RUR-5 ASROC

RUR-5A ASROC
Launch of a RUR-5 ASROC on the USS Mahan (DLG-11)
General Information
Type	Anti -submarine missile
Manufacturer	Alliant Group
Technical specifications
length	4.42 m
diameter	324 mm
Combat weight	454 kg
drive	Solid rocket engine
Range	9.2 km
Furnishing
Warhead	Nuclear warhead 10 kT or MK.46 torpedo
Weapon platforms	Ships
Lists on the subject

The RUR-5 ASROC ( A nti S ubmarine Roc ket) is an anti -submarine missile for fighting underwater targets at great distances. The RUR-5 was developed in the USA in the early 1960s for large and medium-sized surface combat ships by the Alliant Group (USA). The abbreviation RUR stands for ship-based ( R ), attack on underwater targets ( U ) and an unguided rocket ( R ) according to the American nomenclature .

description

The ASROC system is a combination of an anti-submarine torpedo Mk. 44 or 46 (Ø 324 mm, combat load 45.5 kg) and a rocket propellant. The missiles were fired from a reloadable, pivotable eight-cell box. After take-off, the ASROC flies ballistically without steering in the predefined direction. The rocket set is detonated at a pre-calculated position of the flight phase , and the torpedo floats on a parachute into the water. When entering the water, it loosens, submerges and independently goes on a search course against enemy submarines.

The RUR-5 was used on a large number of US destroyers and frigates, such as the modernized gearing class , the Charles F. Adams class or the Knox class .

From 1969 she was also used on class 103 destroyers (Lütjens class) of the German Federal Navy . With the decommissioning of the destroyers of the Lütjens class in 2003, the use of ASROC in the German Navy ended.

The United States Navy later upgraded older ASROC missiles from its inventory to Mk. 50 torpedoes. A variant with extended range ( Extendes Range - ERA) tested by the USA in 1967 did not go into production. A version with a nuclear depth charge instead of the torpedo was withdrawn from use in 1989.

In the meantime, the RUR-5 has been replaced by the RUM-139 VL-ASROC in the US Navy . This is no longer started from the eight-cell starter box, but from Vertical Launching Systems (VLS). Since the end of the 1990s, these target-orientable eight-way launchers no longer exist on active ships of the US Navy. The use of the remaining, originally unguided RUR-5 was therefore only possible after a conversion.

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  Eight-cell box for ASROC

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  Launch of an ASROC from a Mk.10 starter on the USS Jouett (DLG-29)

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  Test of a nuclear armed ASROC ( Operation Dominic Swordfish )

literature

• Stefan Terzibaschitsch : Combat systems of the US Navy . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0806-4

Web links

Commons : RUR-5 ASROC  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• ASROC Weapon System on Gearing class Ships . (US Navy training film from 1963 on YouTube)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Stefan Terzibaschitsch : Combat systems of the US Navy . P. 70 f.
2. ↑ RUR-5 ASROC / RUM-139 Vertical Launch ASROC (VLA) . Globalsecurity.org (English) accessed on October 7, 2019
3. ↑ Name system for missiles of the US armed forces on GlobalSecurity.org (archived version)
4. ^ Bundeswehr missile destroyer - Far into the Baltic Sea . In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 1969 ( online ).