Do US Navy aircraft carriers have SONAR?

Question

I was told they have NO SONAR aboard and that is why a CG will always be with them or maybe even a DDG.

I was a BM for 4 years, and they use a Fatometer to tell depth

Answer 1

Why woul aircrafts have sonar. Isn't that used as an underwater application?

Answer 2

US Navy Aircraft Carriers do NOT have Sonar (active or passive) for the purposes of ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare)... YES there's a fathometer... but that is merely for bottom detection.

They DO however have an ASW Division (OX Div) attached to the Operations Department to service the two ASW Squadrons aboard with the airwing: VS (Sea Control Squadrons) flying the Lockheed S-3B Viking and HS (Helicopter, Anti-Submarine) flying the SH-60F Seahawk. These aircraft use passive and active sonobouys (disposable radio-sonar), and the helos have a dipping sonar.

I KNOW we don't have sonar onboard the carrier because during an exercise with South Korea we CHEATED !! We took some sonobouys from the Helo Squadron... dropped them off the fantail , rigged an antennae for our receiver, and recorded the signature and tracked (briefly) the South Korean submarine from the USS Kitty Hawk.

The OX Division does the ASW and anti-surface briefings, and ASW intelligence and analysis for those squadrons, as well as maintaining the ships NIXIE (torpedo counter-measures). In these days with no Soviet subs to play with, the OX Division also does alot of work with the Surface Task Group Commander... tracking ships and maintaining surface intel.

Yes, that is why we'll always have a CG, DDG, DD, and or FFG with us... the CG and DDG for anti-air, and the DD and FFG for their sonar systems

Answer 3

Why would they? The CG's basic job is, after all, to run fast into the wind to launch planes, and SONAR is degraded at speed. They have to have escorts anyway, and they can be put to special uses much more efficiently, so adding the equipment to the carrier itself would be something like transplanting teats onto a boar hog.

Answer 4

Unless they've added it in the latest Nimitz class, they do not have sonar. They have helos that drop buoys, but that's it.

The DDG or CG is there usually as a plane guard or Red Crown. Sub protection is secondary at best.

I was deployed on the USS George Washinton. (CVN-73).

Answer 5

They have sonar. They also have a phalanx system to protect their ship. They use sonar to check the depth of the water among other things.

Answer 6

Aircraft carriers do have SONAR but they have escorts due to the limit defense capabilities of an Aircraft carrier.

Answer 7

they have sonar but the more the better, its easier for another ship to defend them in case they need to launch aircraft as evasive maneuvers make it though do that.

Answer 8

Robert S gets the points!

Answer 9

Waiting on more answers before I share my view

Answer 10

Yes.