No one is disputing that boat wakes can be tracked by radar; but was this wooden dhow moving or anchored?
If anchored or drifting (i.e. no wake), can our radar detect a wooden boat?
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
Posted on 07/31/2004 5:10:20 AM PDT by csvset
Let me go out on a limb here and predict that a female sailor was somehow involved.
The antenna was mounted on the roof of the terminal building below the control tower, roughly about the same height above the water as on a carrier, so the situations would be analogous.
I was also the lead systems engineer on a team that designed the "leisure boat" radar sold by the leading US manufacturer of high seas navigational radar. Our "baseline" design was the high seas models, with smaller antennas and displays. Even on small radar (about $1,000 FOB retail) I would be amazed if a dhou wasn't readily detectable as soon as it broke the horizon.
You guys got me thinking, "Has anyone from Al-Queda seen the African Queen?" You could take a dhou, punch a hole in its buoyant hull, and fill it with explosives until it just maintained positive buoyancy, then drag it into waters where you expect aircraft carriers to operate. The mostly submerged derelict would more resemble a submarine (the Hunley comes to mind) than a ship and would not be readily detectable on radar.
Granted my new son was one month old when this happened, but I don't remember this incident being in the national news. Googling 'Firebolt' and 'dhow' mostly comes up with Navy-themed websites. I wonder why this didn't make a bigger splash.
And you would think they'd have had P-3 or S-3s in support, or at least SH-60s. The look down radar in those (all are variations on the same basic design) can detect and track a subs periscope, which is a pretty small target. F/A-18s radar, while not quite so good against small surface targets, should be able to detect a small boat as well.
It's what Jones uses to compute the Industrial Average.
No one is disputing that boat wakes can be tracked by radar; but was this wooden dhow moving or anchored?
If anchored or drifting (i.e. no wake), can our radar detect a wooden boat?
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
I've seen SAR (synthetic aperature radar) images where you could see the trees, along with their radar shadow. (One of those images was on the cover of the '93 Radar Symposium Proceedings) A cruise missle, seen head on, is probably a much smaller RCS target (although there you have the detection advantage that the thing is moving relative to the background clutter from the surface). Point being yes, trees and slab sided wooden hulls do reflect radar energy, although a little higher frequency than the typical surface search radar, like those in aircraft) will result in a higher RCS for the wooden ship.
A dhou, I believe, should easily be detected. The sensitivity of the marine navigational radar on carriers is about right to detect a man at four nautical miles, "in the clear". It would take a lot of rain or high seas to hide a dhou.
Could have been lack of vigilance by the crew, as some have suggested or a partially submerged derelict, as I suggested.
Another possibility occured to me as well. The Gulf is notorious for "ducted propagation". Under these conditions, an evaporative duct occurs about 100 feet above the surface of the water which traps radio waves. It acts sort of like an optical fiber, bending the path and trapping it near the surface. This leads to vastly increased sensitivity to surface targets.
However, the duct can cut both ways and there is real world experience that it does. The Cheasepeake Pilots Association found that under hot humid conditions, their shore based marine radar could not detect large vessels that were clearly visible by naked eye. What was happening, apparently, was that the antenna was located above the top of the evaporative duct, and the wave glanced off the top of the duct without illuminating the ship target. The height of evaporative ducts varies and if the duct were low enough, the same thing could have occurred to the Kennedy.
Evaporation is generally a daytime phenomenon; this event occured at night.
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
They might if the people on board were wearing tin foil hats.
Sailing ships have Right of Way over powered vessels. Perhaps the skipper was a lawyer.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. With no facts at hand, I suspect it was a smuggler, hence no grieving widows.
It does show though, that low-tech can sometimes compromise hi-tech. We shouldn't place so much blind faith in technology.
There are generally around 5,500 crewmembers aboard an aircraft carrier.
True, but didn't say if it was 0300 HR local time or 0800 HR. Dunno, but I think a partially submerged derelict (deliberate or not) is more likely.
I'm former Army and have never been on a carrier at sea, however the article says nothing about takeoffs, it says air operations. If you are moving fast, into the wind, and recovering aircraft it is possible that a small boat would neither see nor hear you.
I moved offshore rigs, crossed the English Channel by boat and been on a bunch of fishing boats in shipping lanes. I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often.
Low chance of evaporation...
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
Good point, I was only throwing ducting out as a possibility, I agree it would be unlikely to persist that late in the evening. I still like the possibility of a partially submerged derelict.
Not to mention a torpedo tube equipped dhow.......
Unbelievable..but I guess no more unbelievable than bands of ME males with expired visas being let go scott free. Hell, why bother with interdiction!
This boat should have been detected [primary targets not made of metal used to shown up on Earthling's radars...has something changed with the laws of matter??] and blown out of the water before it got close. But of course I'll be flamed by idiots calling me a "back seat" captain...eventually I'll have the last laugh.
They already are......
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