Precision High Alitude Sonobuoy Emplacement (PHASE)

Continuing evolution in mission objectives, advancements in concepts of operation (CONOPS), and depleted service life of the P-3 have led to the development of the P-8 aircraft.It is expected that the current P-8 operational CONOPS envelope will see sonobuoy deployment from high altitudes up to 15,000 ft.The accurate placement of current production sonobuoys from high altitudes is very challenging; they spend more time descending through uncertain, varying atmospheric conditions causing significant drift and trajectory variation which, in turn, results in unreliable splash point prediction.Previous studies have shown that production sonobuoys deployed from high altitudes can have placement errors as large as 1,300 to 7,000 meters depending on conditions.Additionally, increased altitude deployments increase time to splash latency.Large placement errors and time to splash latency are unacceptable for conducting effective air-ASW missions. The PHASE solution, originally developed for the Q53 and now proposed for Q62, will allow the Navy to conduct air ASW from all altitudes with better accuracy and reduction in descent latency.PHASE is a low cost improvement that is a two part solution: a sonobuoy ballistics model paired with a descent module affixed to the top of a standard sonobuoy without sonobuoy modification.