SeaWings: P-3 Orion (The Hunter)

[Music] throughout the Cold War Soviet submarines play a game of cat and mouse lurking off of American Shores they carry the destructive power of 1 000 hiroshimas [Music] tracking them from above flies the hundred the P3 Orion [Music] it is morning at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville Florida the mini Patrol Squadron 24 strolled the tarmac that since the beginning of World War II has been home for Naval aviators these 12 men are just one of the many teams around the world that fly the Navy's most unheralded aircraft the Lockheed P3 Orion the Orion is not a glamorous plane it is not fast nor is it capable of breathtaking aerobatics operating from Land bases Orion Pilots are unfamiliar with the exhilaration of being catapulted from a pitching flight deck or catching the wire on a stormy night but unlike Navy Fighters the Orion never needed a Top Gun school during the Cold War Orion Cruz waged a private but very real war against the Soviet Union it began over 30 years ago when the threat of Soviet submarines prompted the Navy to replace their aging Patrol planes named for the Greek god of the hunt the Orion emerged as the world's premier subhunter today the hunter has found an expanded role to match the uncertainties of a post-cold war world but despite the collapse of the Soviet Union a less tangible submarine threat still exists and the Orion still does what it does best hunt all right everybody gather around good morning our call sign this morning's bp24 Patrick o'callstein's bad one got a six hour mission going off the coast for a tactical ASW today's mission is ASW ASW stands for anti-submarine Warfare for Patrol Squadron 24 ASW is the primary task however other duties include anti-surface Warfare aerial Mining and Maritime surveillance like all Navy squadrons VP 24 has an insignia they are the Batman this name derived from the Navy's first radar-controlled anti-ship missiles BP 24 tested the bat in the late 40s and has held the name ever since um does anybody have any questions okay if we have any emergencies in Flight we got a full natov crew on board flight operations in the Orion require that up to 12 crew members each share a separate responsibility however flying missions that may last up to 16 hours they must also learn to get along [Music] deployed from Land bases Orion Crews never have to live aboard a ship six-month deployments do however place squadrons anywhere from Iceland to Italy [Music] final flight preparations are made by the pilot co-pilot and flight engineer as the crew awaits word from the plane Captain to start the engines the four large Allison turbo props found on the Orion are the same engines used to power the Air Force's C-130 Hercules [Music] the all gray color scheme has replaced the traditional white and gray of previous orions although not as aesthetically pleasing the change makes the plane over 300 pounds lighter in pain alone pain is not the only change for this new generation of Naval Patrol in recent years the balance of world power has shifted drastically forever altering the well-entrenched military Dynamic of the Cold War however submarines have not gone away and although the threat comes not from the Russians their existence is no less daunting foreign [Music] knots Lieutenant Alan paremba pulls back on the stick in the Orion is Airborne taking off on an easterly course our crew will first cross the wide St John's river before passing over Jacksonville and on to the Tranquil Blue Waters off the Florida coast a typical ASW Mission usually involves a combination of both high and low level flying the Orion can cruise at well over 350 miles an hour at high altitudes upon reaching the patrol area it will drop down to about a thousand feet before searching for the submarine that may be lurking within the Seas below [Music] okay we're out here doing a surface surveillance search right now at a thousand feet we're flying loiter at 200 knots looking for any Targets okay we've got a we gotta sub on the surface I'm gonna go ahead and turn and uh see what kind of boat it is okay although sub hunting is a daily chore every subcontact draws the interest of the crew okay we're gonna go ahead and send down to about 300 feet and uh I'm gonna go ahead and man the urge and uh radar is going to get a check on it we'll go and see what kind of stuff we've got here okay we're starting to get a little better picture of him here he looks like uh it's like a US boat from the bottom plane most likely in La class that's our most up-to-date U.S fast attack the urge or infrared detection camera uses variations in surface temperature to provide a detailed picture of the sub scribers uh Earth camera just verify that it is a okay we're flying home room now you can see his whole uh whole outline in the water he looks real impressive down here water's real clear and you can see by the pool we put nothing's got a lot of power he's a he's looking real impressive looks like they're transiting out of port just getting ready to go out in an exercise because they uh they're off very they can do uh when they're in Port they can come out and just do two week upkeep periods and do uh just do some short exercises prior to going on a long-term deployment back to the T3 I'd have to say uh submarines are probably the best the ASW platform