Yes, it had obviously never occurred to aviators, both fixed wing and rotary, conducting ASW, or the companies making the sonobuoys, that smaller lighter buoys would be a good idea for carriage in airborne assets where space/weight is an issue....
So glad one of you non MPA boys thought of it...
Sonobuoys
Look at the picture on the right, which you can click on to enlarge for some idea of sonobuoy size options.
The laws of physics, battery size, length of hydrophone cable, hydrophone size and possible array requirement, making it capable of surviving a drop from height, etc all set certain physical size limits, if you want your buoy to be at all effective that is....
Look at the picture about half way down the page on this link and see what you have to potentially get in the casing:
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explor...echnology.html
As to sonobuoy usage per hour - just don't go there..... Have you any idea how long 120 sonobuoys would last you on task - I'd say the simple answer is almost certainly no!
Why don't you accept that the (ex) MPA community do actually have some idea of what they are talking about, and their comments aren't simply about preserving their (defunct) jobs?
Still, ASW must be easy, as all ex-AD types are such instant experts in it
