By DAVID F. WINKLER
In the global war on terrorism, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are continually demonstrating their capabilities to perform numerous chores for forces ashore and afloat. For the Navy, however, UAVs are not a recent development. One airframe that entered service more than four decades ago showed the potential for UAVs’ current success.
In the January 1963 Naval Institute Proceedings, Navy Lt. Edward A. Morgan wrote about the new QH-50 Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter (DASH) that was entering the fleet. Built by the Gyrodyne Co. of Long Island, N.Y., DASH was a small coaxial helicopter designed to deploy from destroyer and destroyer escort-type warships. With two rotors mounted on the same mast assembly turning in opposite directions, the aircraft did not need a tail rotor to maintain stability. The advantage of the system was that it needed only a small flight deck from which to operate.
DASH had a mission to counter a growing Soviet submarine threat. With Navy combatants being fitted with sonar capable of detecting underwater contacts well beyond their ASW weapons envelope, standoff weapon systems had to be added to the arsenal. One such system that made its debut during this period was the Antisubmarine Rocket (ASROC). With DASH, the Navy envisioned a system that could engage enemy submarines at greater distances.
Besides the unmanned helicopter and flight deck, a ship that deployed with DASH had a hangar, weapons stowage area, fueling system, firefighting systems, communications gear and other equipment. Control equipment was placed at two locations: the flight deck and the Combat Information Center (CIC).
Once fitted out with the system, the vessel would launch the helicopter with control initially maintained by the flight-deck control station. When CIC picked up the aircraft on radar, the CIC control station assumed responsibility for tracking and piloting the small aircraft toward the location where the sonar operator tracked a presumably hostile undersea contact.
Coincident with Morgan’s article, the first DASH deployed in the destroyer Buck. Some teething problems led to the grounding of the first batch of 80 aircraft as technicians eliminated an excessive vibration problem. However, full-scale production was ensured after President John F. Kennedy watched one of the helicopters make a successful torpedo drop during a firepower demonstration off the West Coast in June 1963.
The DASH file at the Naval Warfare Division branch of the Naval Historical Center reflects a mix of success and failure. For example, in April 1964 the destroyer Ault gleefully reported 500 successful landings of the drone over a two-month span.
However, the Everett F. Larson lost control of its DASH, which eventually crashed and started a brush fire at Sagami, Japan. During the first four months of 1965, Atlantic Fleet ships reported the loss of 18 of the aircraft.
It was along the coast of Vietnam that the drones performed another mission for which they were ideally suited. Equipped with video and film cameras, the helicopter could stay aloft over a target area and provide instant feedback for naval gunfire support missions. However, operations off Vietnam could not keep DASH aloft. Canceling the planned procurement of drones for 1967, the Navy signaled a vote of no-confidence for the program.
Speaking to the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in mid-1966, Rear Adm. William I. Martin explained that the Navy decided to “concentrate our assets on the other types of ships that handle ASROC, which is coming along fine and we believe that is a better way of doing it.”
Before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Vice Adm. Paul H. Ramsey claimed that manned helicopters would soon be light enough to operate from small combatant vessels. And, indeed, the Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System SH-2D Seasprite helicopters would join the fleet during the following decade.
Although removed from fleet duty in 1970, DASH continued service as a target drone for the Army and Navy. In 1996, the Navy transferred the last of its drones to White Sands Missile Range where the Army continued to employ the remote control aircraft into the 21st century.
Sources: In addition to the files maintained by the Naval Historical Center, www.gyrodynehelicopters.com presents detailed narrative and images about the DASH program.
Dr. David F. Winkler is a historian with the Naval Historical Foundation.