that we have in the United States inventory because they can be in the same same environment as the subs they're looking for whereas we obviously have to look around from the surface like the P3 Orion the American attacked submarine was designed to neutralize what only a few years ago was America's greatest Cold War adversary we cannot simply assume Every Nation wants the peace that we so earnestly desire we're menaced by a power that openly condemns our values and answers our restraint with a Relentless military buildup throughout the Cold War high-profile military parades were held in Red Square however what was not showcased were Russia's most secretive weapons they were lurking off the American coastline [Music] with the destructive power one thousand times the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima the ballistic missile submarine was for years the front line in the Cold War standoff Victor Charlie and Delta class submarines prowled the American Coast while Poseidon Polaris and tridents kept their sights on Soviet Heartland [Music] of all the weapons in the Soviet and American arsenals the submarine and their ballistic missiles were the most highly shrouded in secrecy while new Soviet aircraft could be photographed by American interceptors during flyovers at a Mayday Parade and troop movements and Armament buildups could be picked up by satellites the submarine was always in Enigma with their ultimate Refuge being the protective cover of the deep these stealthy weapons were the most elusive in the Soviet inventory foreign despite the emergence of ballistic missile submarines the traditional anti-ship attack vessels continued to be updated throughout the Cold War Soviet Victor class attack submarines carried the torpedo power to literally rip an enemy ship in half [Music] with the addition of the mammoth Delta class Sub in 1971. the Soviets had amassed the largest submarine force in the world American cities could now be hit within minutes to make matters worse the Soviets were also perfecting the legal cruise missile although perceived to be less advanced than their Western counterparts cruise missiles launched by the Charlie class submarine could skim over the shoreline virtually undetected [Music] at the height of the Cold War the P3 Orion was the front line against the Soviet submarine threat detecting the sound of an Ever more quiet adversary characterized this ongoing game of cat and mouse the primary listening device utilized by Orion Cruz is the Sono boy before each ASW Mission Sano boys are loaded into each of the 48 launch tubes at the rear of the fuselage it is from these tubes that the sauna boys are launched when a subchase is underway the diagonal slant of these tubes cancels the forward inertia of the aircraft allowing the Sono buoy to land in the desired spot Anthony Anderson is the ordinance officer in VP 24. it's like we lost [Music] the football we have three of these we call these our pressurized solo launch uh tubes we've simply place them inside there with a cat on top of it shut the door and electrical impulse fires a cad which pushes the buoy out in the event these break we also have what was dollar free fall shoot right here you just lift that up that's unpressurized put a liner in there and just drop the Sona boy out Once In The Water the sonobui transmits sound back to the Orion however the ocean is alive with activity noise given off by both natural and man-made sources results in a unique commotion it is the job of the sensor operator aboard the Orion to isolate the sound of the submarine from the chaos of the sea petty officer Tim laws explains the acoustic station is the first days of after the son of Bowie gains contact our son of buoy in the water takes all the raw uh frequencies noise it could be ambient sea noise it could be surface traffic plate tectonics and of course we're looking for the master signal of the submarine itself comes into this station in a raw form once it goes through the uh the equipment the signal flow for instance we're able to break it down into the ambient sea noise surface and of course we're looking for the submarine uniqueness about this station is every submarine in the world has its own fingerprint and no matter what kind it is it could be a fast attack submarine or it could be a ballistic missile submarine a diesel submarine as well everyone has its own particular thumbprint the sensor one and two work together as a team to find that thumb print or a portion of it in the ocean by taking the sound and putting it on a visual presentation such as this screen here once uh we find the visual presentation of a possible contact we make a determination if it's a friendly submarine or if it's a foe uh once we make that determination we find out what kind of oceanographics we're dealing with there's a direct pass contact is it closer or is it Convergence Zone a much more distant type uh contact we take that information and we work closer with the Tactical coordination a tactical coordinator and uh try to track the submarine the Tactical coordinator or taco effectively becomes the aircraft Commander when a sub Hunt is underway he is responsible for the plan of action to be taken against the stealthy adversary lurking below maintaining complete radio silence the taco coordinates all communication between the pilot the