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The Mark 54 was co-developed by Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems and the U.S. Navy under the U.S. Navy's Lightweight Hybrid Torpedo program in response to perceived problems with the extant Mark 50 and Mark 46 torpedoes. The Mk 50, having been developed to counter very high performance nuclear submarines such as the Soviet Alfa class, was seen as too expensive to use against relatively slow conventional submarines. The older Mk 46, designed for open-ocean use, performed poorly in the littoral areas, where the Navy envisioned itself likely to operate in the future. The Mk 54 was created by combining the homing portion of the Mk 50 and the warhead and propulsion sections of the Mk 46, improved for better performance in shallow water, and with the addition of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology to further reduce costs. It shares much of the software and computer hardware of the Mk 48 ADCAP heavy torpedo, based around a custom PowerPC 603e microprocessor. The Mk 54 can be fired from surface ships via the Mark 32 surface vessel torpedo tubes or the vertical launch anti-submarine rocket (ASROC) systems, and also from most ASW aircraft, although they are slightly different lengths and weights. The P-8 Poseidon uses the High-Altitude Anti-Submarine Warfare Weapons Capability (HAAWC) GPS-guided parachute kit to drop torpedoes from high altitude. https://www.militaryaerospace.com/sensors/article/14281632/antisubmarine-warfare-asw-airborne-torpedo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_54_Lightweight_Torpedo View full record

In my naval reading list I have now arrived at the fiction section with Michael DiMercurios books. I've just started Voyage of the Devilfish where a rogue admiral sends 120 SSNs to a position they can attack with cruise missiles. (I have not finished the book, so the idea is just based on the start). This inspired me to try to recreate this scenario with EC2003 Battle for the Atlantic Ocean. The idea was to start out a big blob of SSNs from the Norwegian Sea (Barents seems to be off the map) Have them all transit trough the GIUK gap, north and south of Iceland at high speed to several attack positions off the US east coast and then order them to attack vital targets, like the White House, Norfolk and the Capitol with cruise missiles. Where destruction is a RED total victory. On the US side, intelligence (orders) will warn about the inbound SSN's. However all of the fleet will be in port except perhaps a couple of attack subs around Iceland. Other Blue forces would be ASW Aircraft in the US that needs to be deployed to Keflavik, Greenland, Eastern Canada Etc. The docked US attack subs 65-70 in total, maybe a CVBG and FFG/DDG/CG ships will have to be deployed in a picket somewhere to stop the incoming SSNs. A blue victory could perhaps be destroying a flagship Typhoon hidden somewhere north of Iceland or time with intact vital targets. Timewise a transit from the Norwegian is about 3500nm. That gives about 5-7 in game days to get into attack station at full speed. That probably means the US picket must be on station in less than half that. I made a test and put one Akula II and one Sierra II off the eastern seaboard, gave nuclear release and fired all SS-N-30 and SS-N-21's at two US bases, both failed to destroy an undefended target, so I think a group of 2-3 subs are required for an attack. I'm looking for suggestions on what sub classes to use and other ideas/suggestions to make this scenario. Also feel free to steal the whole idea, as I have never made a scenario from scratch and it will take me a very long time to make this.

I have this aching desire, recurring at the start of most HDS scenarios, to be able to set initial formations. I feel I should be able to rearrange my battlegroup, main body, ASW pickets, etc. freely at 0 time, under 0 time. In the real World the commander sets the formation soon after the BG leaves port. In the game I'm promoted to commander on the spot, just few minutes before the battle start. Ok, this happens, but not all the time. What aggravates this (for me) is that the previous commander has very different idea about ASW formations (if he had any at all ) I have only minimal control over the station keep speed of my ships. Either I stop the group and wait until ships creep, 5kts, to station, or I start the group and let the captains fool around at flank speed. One painfully eats into the game time limit, the other is a Russian-roulette if opfor subs are around. We also have the main body station keep problem, there is a good chance that main body ships, once I change the initial formation, converge on a single spot. (After reaching their stations.) Even if you spend time on formation setup you don't get results. My ideal ASW formation for CVBG transit. (Edited: for the IOPG battleset, Indian Ocean specific sonar characteristic, like limited range, virtually no CZ detections, etc.) Fixed wing ASW patrols 40-55nm out. Any further out or wider patrol ring leads to a too scattered sonobuoy pattern, subs slip by too easily. The more assets I've the more sectors I patrol left/right from the PIM. Heli ASW patrols 30-40nm. The advantage of helicopters is that these exhaust their endurance and sonobuoy assortment roughly the some time. An S-3 patrols for hours after it has laid all of it's buoys. The helis provide safety in the gap while the S-3 has only MAD to work with. Towed array ASW picket 20-30nm out from the HVU. Perry or Spruance. The Spruance is best paired with an AAW cruiser or at least a CF Adams to protect it from pop-up missile attacks. I use the AAW ring or the main body for the picket. Avoid the ASW ring, my sprint-drifting pickets have never detected anything but torpedoes. And I don't want to detect a Type-65 any more. The HVU ideally escorted by a VLS Tico sporting a towed array. Ok, I'm not gonna get the free formation feature in the GE anytime soon, slightly better outlook for an ExportDLL, who knows. But for the resolute there was always the option of modifying the Battleset scenario with the SE, set formation and play it as User scenario. This was as far as I got, theory, until I came by HDSC 10.0. Clash of the Titans, yum. There is a beautiful blue CVBG, all-mighty airwing, Spruances, Ticos and the Long Beach too, muahhahhaaaaaa ... except the formation is all over the Arab sea, 120nm E-W 100nm N-S!! I will have order here! Come SE, the only hard part is to open the scen and find AAC group without blowing away the red positions. Great. The added benefit, that the positions set in the SE the ships (all of them in the main body) keep without a flinch! The modified scenario file is attached below. CVGB in full ASW sweep. HDSC10.zip