiield. So you could have something the size of a penny in the water that is made of some alien material that is super duper magnetically charged and changes the field drastically, that would swing the needle more than a supercarrier made of stainless steel. I have flown on subs from small special ops types to boomers and if your system is comped....they will give you a swing. How great the swing depends on the strength of the distrubance. Farther away your are ..or the higher up you are... makes a big difference. Problem is... tough to get a good P-3 MAD system out there (parts mainly)... hardly at all in the S-3 (when we still had it). You have to go out and fly a "fun" comp profile with the autopilot to make the MAD usable... plus parts are hard to come by. Now we have some digital MAD systems hitting the P-3 fleet soon... those are golden. No comping has to be done... and the thing is very accruate. It is completely possible to track a sub on MAD alone. In Japan we were SAC in a S-3B and got on a Korean sub... water was crap and acoustically it was very poor water..... SH-60B showed up from the USS Bunker Hill and I asked if he could stream his MAD and track him. Worked like a champ and we got the VECTAC kill on the sub before we had to head back and tank. Last weekend I was tracking a sub... would have loved to have a working MAD for that one. Cheers Edited January 15, 2006 by Collin Link to post Share on other sites
A6BSTARM Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 Collin, Thanks for the update. All I know is what I posted which was what I was taught at basic avoinics school. Link to post Share on other sites
Collin Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 Collin, Thanks for the update. All I know is what I posted which was what I was taught at basic avoinics school. A lot of things get tought and passed down that may not be the best information. In Japan, I had a conference with all the ship driveing officers and AZ/AS watch standers in the battle group to show them what ISAR radar really was. It was amazing... they thought it took a nice snapshot picture of a ship. They were surprised. Cheers Link to post Share on other sites
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