Navigator and sensor operators foreign has many ways of finding and tracking enemy Subs however in this game of cat and mouse both sides strive to be invisible this is a passive covert station we can stay at high altitudes drop our son of buoys and I'm able to get that information out of the water and track the submarine without them knowing that I'm there all the other state sensors on board this aircraft require us to be at a little bit lower altitude which puts us a little more risk because it puts sound in the water from the four large engines outside the aircraft once we determine that we have contact the sensor one and two will work together with the tackle to determine what the buoy spacing should be what type of buoys because we have different types of buoys on this aircraft they're used to best sucks sound out of the water if you wish to say to to make this whole thing happen three decades of hide and seek have given Orion Cruise ample opportunity to polish their skills against Russian Subs over this period the technology employed for the hunt has expanded to counter an Ever more quiet enemy but more important in technology has been the experience of Veteran crew members who pass on their knowledge to the next generation of Airmen being able to identify a Charlie a Victor or a delta-class submarine simply by its sound comes not from the classroom but rather from on-the-job training the proficiency with which these Cold War veterans perfected the art of the hunt caused noticeable frustration to the Soviet navy in fact one Soviet Admiral was quoted as saying that when he wanted to know the location of his Subs he simply asked where the orions were operating [Music] at the outbreak of World War One the submarine was a fledgling technology however in the opening days of the war the hunters able u9 sank three British Cruisers in just over one hour the traditional concept of sea power was forever uprooted [Music] production of air power was off to a less impressive start despite its appearance the airplane did possess two important attributes speed and long-range surveillance early sub-hunting might have been precarious but it had potential by War Zen Maritime Patrol planes were flying dedicated anti-submarine Warfare missions working together with their ships airplanes began to take their toll on German U-boats the resurgent German military Juggernaut wasted little time in rebuilding their Navy while the rest of the world was looking inward Germany again amassed a powerful Fleet of U-boats prowling within the cold dark Waters of the North Atlantic lethal German U-boats targeted Supply ships nearly severing The crucial Allied Shipping Lanes from America thank you effectively neutralizing the German sub-threat was crucial to the Allied war effort U.S and British Navy destroyers were fitted to the specific role of killing Subs while ship launched depth charges were effective when accurately placed it was often difficult for a ship to find the submarine airplanes on the other hand were well suited to the role the Lockheed Hudson was one of the first planes to patrol the North Atlantic shipping lanes [Music] as one of the first planes equipped with Airborne radar the hunter could now see through the darkness of night thus ended the submarine's use of nighttime cover to surface and recharge its batteries soon even the submarine's last Refuge the Deep was compromised by improvements in depth bombs and Airborne sonar at War's end the Allied Leaders celebrated the unified effort that had brought down Hitler peace conferences at Moscow and Yalta signaled in a new friendship a friendship that was brought together by War and would be Consolidated through peace but as history would reveal this was indeed a fragile Unity the first breakdown in relations involved the German capital of Berlin following the war Russian soldiers blockaded all roads leading into the city the American response was simple they would get in from above without a shot being fired the Berlin airlift was an appropriate beginning to the Cold War [Music] with Germany in only 25 years had Vindicated the centuries-old Russian desire to keep their Heartland protected with a buffer of land and troops Stalin championed this philosophy and the Soviet military machine was given full priority [Music] the importance of submarine warfare was a lesson well perceived by the Soviet leadership under the guidance of Joseph Stalin submarine production flourished and by the late 40s the largest submarine Fleet in the world was Soviet [Music] the Americans were also aware of the importance of submarines in any future War however the U.S Navy was quick in recognizing that the submarine was capable of doing much more than sinking enemy ships the German flying bombs that had rained Terror on London during World War II had been modified by America and by 1947 were being fired off Navy submarines uh [Music] the Navy's first submarine launched missile the loom was soon eclipsed by the more advanced guided missile regulus like The Loon the regulus was fired off a sled from the bow of the submarine once Airborne a nearby plane would take over guidance of the missile designed to soften an enemy beachhead the regulus proved the destructive potential of the submarine however it was not the missile itself but rather what it could carry that Drew the attention