Note: This post was inspired by an Anonymous reader. I'd like to give him more credit but that's all the information I have on him. Regardless, thanks for the idea!
The Gyrodyne QH-50 DASH (Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter)
was an early attempt at a long range, remote control, anti-submarine weapon
delivery platform that could operate from small surface vessels and act as a
standoff weapon. It was produced in the
1960’s with 755 being produced, according to Wikipedia.
An extensive and excellent history of the DASH drone is
presented in reference (4) below.
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| DASH - Note Co-Axial Rotors |
DASH was part of the larger Fleet Rehabilitation and
Modernization (FRAM) effort that was initiated in response to the growing
Soviet submarine threat. FRAM allowed
WWII vintage destroyers to be updated to a point where they could be effective
against the latest submarines of the time.
The DASH drone was around 13 ft long with a 20 ft diameter
co-axial rotor and weighed around 1100 lbs.
Cruising speed was around 50 kts.
Operating range was around 22 miles which was limited by the control
ship’s radar horizon. Take off and
landing control was performed by a deck level control station with post-launch
operational control being transferred to another operator in the Combat
Information Center (CIC). The drone
could carry one Mk46 or two Mk44 torpedoes.
Until late in the program, control was blind with the CIC operator using
only radar for situational awareness.
Later, a TV camera was added to the drone.
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| DASH Launch/Land Control Station |
The drone was designed to be cheap and expendable.
Since
it was expendable, DASH used off-the-shelf industrial electronics with no
back-ups. The controls were multi-channel analog FM.
Over 80% of operational aircraft losses were traced to single-point failures of
the electronics. A total of 10% of the losses were from pilot errors, and only
10% of the losses were from engine or airframe failures. (1)
According to Wikipedia, half the Navy’s drones were lost at
sea.
Beginning in 1965, some drones were adapted for
reconnaissance work (SNOOPY missions) and
gun spotting with the addition of real time video, cameras, telemetry, and
transponders.(4) Loiter time was around
an hour which offered plenty of time for the associated destroyer to work its
target.
Some drones were adapted for ground attack with 2.75” rocket
pods being mounted and used in Vietnam (2)
Later, as the drones were being phased out, some were
adapted for use as target drones for live fire exercises.(3)
The program was cancelled and the drones withdrawn from
service by the mid-1970s.
By
late 1969, DASH began to be removed from FRAM destroyers as they returned to
their home ports for overhaul work. On the destroyer, USS CHEVALIER (DD-805),
for example, the DASH hangar was converted into a "nifty looking"
crews lounge with fake wood paneling and a suspended ceiling covering the
overhead florescent lights. The only problem with this installation was that it
was installed with pop-rivets. The first time CHEVALIER fired its after 5 inch
guns, the entire hangar lounge was destroyed when the ceiling crashed down and
most of the paneling fell off! The DASH hangar was later used to simply store
all the stuff the crew bought overseas. (4)
A few interesting aspects of the DASH program are discussed
below.
Standoff – The
DASH drone was the early equivalent of the ASROC that we use today to provide a
standoff ASW weapon. The drones were
also a lead in to the ubiquitous ASW helicopters we now use. Interestingly, DASH’s range of 22 miles still
far exceeds the range of the current ASROC which Wikipedia cites as 6 miles.
Cheap and Expendable
– One of the distinguishing characteristics of the DASH drone was that it was
cheap which allowed it to be obtained in large numbers and made it
expendable. This is a lesson we
consistently forget, today.
Technology – DASH
was new technology, for its time, and the result was a lot of failures (half
the drones being lost). This is to be
expected from any new technology. In
fact, high failure rates are a characteristic of any new technology. What stood out about this new technology
implementation was that, as mentioned above, it was cheap. This allowed the technology to be explored
and slowly refined without incurring massive budget hits. Contrast this with the LCS or F-35 or Zumwalt
or almost any recent Navy program where the new technology was hideously
expensive and production commitments were made before any prototype was built
or, indeed, any design/construction plans were completed.
Speaking of prototypes, the DASH was initially prototyped
using a modified existing Gyrodyne RON-1 Rotorcycle in early 1958. By the end of 1958, a contract was awarded
for the production of 12 additional prototypes which were used for testing in
1960. Evaluations led to additional
modifications which became the production version of DASH, the QH-50C, and
production began in 1963. We see, then,
the program was executed responsibly with prototypes and testing prior to final
design and production – the opposite of how the Navy executes programs today!
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| DASH with Torpedoes |
Focus – The DASH
program was also an example of focus.
DASH was designed and built to perform one task and only one task:
deliver torpedoes. This kept the cost
low and the design simple which allowed large numbers of drones to be purchased,
made losses acceptable, and sped up implementation of the program. Contrast that with today’s obsession with
making every asset a do-everything, wonder machine which, inevitably, winds up
over budget and behind schedule. There
is a valuable lesson (some would call it common sense!), here, about focus and
restraint.
Summary - Unfortunately, DASH was just slightly ahead of its time. The technology, such as remote telemetry, video, electronics, etc. was not yet advanced enough to allow the drone to realize its full potential. The lack of situational awareness due to lack of sensors made the unit very difficult to operate. Still, DASH provided valuable institutional experience for the Navy with both helicopters for ASW and remote controlled aircraft. Ironically, many naval observers today are calling for unmanned UAVs to perform ASW chores such as weapons or sonobuoy delivery without realizing that we had this capability over fifty years ago!
Summary - Unfortunately, DASH was just slightly ahead of its time. The technology, such as remote telemetry, video, electronics, etc. was not yet advanced enough to allow the drone to realize its full potential. The lack of situational awareness due to lack of sensors made the unit very difficult to operate. Still, DASH provided valuable institutional experience for the Navy with both helicopters for ASW and remote controlled aircraft. Ironically, many naval observers today are calling for unmanned UAVs to perform ASW chores such as weapons or sonobuoy delivery without realizing that we had this capability over fifty years ago!
(1)Wikipedia, “Gyrodyne QH-50 DASH”, retrieved 11-Jul-2020,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrodyne_QH-50_DASH
