General Dynamics Corp., Pomona Division

Hughes Missile Systems Company

Clark E Allardt

Allen C Hagelberg

Walter A Lobitz

Gary L Letterman

George F Zimmerman

John W Helbron

Robert O Thornburg

An undersea vehicle storage and ejection system includes a capsule having a cavity therein adapted to store and launch a vehicle. The capsule has an opening at one end for passage of the vehicle therethrough. A closure member is suitably adapted to be mateable with the housing at the opening to seal the cavity. A rocket unit is incorporated within the capsule to remove the closure member at launch. The closure member includes a sealing arrangement for withstanding the hydrostatic pressure when the system is in the undersea environment of use and block the entry of sea water into the cavity. The rocket unit, when ignited, rapidly builds up pressure within the capsule to a level exceeding the external hydrostatic pressure on the cover, thereby removing the cover so that the vehicle may be launched.

Undersea vehicle ejection from capsules

A tandem rocket launcher is provided by mounting plural rockets in an elongated launch tube with associated guide and launch equipment for each rocket. A conical shield is placed between the rockets which deflects exhaust gases generated by firing the forward rocket away from the rearward rocket. The shield is then removed by firing of the subsequent rocket or pivoting of two halves of the deflector away from the path of travel of the subsequent rocket.

Tandem rocket launcher

An undersea weapon comprising a warhead, a rocket motor, detection, homing and control systems and a hydropulse underwater propulsion system in an integral unit. The weapon is launched at a previously detected target, such as a submarine, on a ballistic trajectory through the air by means of the rocket motor. The weapon enters the water near the submarine, which is thereafter detected by an on-board system incorporating active and/or passive detection. The thus-determined submarine direction is utilized by the control system to guide the weapon toward the submarine under water. A hydropulse motor utilizes the empty rocket motor as the propulsion chamber and provides the underwater propulsion to propel the weapon through the water toward the submarine, where the warhead then detonates on contact with the submarine. Alternatively, the weapon may be air dropped near a previously detected target, in which case there need be no propellant in the rocket motor. The hydropulse motor operates by repeatedly filling the chamber with water and expelling the water at high velocity through a converging nozzle in succeeding pulse stages. During the intervals between pulses, the detection system monitors the submarine free of noise from the on-board propulsion motor.

Undersea weapon with hydropulse system and periodical seawater admission

A propulsion motor for an underwater vehicle such as an anti-submarine weapon. The motor includes a propulsion chamber into which water is admitted and then rapidly expelled through an exhaust nozzle, developing thrust to propel the vehicle. Gas generators are used to develop the successive hydropulses to expel the water following each filling of the motor chamber with water. In one particular embodiment of an anti-submarine weapon which is directed through the air to the vicinity of a submarine by a rocket motor, the hydropulse underwater propulsion system can use the same chamber as the rocket motor.

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Claremont, CA, United States of America

Clark E Allardt