of the Navy the dawn of the nuclear age would forever change the dynamic of world power during operation Crossroads the destructive force of atomic weapons was brutally clear and the race to get as many of them as possible had begun [Music] by the early 50s Russian whiskey and zulu-class submarines were equal to if not better than their Western counterparts therefore when the USS Nautilus radioed underway on nuclear power in 1955 it was assumed that the Russians weren't far behind they weren't [Music] sure [Music] in October 1962 just two months after the first Orion delivery Soviet ballistic missiles were discovered in Cuba subsequent photographs revealed the presence of other military hardware including the Soviets newest jet fighter the mig-21 as the world stood on the brink of War Navy ships were deployed to set up a steel fence around Cuba to prevent any further shipment of military supplies the naval quarantine relied heavily on the location and tracking of any Soviet ships entering the area [Music] in Patrol squadrons were first called into action flying out of Caribbean and East Coast bases orions began the hunt for Soviet shipping Orion cameras photograph rocket boosters that were spread across the decks of merchant ships with its tremendous range the P3 was able to pick up and track Soviet ships well outside the quarantine line giving the Kennedy administration ample time to set stretches after only two months of service the Orion had already participated in the cold War's most suspenseful hour the Orion that flies today is not the same aircraft that flew against Khrushchev ships during the Cuban Missile Crisis although it shares engine and airframe the electronic systems are almost entirely new while still using the ever effective sonobui and the distinctive metal detecting magnetic boom on the tail the p3c now incorporates an on-board digital computer that integrates the operations of the navigational avionics flight control and weapon systems these improvements had almost as much to do with technological advancement as it did with the ever expanding Soviet Fleet during the 60s and 70s the Soviet navy grew at a rape which alarmed NATO leaders much of this growth was due to the influence and Leadership of Admiral Sergey gorskov a man who was determined to make the Soviet navy the largest in the world at the heart of this ambitious expansion was the development of the soviet's first aircraft carrier the key in foreign foreign ER by American Standards it is closer in size to the British Invincible class and is thus unable to accommodate a conventional fixed-wing aircraft but equipped with its Yak 38b stall aircraft it represents the long arm of Soviet Naval power [Music] to carrier threat the Soviets dramatically increased their surface Fleet throughout the 70s the proliferation of Soviet warships notably the Kara class Cruisers in creva-class destroyers gave Admiral gorshkopf the Firepower necessary to compete with Mighty carrier battle groups of the U.S Navy [Music] foreign to the massive Soviet buildup the U.S Navy pressed for newer and more accurate anti-ship missiles the McDonald Douglas Harpoon missile was modified to be launched from both ships and submarines [Music] like the feared exoset missile used effectively during the conflict in the Falkland Islands the Harpoon is a sea skimming missile traveling only 20 feet above the surface of the ocean the Harpoon stays below the enemy radar as it hurdles towards its unfortunate Target [Music] foreign the updated model of the P3 has been modified to carry the Harpoon missile the Harpoon can be air launched from a range of over 60 miles provided that the approximate position of the target is known and that no friendly ships are in the vicinity the Harpoon can be left to navigate itself before homing in with its own radar [Music] during the Cold War the Orion's primary target in such an attack would probably be the Soviet electronic surveillance trawlers which constantly eavesdropped on Navy communication despite its intended role as subhunter the Orion is the only aircraft in the Navy fully equipped for long-range anti-ship Warfare using search radar and infrared detection the Orion can track an enemy ship even though it remains unseen and Over the Horizon if the ship is considered a hostile the Tactical coordinator can either relay its location information to a friendly vessel or he can deal with a ship himself [Music] foreign decades after the Cuban Missile Crisis the hunter would again see action against Merchant vessels this time in the Middle East when Sodom Hussein invaded Kuwait in August of 1990 the United Nations security Council placed an embargo on Hall trade to Iraq within 24 hours of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait P3 orions were patrolling the skies around the Arabian Peninsula the first task of Orion Cruise was to provide vital data about Iraqi troop movements with the fear that Iraq might push Southward into Saudi Arabia this data was critical to the initial placement of U.S troops [Music] for the remainder of Operation Desert Shield the Orion engaged in surveillance and interdiction of All Ships suspected of violating the Embargo against Iraq on one particular Mission an Orion made a pass at what appeared to be an Egyptian freighter however the suspicious crew decided to take another look