I have to admit a mistake in using the term DAR. I should have written DAQ.
In September 1943 the destroyer Greer was fitted with FH4.
The last photo that you have posted states that the antenna is a DAK. Have not heard of this one, and my first instinct would be to believe that it is an error, however.....
Evaluation of FH4; went operational in January 1942, and full reports would have been passed to the USN straight away. A gap of about twenty months therefore seems wrong. There is some other reason.
For Atlantic escort work, HF/DF was more important than an air search radar, and some considered it more important tnan ANY radar.
You mention Fletchers fitted with a mainmast to carry HF/DF equipment late war. I am not aware of this. Is it possible to post a photograph?
Thank you.
ar
Rick E Davis wrote:
I really don't know why the USN would install the RN FH4 HF/DF system on the Harding. But, I would think that an operational evaluation would make sense. Since I don't know anything about the relative performance of the USN DAR and RN FH4 systems, I don't known if the FH4 had better performance that the USN wanted to evaluate. It may be that just the antenna from the HF/DF is being used here. One of the main keys to how well this kind of system will work is the antenna.
What I really find interesting is that the USN would install HF/DF equipment IN PLACE OF the Air Search radar on what at the time were still front-line Benson-Gleaves destroyers. The use of HF/DF on DE's made sense given their primary ASW mission, but to not utilize an Air Search radar on a modern MULTI-MISSION destroyer doesn't make sense. On Fletcher's, the USN installed a tall main mast late in the war for a HF/DF and ECM antennas on some units.
At any rate, finding that at least four Benson-Gleaves units had HF/DF equipment installed in place of Air Search radar in 1943, is an interesting chapter to the technical history of the class.