Gremlins On The Submarine - Blog Challenge Day 5 of 7

It has been nearly 30 years since I left the first submarine I qualified on but to this day I remember that our navigation equipment had serious gremlins.

• Perhaps, the issue was that we were trying to build to a 500 ship Navy so we did not have all the repair parts needed to resolve issues.
• Possibly, it was that our division officer that was a swap the parts first tech VS determine what was wrong and replace the part.
• Could be that it was that our inertial navigation system and surface radar system designs were a little long in tooth.

In the early 80s I reported to my first full time fast attack submarine and I quickly learned about the gremlins that lived in our BPS-14 Radar, Mark 3 Mod 6 Ships Inertial Navigation System (M3M6 SINS), Satellite Navigation System 100/400, and our Omega Navigation System.

• The BPS-14, Satellite Navigation System 100/400 were normally used on the surface or when at periscope depth.
• Omega was used on the surface, submerged, and when at periscope depth.
• The Mark 3 Mod 6 Ships Inertial Navigation System was used on the surface, submerged, and when at periscope depth.
  • This system required fixes from the other systems to maintain accuracy.

I could provide blow by blow accounts of the issues that we experienced but to keep it short I will list a few challenges we experience on the equipment that was in a billion-dollar submarine.

• The primary issue with the M3M6 SINS system was that it would get lost at the most inopportune time because the ferrite memory core that was the size of the loaf of bread would fail.
• Our BPS-14 Radar was a solid system unless it required tuning. To tune, you would need to go to middle level and adjust the klystron voltage to maximize accuracy and range.
  • The tuning assembly was missing Teflon washers that you could not purchase so when you tuned the radar you would get blown against the wall due to a DC Voltage Shock if you were not careful.
  • The radar was flooded out due to water flooding middle level during Navy Seal operations and was never the same. We ended up replacing the unit but…
  • We upgraded the old BPS-14 with a rebuilt BPS-14 pier side and the new unit arrived and wiring diagrams were incorrect requiring wire by wire verification.
  • All the cables going to the radar antenna were ripped out when one of our crewman tied them off and we raised the antenna. That was a long holiday weekend fixing the cables.
• The Satellite Navigation System (100/400) was not like GPS. You had to raise your antenna at a certain time to catch a satellite and track it for eight (8) minutes without taking a wave hit.
  • If you captured both frequencies, you were accurate to a half mile, if you caught one frequency you were good to a mile plus.
  • The receiver boards would occasionally burn up but we could normally recover.
• Omega would normally work but it took an extremely long time to get a fix and accuracy was questionable.
  • When you were in the open ocean, a solid system but not worth anything when near the coast.

As you can guess, accurate navigation is critical to any vessel on the high seas or when navigating in and out of port. We experienced many challenges back in the day and I am happy we did not rely on star and sun fixes, dead reckoning, or Loran to navigate. Sometimes, we did rely on radio direction finders though (RDF) just to make sure.

We have come a long way with the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other modern navigation systems, so I am certain our submarines are operating with much more accuracy.

Although we sometimes lived by the seat of our pants on the submarine, I would not trade the experience for anything.

• What items, equipment, systems, etc., do you have gremlins in?
• Do you still use a Rand McNally to navigate with or are you using GPS only?

Thanks for stopping by and my apologies for delayed responses while on the road. I will be back to normal by Sunday night.

Wishing you health, safety, and success. I wish I was 54 in mind and 21 in age but I will be happy fifty plus going on fifteen.

Jay Patterson