second pass the infrared display revealed that the Egyptian markings had been painted over Iraqi colors in an attempt to camouflage their registry during this period more than 6 000 ships were intercepted by Patrol aircraft as Desert Shield gave way to Desert Storm airstrikes ensued and troops prepared for the invasion of Kuwait [Applause] foreign ships in the darkened Skies over the Persian Gulf Orion Crews began their Relentless search one of the newest methods adopted to find ships in the Gulf was eyes are or inverse synthetic aperture radar unlike conventional radar which relies on its own movement in relation to the Target isar relies only on the motion of the object itself this allows the radar operator to work with a visual image rather than simply a clip on a screen thus giving Orion Cruz better long-range detection attack planes like the A6 Intruder work in conjunction with orions on Sue camp or Surface air combat Patrol on one occasion a radar operator in Patrol Squadron 4 cites a contact attempting to make a run from the Kuwaiti Coast to an island base 15 miles offshore the taco quickly relays the information to heartless 501. Intruder already prowling the area [Music] using his forward-looking infrared sensor heartless 501 confirms the target is combatant during the war over half of the Iraqi ships destroyed resulted from P3 detection and Vector Communication [Music] over Iraq Precision airstrikes pounded Iraqi defenses again proving its flexibility the Orion played an important role in assessing the damage of Coalition bombing rates the U.S Navy is not the only customer of the P3 Orion the U.S custom service has discovered that when modified the Orion is an effective hunter in a very different War the war against illegal drug trafficking into the United States since the late 1960s drug Runners have utilized private airplanes as a means to smuggle drugs into the country flying in at low levels Smugglers had been able to sneak below most land-based radar in rendezvous at remote airstrips often in the Florida Everglades in order to track such low-flying airplanes radar needs to be directed from above [Music] [Music] in the expanding war against Smugglers the custom service has employed an Airborne early warning P3 Orion its distinguishing feature is a 24 foot rotating antenna which houses the aps radar with One Sweep of the antenna the Orion can survey 196 000 miles of airspace to watch the P3 out of Corpus Christi on a typical defense and depth application uh we could depart be uh down on station in about six hours in the Caribbean Sea uh and on station for an additional six hours station there we can have radar coverage the 500 Miles which is uh with uh radar coverage covering the coast of Columbia as well as the coast of Haiti and the coast of Jamaica and the Blue Water environment that that represents there's a very very little clutter uh that's uh that presents a problem for the radar detecting Targets in that type of environment is just what this radar was designed to do and uh in a way it's kind of like shooting fish in a barrel down there isolating one drug smuggling Cessna in the busy Caribbean requires a rapid process of deduction prompting suspicion may be the absence of a flight plan or even more tilling if the plane is not squawking this means the pilot turned off his iff transponder not a normal move [Music] once the P3 isolates a suspicious Target its location and bearing are passed on to custom agents flying Cessna citations or Blackhawk helicopters it is here that the Chase Begins using the passive infrared system the Cessna Citation can sneak behind the suspected aircraft at night giving Customs officers the important and sometimes amusing advantage of following the plane without the Smugglers knowing that they are there places [Music] the infrared display Customs agents can read the plane's registration number in total darkness this information is then sent to the domestic air interdiction coordination Center in Riverside California for a background check at Riverside highly detailed topographical maps of the Southern United States are stored on LaserDisc during a drug interdiction chase the bearing of the plane is superimposed from the surveillance screen directly onto one of these Maps this allows the controller to keep all parties aware of any airports roadways or clandestine tarmacs to which The Smuggler may be headed [Music] I'm getting it some customs officials boast at their Airborne interdiction combination has virtually cut off the flow of drugs coming into the United States via small aircraft perhaps this argument is Vindicated by recent discoveries of newer and more outlandish means of smuggling not the least of which was The Accidental interdiction of an electrically powered wooden submarine filled with cocaine one big one [Applause] despite the effective fence created by Custom Service aircraft the drug war continues fueled by an insatiable American demand drug smugglers work within a limitless budget in this multi-billion Dollar business losing an airplane in its cargo is worth the potential reward it is an ongoing War of Attrition that neither side is likely to surrender [Music] there is perhaps no greater measure of Orion's success than its popularity among foreign countries in 1966 New Zealand became the first International customer to buy the P3 