Re: How Do You Sink A Carrier?
SOSUS is supposedly on a backburner and navy involvement less due to lack of perceived sub threat but most of it is still operational just on a lower tempo (and more automated??).
The reason for that is SOSUS is no longer as effective as it once was. Remember the Soviet era subs are noisy, and everything happens in the cold, open water of the Atlantic. Once subs start to reach the level of background noise, it becomes very difficult to find and filter out its sound signature in real time, when you have to deal with thousands and thousands of other sounds at the same time. The problem worsens in the littorals, along heavy trade traffic routes, where water is warmer, has different salinity and acidity levels, all of which affect sonar propagation. Add to that are biologics, as well as water currents and thermal layers, all of which serve to block sonar. Sonar coming from water layer which has a different temperature and salinity can be blocked by a wall of water that has a different temperature and salinity.
Think of the Lexus V-6 engine. Think of the sound it makes. Think of finding that sound in the middle of a New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai or Tokyo intersection in time before the car leaves the traffic light.
When you think of seas and oceans like watery jungles, the sub and its crew are like jungle fighters. They become specialists at that particular water environment. Even the sonar operators have to know the biologics and water conditions of their particular area to a tee. A sub with a crew coming from an ocean or sea from a different part of the world coming to the home turf of the other sub is in a serious disadvantage especially the sonar operators. Can't get a sub and crew that operates on the Baltic sea and expect him to perform as well at the Straits of Malaccas overnight.
Even dipping sonar from helicopters and dropped buoys from MPAs have their problems. Why? Because they don't go deep enough. There are going to be thermal layers, salinity layers, acidity layers, schools of krill, fish and squid that's going to screw around and block the sonars from the sub below. None of these are big enough, long enough. The emphasis now is passive ultra low frequency sonars that you can move around in a boat and set in various depth. Why do you want a boat or a sub? Because a vessel on water can also act as a water samples laboratory, use other sensors to determine water temperature, salinity, etc,. because you can use this as factors when the data has to be processed on computers. Otherwise, you have to rely on blind guesswork. That's why SOSUS is being left for SURTASS, which are specialized sonar ships that move around and work more like laboratories.
Why is aviation based ASW hitting its limits? Because aircraft and particularly helicopters cannot carry the kind of electric power needed for super long range sonars that has hundreds and hundreds of hydrophones. A hydrophone is a like a microphone and each needs juice. Much like a radar array which separate elements, the more elements you have, and the more power you put into each element/hydrophone, so is the total power requirements of the sonar. That gives subs with nuclear power juicing up large flank sonars a
tremendous detection advantage over things like helicopters with dipping sonars or even surface destroyers. Not as good as nuclear subs, but even large modern conventional submarines that carry huge amounts of batteries and carrying powerful generators will come as second. When it comes to low frequency sonars, the lower the frequency, the bigger the array, much like in radar. Again this favors large subs fitted with large arrays set on their flanks. And its juice, juice. and juice; a destroyer still has to power its phase arrays and early warning radars, the sub only has sonars to feed.
A nuclear sub carrying ultra long range passive flank sonars armed with heavy torpedoes and AshMs, has single silent 7 bladed props or pumpjets, with anti-active sonar coatings vs. a modern destroyer with its bow and hull sonars, twin noisy five bladed props, no anecholic coatings, running on multiple gas turbines with reduction gears, armed with light torpedoes and ASROCs, which are light torpedoes with a rocket boosted stage. Note that light torpedoes, unlike heavy torpedoes, are not wire guided, nor do the light torpedoes travel deep enough, or fast enough, compared to heavy torpedoes.
This is an analogy that looks like an F-22 with AMRAAMs facing a J-7 armed only with short ranged missiles.
