SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Does the MOSS show up on MAD?

But what a decoy. . .

I still feel great love for the MOSS. When first introduced, we were awarded target duty for an SSN working up for an under-hull deployment. After finishing getting up-close and personal, they practiced doing a TRAILEX to refine their approach techniques. Then we went free-style and tested the few MOSS's we carried with them sniffing our hindquarters. The MOSS was programmed to dog-leg to starboard, and we'd simultaneously heel hard to port, playing a few other well-timed face cards stashed up our sleeves. The trailing Q-5-equipped boat took the bait each time. I knew the sonar girls on that boat and they were very proficient operating their gear, so I was most impressed with the performance of the MOSS.

A few years later, we were trespassing (errr, practicing "Freedom of Navigation") deep in indian country and got snapped up. We'd survived a previous sphincter-slamming adventure, but had so much external damage, we sounded like two skeletons f###ing in a sh#tcan, (my verbatim description to the Old Man when he came into sonar inquiring about our self-noise levels). Our stealth factor was a very negative coefficient, which goes a long way towards explaining why we were in that situation in the first place.

As soon as their (active) fire control sonar lit off, (from reeeal close aboard) we pooped a MOSS, took evasive action, and prayed with great humility and vigor, since we were acoustically speed-limited to less than ten knots. The MOSS (supplemented with beaucoup fervent prayers) saved our bacon, and we lived to remember the tale.

The undersea Cold War was sometimes quite hot and rarely dull during a SPECOP. There was plenty of MK-48 bait to play with.