The United Remnants of America wrote:Free Asian Ports wrote:
Presumably, the SSBN has fired several salvos of missiles some time ago. There's now an ASW aircraft hunting for it. They might have a big, powerful radar that can find a sub at missile launch depth. A subs sensors are also probably sensitive enough to pick up the radar before it gets into detection range (plus if the ASW aircraft is using sonoboueys, they can hear those hitting the water on sonar).
An engagement would probably go like this:
1. The ASW aircraft reaches the area where the SSBN was last spotted firing missiles and begins using it's new radar to search for the sub.
2. The sub spots the aircraft closing in with it's big, obvious radar and sonoboueys.
3. The sub pops it's own bouey to find the aircraft and get target information.
This is the tricky part. As soon as the bouey hits the surface, the aircraft will immediately become aware of it. It's up to the sub's element of surprise to get the first shot before the aircraft begins an attack run.
4. The sub locks on and fires it's missile, before cutting the bouey loose and making best speed away. The bouey still has enough battery power to guide the missile to the target with as much accuracy as is possible.
5. Hopefully, the aircraft is destroyed and the SSBN can try to escape again before the ASW plane's friends can arrive.
Or better idea. 1 and 2 are the same. and then the following happens.
3. The sub drops everything and dives as quickly as is safe down below the thermal layer and then then sits quietly.
True, but I'd like more options. Littoral waters, for example, might not give the opportunity for exceptionally deep dives. Attack submarines could also use the deeper water to keep enemy subs at a depth where they can be spotted by patrolling aircraft or risk an engagement.
Die erworbenen Namen wrote:Free Asian Ports wrote:Then again, I'm not entirely familiar with the effects medium changes have in radar use, so I'm unsure about how a radar might be used in anti-submarine warfare...
Radar is used to sweep the surface of the waters, and only baaaaarely reaches below the surface. The you have anything above the surface, it'll be spotted.
Well I know that. It's mostly because things breaking the surface of the water stand out more against the flat sea. I was thinking a really powerful active array might be able to see deeper and pick out dense objects like submarines out of the volume of water as though it wasn't even there.