Andrews 



in accurate navigation of the small boat, which had 

 to be vectored into position by radar posits from the 

 USS Boston. 



3. Acoustic search in the south part of AI was totally 

 ineffective because of the inability of sonar to 

 receive anything but bottom reverberation in the 

 highly discontinuous terrain. Visual search was 

 effective even though detection ranges were rarely 

 greater than 15 feet. The weapon was found by a 

 modified random visual search in which a combination 

 of fortunate circumstances counterbalanced the handi- 

 cap of limited vision. ALVIN elected to search along 

 terrain contours, and correctly deduced that the bomb 

 might have slid some distance down one of the steep 

 slopes, leaving a discernible track. Thus ALVIN' s 

 courses were designedly perpendicular to the track 

 of the weapon sliding down a slope. This 

 effectively enlarged the target to 1000 feet, the 

 length of the track at the base of which the 

 parachute enshrouded bomb lay. (Figure 10) 



The major recommendations of this post-operation study were: 



Incorporate into the design of future search systems 

 the target classification lesson learned in SALVOPS/ 

 MED. This lesson indicated that in the rocky terrain 

 off Palomares, acoustic search alone was generally 

 ineffective because of inadequate sonar classification. 

 Future vehicles which combine the integrated use of 

 acoustic, magnetic anomaly, visual, and other detection 

 means are indicated. In addition, emphasis on long 

 range research and development in acoustic classifi- 

 cation is indicated. 

 • Accelerate the development of mobile hull-based and 

 bottom mounted transducer underwater navigation 

 systems. Efficient bottom search, the revisit of 

 contacts previously reported, and a study of the 

 location of a contact relative to the bottom terrain 

 are all impossible without precise sea-floor 

 navigation, 



AN ANALYSIS OF THE RECOVERY 



The extreme depth at which the bomb was lost required that the 

 attachment of the lifting device be done remotely either from the 

 surface, or from within a small submersible. Lifting, once the 

 attachment was made, appeared most practical from the surface. 

 Certain schemes involving an unassisted lift by ALUMINAUT were 

 considered but finally abandoned because of the possible risk to the 

 vehicle, its personnel or to the weapon and parachute. 



20 



