From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Sun Mar 23 2003 - 14:19:17 MST
Michael M. Butler wrote:
> spike66 wrote:
>
>> from a submerged U-boat, fly to a distant target and
>> hit with great accuracy, way back in 1943.
>
> Cite, please? Did they actually develop this or just design it?
Mike the only source I actually have at my house
has only one paragraph on the topic with no detail.
I got thinking it over and realized that since they
would have had only inertial guidance in those days,
the sub would need to sight the target via periscope,
give the missile direction and range, then fire.
Under those circs, great accuracy was surely an
overstatement on my part. Perhaps great accuracy
by the standards of the day, which would have to be
compared to a dumb bomb dropped from 20kft, which would
imply a CEP of probably a good quarter mile.
Anyways, the source I have is titled "A History of
the FBM System", a Lockheeed Martin publication,
LMSC-F255548, page A-1:
"This concept [of submerged missile firing] has been
derived from a World War 2 invention described in
some captured Nazi documents taken from a captured
high-level German headquarters. The proposal involved
installing mortar tubes on the deck of a U-boat and
firing mortars at land based targets, while the tubes
were submerged. The proposal had, in fact, been
implemented and actual test firings taken place
in 1943 with an encouraging amount of success."
Another source which I do not currently have
explained that the German system shot a blast
of superheated steam into the tube to clear most
of the water out of the path of the projectile
a second before launch. This idea was adopted
by both the American and the commie sublaunched
missile systems and is still in use to this day.
spike
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