during the Cold War Australian p3s played a crucial role in the detection of Soviet sub the Japanese have turned to the U.S Navy's Hunter to fulfill their diverse Maritime needs and at the wind-blown northern base of andoy Norwegian orions have proven that the Arctic weather is no obstacle while to the South the Orion has flown over a less forbidding landscape by pilots of the royal Netherlands Air Force on the other side of the Atlantic the country with the world's longest coastline Canada has extensively modified the Orion appropriately renaming it Aurora [Music] guarding the Straits of Gibraltar of the orions of Spain and Portugal the latest Orion export however has been to the Far East suspicious of their Northern Neighbors South Korea is now receiving the Orion as an ironic portrayal of how quickly the world changes the Koreans wanted the Orion for its original purpose hunting Subs whether the Orion is monitoring shipping lanes water pollution engaged in search and rescue or hunting submarines it spends much of the time near the surface of the ocean salt water is extremely corrosive to any machine and airplanes are no exception during a flight Ocean Spray is pulled through the engine wreaking havoc on parts and Avionics this is an aircraft cleaning system known to enable aviators simply as the bird bath after a mission the Orion pilot taxes the plane through a wall of fresh water designed to remove salt from the engines and airframe it is a sort of daily shower intended to slow the debilitating effects of the sea thank you the end of the Cold War has enabled Orion Cruz to undertake the more peaceful roles of rescue and Pollution Control however the Orion will always carry their reputation as a hunter a role it began a generation ago a role it continues today it started off with just a simple headset by just listening to what sound is in the water and trying to pick out what the submarine is but the Soviets as well as other countries got more sophisticated and that's why we got more sophisticated with our gear gamesmanship was always on on noise in the water on them trying to develop methods to put less noise in the water so that they'd be less detectable and US developing methods to process noise in the water to be able to detect Soviet submarines so that was always the sort of cat and mouse game in them using Machinery quieting anico coating on their submarines and US using ever more sensitive kinds of processing equipment on the aircraft to try and beat them at that game we believe that that's one of the reasons that uh that made the Cold War come to a close frankly is that we felt like we were better than they were and they knew it with a dissolution of the Soviet Union the Cold War threat has given way to a new but equally unsettling balance of world power political brush fires have replaced the standoff of superpowers facing bankruptcy the Russian government has found that their submarines are more useful on the open market than they are off the American coastline with third world countries now purchasing the Technologies of the Cold War the role of anti-submarine warfare has come full circle there's a heck of a lot of unfriendly or unknown countries that are that are getting all kinds of submarines whether they be diesel-powered or nuclear-powered certainly North Korea the Iranians are buying these diesel-powered submarines now and they've always been a difficult challenge for for all of us in this business so we refuse to give up that Dimension though we've refocused our priorities in terms of the roles and missions that we are involved and we refuse to give up on maintaining our ASW proficiency so we spent a lot of time at home whenever we get the opportunity on deployment to keep those skills sharp because they're very perishable and if we don't do that when the time comes and I think we've all seen in the last few years that there's plenty of hot spots around and that ASW is going to be something that we're going to be called on to do again thank you [Music] it is a new day at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville however the Stillness of the Florida Sunrise is quickly Shattered by the sound of the hunter being prepared for the day's mission foreign despite all of the changes that have swept the world in the Orion's three decades of service little has changed in the morning routine of men and women at Jacksonville and bases like it around the world the Cold War has ended and the Soviet submarine threat has all been vanished but the silent War continues today the job may be locating a stricken sailboat an eye on the weather or enforcing a trade embargo perhaps tomorrow there will be a submarine lurking off the American Coastline from where the mystery but what is certain is that the men and women of the hunter will be watching and listening as the world hurtles head long into an uncertain future [Music] thank you coming up next on the Discovery Channel Brave African Americans protect and defend an ungrateful Nation on rediscovering America Buffalo Soldiers then the Transcontinental Railroad tames the Western Wilderness on the Wild West [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Mike Guardia

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Id: MTWLaq2Uw34

Length: 44min 31sec (2671 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 23 2022