ISS 325 Lecture Air Power

ISS 325 Lecture Notes CREATEDATE 9/10/09 11:14 AM Elements of Strategic Bombing: Navigation to target area Can?t fly low or follow roads or risk loosing plane. Must fly high enough to not be seen. Target location If you do not have the technology to locate a target, bomb something bigger like a city. Ex(British in WWII bomb cities) Bombing (bombsights) Want the bomb to be dropped at the right moment to hit the target Return to base Be able to navigate in reverse Aerial Bombing and Navigation by Radio and Radar in WWII (1939-1945) Beam Navigation Germans Lorenz beam: broadcasted a radio signal out from the runway. Right side produced dashes, left side dots, middle overlap a low tone. Allowed fliers to fly blind but know where the runway is. Implement in war: reverse it so runway is now origin. Point at city follow line. Point an intersecting beam to act as gateway, once you pass bomb. British would dump coal into river so it wouldn?t shine to German bombers Evolution of beam navigation Knickebein 2 beam system X-verfahren(X-Gerat) Refinement was to incorporate the velocity of the bomber to know when to exactly drop the bomb. Intersection beam was consisted of 3 beam gates, 4 total. Kicking meter used to show visual of where the plane is on the radio signal. Showed Left, Middle, Right. Y-verfahren(Y-Gerat) 1 beam system Problem, British could listen for beam, know when they are coming. Making more simplistic, only one beam is used. Put radio in the plane, radioed information back to base, altitude, speed. Radio message sent back to plane to drop the bomb. Limitations of beam technology The final 12 miles involved straight and level flying ? easy target to shoot down Specialized equipment was required specially trained crews required for bombing (short supply) Only one pathfinder unit so equipped (they dropped flares to help the pathfinder find its target) British Counter Measures of Beam Technology Night: active: make decoy fires and jamming. Planes bombing see the fires, think it?s the building being bombed from other bombers Would send radio frequencies to jam radios Some British made German fighters land at British airports by making own signal Day: active: smoke Have black smoke around area Day: passive: decoys, dispersals, camouflage Decoy: Make decoy factors, fake buildings Dispersal: keep factors spread out Camouflage: make city look different from what should look like Precision Bombing in WWII (1939 ? 1945) What did precision mean in WWII? Individually aimed bombs (dropped at 20,000 feet) that fell within a circle of 600 feet of aiming point To drop bombs laid in a long line running within 600 feet of intended bombing line What does precision mean today? Individually aimed bombs (dropped at 15,000 feet) that fell within a circle of <10 feet of aiming point To drop bombs laid in a long line running within 50 feet of the intended bombing line British Gee Coverage System Hyperbolic navigation system First used on night of March 1942 Max range: 400 miles Accuracy: 6 miles Gee: G stands for grid Radio listen to where on in grid exactly they were Birth of Pathfinders (British) First planes(smaller low flying planes) drop flares, following bomber planes bomb place Low level target marking (<200 ft!) with incendiary flare (target indicators TI) French aero engine factory complex February 1944 SAB : Stabilized Automatic Bomb Sight Help bomb to be released at right moment Gee + TI?s + SABS = very accurate, precise bombing TI was weak point in the whole system If got shot down, problematic ISS 325 Lecture Notes CREATEDATE 9/10/09 11:14 AM