SUM-N-2 Grebe

SUM-N-2 Grebe
SUM-N-2 Grebe
	XSUM-N-2 test missile on launcher with folded wings
Type	Anti-ship missile
Place of origin	United States
Service history
In service	1950
Used by	United States Navy
Production history
Designer	National Bureau of Standards
Designed	1947–1950
Manufacturer	Goodyear Aircraft Company
No. built	20
Specifications
Mass	Rocket powered, 2,500 lb (1,100 kg); Pulsejet powered, 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg)
Length	16 ft 5 in (5.00 m)
Diameter	21 in (530 mm)
Warhead	Mark 41 torpedo
Engine	Solid-propellant rocket booster; McDonnell pulsejet sustainer optional
Wingspan	14 feet (4.3 m)
Operational; range	Rocket powered, 5,000 yd (2.8 mi; 4.6 km); Pulsejet powered, 40,000 yd (23 mi; 37 km)
Speed	Mach 0.5

Last updated November 19, 2019

The SUM-N-2 Grebe, also known as Kingfisher E and SUM-2, was a rocket- and pulsejet-powered anti-ship and anti-submarine missile developed by the United States Navy in the late 1940s. Intended to allow a ship to deliver a torpedo at a significant distance from the launch location, it proved impractical in trials, and did not enter operational service.

A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket engine that uses solid propellants (fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used in warfare by the Chinese, Indians, Mongols and Persians, as early as the 13th century.

A pulsejet engine is a type of jet engine in which combustion occurs in pulses. A pulsejet engine can be made with few or no moving parts, and is capable of running statically.

Anti-ship missiles (AShM) are guided missiles that are designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. A good number of other anti-ship missiles use infrared homing to follow the heat that is emitted by a ship; it is also possible for anti-ship missiles to be guided by radio command all the way.

Design and development

Grebe was developed as part of Project Kingfisher, a program administered by the National Bureau of Standards for the development of a family of torpedo-carrying missiles, allowing underwater-striking weapons to be delivered at stand-off distance from their launching platform. The program developed three air-launched weapons, initially designated Kingfisher C, D, and F; the sole surface-launched member of the family to reach the development stage was Kingfisher E, with development work beginning in 1946.^[1]

Project Kingfisher was a weapons-development program initiated by the United States Navy during the latter part of World War II. Intended to provide aircraft and surface ships with the ability to deliver torpedoes to targets from outside the range of defensive armament, six different missile concepts were developed; four were selected for full development programs, but only one reached operational service.

The AUM-N-2 Petrel, also known as Kingfisher C and AUM-2, was an air-to-surface missile produced as part of Project Kingfisher for the United States Navy. Intended for use against enemy surface ships and surfaced submarines, giving aircraft the ability to deliver aerial torpedoes from outside the range of defensive armament, it saw brief operational service in the late 1950s. The project was never considered a high priority by the Navy however, as it was useless against submerged submarines, which were considered the greatest potential threat.

The AUM-N-4 Diver, also known as Kingfisher D and AUM-4, was a proposed anti-ship and anti-submarine missile, developed for use by the United States Navy in the late 1940s. It was intended to carry a rocket-propelled torpedo that used a single rocket motor for both airborne and underwater propulsion; due to technical issues encountered in the development of the torpedo, no missiles were built before the program was cancelled.

Kingfisher E, redesignated SUM-2 in September 1947 and SUM-N-2 Grebe in 1948, was a bulky yet conventionally-configured missile resembling a small unmanned aircraft, with a high-mounted, straight wing of 14 feet (4.3 m) span and a twin tail empennage configuration.^[2] Constructed by the Goodyear Aircraft Company under subcontract to the Bureau of Standards, the missile was 16 feet 5 inches (5.00 m) in length, 21 inches (530 mm) in diameter and weighed 2,500 pounds (1,100 kg) at launch.^[2] Power was provided initially by a solid-propellant rocket, giving a range of 5,000 yards (2.8 mi; 4.6 km) at Mach 0.5; later in the design process a variant with a pulsejet sustainer engine was designed, weighing 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg) and boosting the missile's range to 40,000 yards (23 mi; 37 km) at a cruising speed of Mach 0.26.^[3]

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft without a human pilot on board and a type of unmanned vehicle. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS); which include a UAV, a ground-based controller, and a system of communications between the two. The flight of UAVs may operate with various degrees of autonomy: either under remote control by a human operator or autonomously by onboard computers.

A twin tail is a specific type of vertical stabilizer arrangement found on the empennage of some aircraft. Two vertical stabilizers—often smaller on their own than a single conventional tail would be—are mounted at the outside of the aircraft's horizontal stabilizer. This arrangement is also known as an H-tail, as it resembles a capital "H" when viewed from rear - these were used on a wide variety of World War II multi-engine designs that saw mass production, especially on the American B-24 Liberator and B-25 Mitchell bombers, the British Avro Lancaster and Handley-Page Halifax heavy bombers, and on the Soviet Union's Petlyakov Pe-2 attack bomber.

The empennage, also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow. The term derives from the French language word empenner which means "to feather an arrow". Most aircraft feature an empennage incorporating vertical and horizontal stabilising surfaces which stabilise the flight dynamics of yaw and pitch, as well as housing control surfaces.

