Quote:
Originally Posted by PL_Harpoon
Actually, from my experience it all depends on their current mission.
For example:
If they're hunting for you they will be pinging and I can understand why (I'll explain later).
On the other hand, if they're on escort mission (doesn't matter if it's a boomer they're escorting or a convoy) they'll stay silent until someone picks you up.
They also keep silent when patrolling ports.
Now, back to why I think their pinging is ok.
Imagine that you are a Soviet captain, and your task is to find a US attack sub. You know that it's stealthier and you know it has better passive sonar (the Soviets weren't stupid). So, if you stay quiet the only chance of detecting them first is if they make a mistake and run at high speed. On the other hand, if you'll use active sonar, sure, they'll find you first, but you also greatly negate the chance of them surprising you. Also, active sonar might give you that quick precise solution they might not have.
I'm saying that because I noticed while playing CW that it's much easier to get in the baffles of enemy who's staying quiet than one who's actively pinging. They also like to use tactic where one sub will use it's active sonar and another will creep behind.
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Exactly, as long as they were smart about it, using active sonar was a winning proposition for most soviet sub drivers. In exchange for giving up your position (which you're gambling is already known, or at least known to a certain degree by the Americans, don't forget that the Soviets for the most part had a very good idea of what SOSUS was even before Johnny Walker, all those cable-laying ships weren't going out in the mid-Atlantic just to catch some sun) you're going to gain (assuming they are in range) the location of the American sub which otherwise would be nearly impossible to get using passive.
One last thing that should not be forgotten is TMA. While it did get easier as sensor and computer quality improved TMA (i.e. using passive signal analysis to determine course and distance) was never easy even for American boats. While things did get better for the Russians starting around the Victor IIs, the Soviets were also almost always behind the curve in computer tech as well so in many cases they didn't have anything in the same ball-park as the Mk117 fire control system, which again meant that working out a firing solution based off of passive data was a very long shot at best, compared to what a single active ping could get you.