Was wondering if there were any open source guesses on the range of any SSN/SSK active sonar set. The only time in recent memory I've seen an estimate for
any active sonar is a claimed ~10 miles for ALFS, which I found a little hard to believe, but then its a new set at low freq. What I was thinking about was USN
SSN vs SSK. Would there be any situation where it would be practical for an SSN to just hammer the water periodically to detect local SSKs? I know torp ranges
typically well outrange active detection, but then when it comes to evasive action against a fish, a nuke has a ~10 knt speed advantage (suspected anyway) and
Mk48's are publicly listed as faster and longer ranged than the speeds publicly listed for most foreign torps, save the Spearfish. So could one sweep out
an area in front of the sub actively, attack any targets there, and run from any incoming torpedos counter fired down the bearing? The SSN would have an
advantage in active range detection I would imagine for reasons of power and number of hydrophones. I would imagine this could lead to the SSK stuck with a
bearing only attack while the SSN has range data. Whether that would be enough to make regular active sweeps at all practical is my question. I assume IFF
would be an issue in many circumstances. If the active range is too short, then the speeds and distances involved mean at best both subs die or worse the SSK
has a bearing to the SSN.
This is of course predicated on a sonar conditions where detection ranges are such that the SSN has no decisive advantage in detection over the SSK.
This is of course predicated on a sonar conditions where detection ranges are such that the SSN has no decisive advantage in detection over the SSK.