The original specification for the missile called for the Mark 35 torpedo to serve as the SUM-N-2's payload; later, to reduce weight, the design was changed to use the Mark 41 torpedo.^[4] Several forms of guidance were evaluated, although none had been definitively selected by the end of the program; the torpedo utilized acoustic homing for terminal guidance.^[5]

The Mark 35 torpedo was the first of the United States Navy deep-diving anti-submarine torpedoes designed for surface launch. This electrically propelled 21-inch (53-cm) torpedo was 162 inches long, weighed 1770 lb (803 kg), and carried a 270 lb (122.5 kg) Torpex high explosive warhead. This torpedo used one of the earliest active guidance systems and was introduced in 1949, but was classified as obsolete in the 1960s.

Acoustic homing is a system which uses the acoustic signature (sound) of a target to guide a moving object, such as a torpedo. Acoustic homing can be either Passive or Active in nature. Using Passive, the system is designed to move either toward or away from a sound, and may also be designed to move only toward certain types of sounds to the exclusion of others, while Active is a true Sonar. The system emits a sound pulse that reflects off objects and then back to the system, where the system processes the echos to determine the proper response.

Operational history

Given the cover designation of "AA Target Mk 52 Mod 2",^[2] testing of the XSUM-N-2 prototype missiles began in early 1950.^[2] Twenty airframes were constructed for use in the testing program;^[6] by 1953, however, the program had been cancelled; the stated reason for the cancellation was that the missile outranged the sonar equipment that was required to find targets for it, thus making it infeasible to use at its maximum range.^[1] Although the concept of a torpedo-carrying pilotless aircraft failed to find favor with the U.S. Navy, the later French Malafon and Australian Ikara missiles are remarkably similar in concept and configuration;^[4] the U.S. Navy would later develop the RUR-5 ASROC, a rocket-delivered torpedo (or a pure missile in the nuclear version), for attacking submarines at range.^[6]

Sonar technique that uses sound propagation

Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect objects on or under the surface of the water, such as other vessels. Two types of technology share the name "sonar": passive sonar is essentially listening for the sound made by vessels; active sonar is emitting pulses of sounds and listening for echoes. Sonar may be used as a means of acoustic location and of measurement of the echo characteristics of "targets" in the water. Acoustic location in air was used before the introduction of radar. Sonar may also be used for robot navigation, and SODAR is used for atmospheric investigations. The term sonar is also used for the equipment used to generate and receive the sound. The acoustic frequencies used in sonar systems vary from very low (infrasonic) to extremely high (ultrasonic). The study of underwater sound is known as underwater acoustics or hydroacoustics.

Malafon French anti-submarine missile of the Cold War

Malafon was a French ship-launched anti-submarine missile system. Developed in the 1950s and 1960s, the weapon was intended to take advantage of the greater detection ranges possible with towed sonar arrays. The missile entered service in 1966 and was manufactured by Groupe Latécoère

The Ikara missile was an Australian ship-launched anti-submarine missile, named after an Australian Aboriginal word for "throwing stick". It launched an acoustic torpedo to a range of 10 nautical miles (19 km), allowing fast-reaction attacks against submarines at ranges that would otherwise require the launching ship to close for attack, placing itself at risk. By flying to a distant target, the engagement time was dramatically shorter than provided by short-range weapons, giving the target less time to respond.

In 1972, one Grebe was refurbished for evaluation as part of studies into cruise missile development.^[6]

A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial targets, that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high precision. Modern cruise missiles are capable of travelling at supersonic or high subsonic speeds, are self-navigating, and are able to fly on a non-ballistic, extremely low-altitude trajectory.

Surviving examples

A Grebe, in "Type IV" configuration, is on display at the United States Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington.^[7]

Related Research Articles

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The LBD-1 Gargoyle was an American air-to-surface missile developed during World War II by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy. One of the precursors of modern anti-ship missiles, it was extensively used as a test vehicle during the late 1940s.

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References

Citations

1 2 Friedman 1982, p. 203.
1 2 3 4 Parsch 2003.
↑ Friedman 1982, p. 126.
1 2 Friedman 1986, p. 82.
↑ Ordway and Wakeford 1960, p. 122.
1 2 3 Friedman 1982, p. 127.
↑ "Grebe Guided Missile". U.S. Naval Undersea Museum. 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2017.

Bibliography

Friedman, Norman (1982). U.S. Naval Weapons: Every gun, missile, mine, and torpedo used by the U.S. Navy from 1883 to the present day. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-735-7.
Friedman, Norman (1986). The Postwar Naval Revolution . Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-8702-1952-8.
Ordway, Frederick Ira; Ronald C. Wakeford (1960). International Missile and Spacecraft Guide. New York: McGraw-Hill. ASIN B000MAEGVC.
Parsch, Andreas (2 February 2003). "Bureau of Standards/Goodyear SUM-N-2 Grebe". Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, Appendix 1: Early Missiles and Drones. Designation-Systems. Retrieved 27 December 2017.

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[Fried203-1] 1 2 Friedman 1982, p. 203.

[DS-2] 1 2 3 4 Parsch 2003.

[3] Friedman 1982, p. 126.

[Fried82-4] 1 2 Friedman 1986, p. 82.

[5] Ordway and Wakeford 1960, p. 122.

[Fried127-6] 1 2 3 Friedman 1982, p. 127.

[7] "Grebe Guided Missile". U.S. Naval Undersea Museum. 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2017.