Heavy Bombers As Asw/maritime Patrol Planes

[jcf]

I have always liked the idea of a Maritime Patrol/ASW version of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress.
I have never been able to work out why the U.S Navy (or the Soviets with their Tu-4 'Bull' copy of the B-29) never utilized this potential aircraft design in this role?
After all, it had the long-range, four-engine reliability, and a huge bomb bay, that could hold mines, torpedoes and depth charges.
A belly or nose mounted surface search radar.
The tail gun position could have been replaced with a MAD 'sting', and the weight reduced without the need for high-altitude pressurization.

Can anyone whip together an ASW/MP B-29, or would it be a P-29?

M.A.D

Why not? On the US side no doubt because of USN versus USAF politics, turf wars and budgetary concerns... also using a modified USAF aircraft in the post-war political environment would probably have called into question the USN's insistence on its own projects to meet its 'special' requirements.

Anyhow, the USN had the Martin P4M 'Mercator' for a time, two R-4360s and two Allison J33s, one of each in shared nacelles, 114' wingspan, 84' long, top speed of 410mph, range 2,840 miles, 12,000lb of ordnance in the bomb-bay. Eventually the smaller Lockheed Neptune took over all patrol duties, but the P4M-1Q ELINT version continued in service until July 1960.






Cheers, Jon

[Archibald]

IIRC the BUFF can carry 12 Harpoons, which makes it a pretty formidable foe to any group of ships.

You said it    With such number of harpoon, a pair of Buffs would have more antiship missiles than the whole CDG Super Etendard fleet !!!!!!  

[Jeffry Fontaine]

The USN did operate a small quantity of B-17G aircraft as the PB1W that were modified to carry the APS-20 search radar in a ventral monted radome.  The nose/chin turrent was removed on some of these aircraft.  

There was an even smaller number of B-29 aircraft that were modified to carry the same radar on top of the fuselage in a dorsal mounted radome.  

Both aircraft types were used for radar surveillance along the coast of the US and subsequently replaced by other aircraft types such as the Lockheed Constellation.  

[BillSlim]

IIRC the BUFF can carry 12 Harpoons, which makes it a pretty formidable foe to any group of ships.

You said it    With such number of harpoon, a pair of Buffs would have more antiship missiles than the whole CDG Super Etendard fleet !!!!!!

I think that the USAF intended to use them against large Soviet Surface Action Groups in combination with USN carrier aircraft. Certainly I think that the BUFFs would need vectoring in by either P-3s, or E-2s.

Slightly related to this topic is that the RAF did use some of its Vulcan fleet for maritime patrol duties, the aircraft thus modified were called B.2(MRR). IIRC the Victor SR2s also did MPA duty, as did Victor K.2s during the Falklands War before the Nimrod fleet were given in flight refueling probes.

I have seen a photo of a Victor being trial fitted with a Martel, so I think it would be possible to do one with Sea Eagle, or Harpoon. Talking of which I think that Craig has done a Vulcan with ASMs and A2A missiles, haven't seen it though.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

The USAAF was tasked with the mission of mining the sea lines of communication around the Japanese home waters during WWII.  The B-29 was the primary aircraft used for this mission.  So using the B-29 as a mine laying aircraft is nothing new.  Using it to loiter and search for submarine type targets however would be something new.  

[Joe C-P]

I am going to be doing a B-35 as such someday, maybe soon. It's so big!

JoeP

[GTX]

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned the B-36 yet - remember Mike Wren is doing just such a whiff here.

Regards,

Greg

[GTX]

I am going to be doing a B-35 as such someday, maybe soon. It's so big!

Joe,

Have a read of this - might give you some ideas.

Regards,

Greg

[Daryl J.]

The B-29/B-50/Stratocruiser have all come to mind in this role.   The bombay's would carry nuke torpedos as well as perhaps some extra fuel.    Dad worked on the B-29 extensively during Korea and they loved the -3350.    

The Stratocruiser, however, I think would get the same engines as the P-3C with similar equipment.  Underwing, would be equipped to carry some sort of rocket projectile on occasion as an addition.   I wonder what an all-blue Stratocruiser would look like........


Daryl J., wishing the 1/72 Academy kits cost much less.....

[Scooterman]

Hey Daryl, I got a B-50 collecting dust........
 

[Burncycle]

Forget harpoon...

Imagine an anti-ship version of the CALCM!

You get 6 times the range (600 nm vs 100 nm), 6 times the warhead (3,000 lbs vs 500 lbs) and you can carry more (20 vs 12)

B)  

[B777LR]

Who says an ASW plane needs to be slow?

Rockwell P-1B! Will carry a lot of torpedoes! Will kill an entire carrier group! Can even hunt down enemy ASW planes using defensive sidewinders!

Tupolev Tu-207 MayDay! ASW version of Tu-160

Tupolev Tu-69 Morefire! ASW version of Tu-22

P-111 (F-111)

Vulcan

P-58 (B-58)

How about C-130J or C-17A?