Skip the Barracuda! and the Gannet ... is basically just an ASW plane right?
The Gannet was designed to Spec GR.17/45 on which work began in early Jan 1946 and which was finally issued to Blackburn & Fairey on 11 April 1947.i.e. a General Recce aircraft. It was originally for a 2 seat anti submarine and recce aircraft in areas where enemy fighters were unlikely to be met. It was intended to operate from future escort and trade protection carriers. The specified weapons included:-Except for anti-ship torpedo missions, so was the depth charge-armed Swordfish and Albacore. We coldwar aviation fans remember the Gannet as a ASW and AEW bird, but it was a multirole bomber by design. Given the lack of anti-surface ship targets and the improved AA postwar, it makes sense for the Gannet to focus on ASW, but for non-ASW the Gannet could carry 16x RP-3 rockets (under the wings) and 4x MC Mk.18 - Mk.21 500lb bombs internally.
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Nothing wrong with the Barracuda. Just get it into service in 1941 instead of Jan 1943. Besides tweaking the Merlin, there's nothing technically advanced on the Barracuda that precludes its earlier service.
No guns
8xRP with 60lb heads or 16xRP with 25lb heads
8 sonobuoys + 1x AS homing torpedo
3xMk.30 "Dealer" passive homing torpedos much development but never entered service)
6xMk. XI depth charges
6x250lb AS bombs
+ 4 flares and 4 smoke floats or marine markers.
These are all typical AS outfits. The term "strike" that is often used in connection with the Gannet refers to its ability to both carry all the tools to search for a submarine AND carry all the weapons required to kill it. It was never a reference to a capability of operating like the SBD, SB2C, or other dive bombers or as a replacement for the anti shipping torpedo bomber of pre-war / WW2. In 1949 it had to be redesigned to take a third seat to carry a dedicated sonobuoy operator. That role was originally allocated to the observer who was also supposed to navigate and operate the radar! The option, that was swiftly rejected, was to operate separate "Hunter" & "killer" aircraft in the same way the USN did in early post-war years with the AS dedicated Grumman Avengers and then AF-2W and AF-2S Guardian aircraft.
Gannet was meant to be the successor to the Barracuda TR.III in the anti submarine role, that is the Barracuda version with centimetric ASV.X in a radome under the rear fuselage. There were 4 squadrons of these at the end of WW2. 815 continued to operate them until May 1953.
The lower capability AS aircraft, a kind of Swordfish replacement, was intended to be the Short Seamew.
![en.m.wikipedia.org](/forum/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2Fe%2Fea%2FShort_Seamew_landing_on_HMS_Bulwark_%2528R08%2529_1955.jpg%2F1200px-Short_Seamew_landing_on_HMS_Bulwark_%2528R08%2529_1955.jpg&hash=2cafffb1c490708fd42d85fee4b471c9&return_error=1)
Short Seamew - Wikipedia
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