Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Abberton
I agree with FPSchazly. If the warships get ahead of you, you are in serious trouble. A couple of things, though:
1. Check what classes of ship you are dealing with. If the convoy is going 25 knots, their bow sonars are going to be useless. If they have tails, they'll be more effective, but they'll probably still have some degradation of signal (not sure on the washout speed of a tail sonar). They'll probably be pinging away on active at that speed, which is a bonus for you in a lot of ways. Active intercept is a pretty reliable means of TMA and it doesn't washout with ownship speed. Unfortunately, their helicopters (or patrol planes) will be unaffected by convoy speed. Second bonus, any SSNs covering the convoy/fleet will be challenged keeping up with the convoy as well.
2. If the enemy is coming towards you at 25 knots, work fast because you'll only get one shot. If you recognize this early enough, you might get one shot to flank ahead and gain some ground, but don't count on it.
3. If you are offset from the convoy by a good distance, don't set an intercept course, set a lead course (same course, higher speed) to get ahead of them while still at a safe distance. Build up a cushion that will allow you to get in an ambush position in front of them and slowed down.
4. If the scenario briefing (or link data) gives you an idea on their course or eventual destination. Use that to determine an appropriate ambush spot and head there immediately. Even better if you can put an obstacle (an island, etc.) between you and the convoy for a while to hide your flank run. I don't think any of the stock scenarios would allow this, but I've seen user-made scenarios that allowed this.
I hope these help.
Mike
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If the warships are going at 25Kts, their passive arrays should be washed out and their active sonar
should be useless, too. In actual practice, going beyond 15-20Kts should make any warship completely deaf and the only reason to use active sonar is to spook a sub into taking a specific course. I do not remember off the top of my head if DW models the quick degradation of active sonar reliability at high speeds (need to test in MP). However, if the ship is going that fast, they should not be able to hear squat. Of course, it doesn't stop aircraft from bird-dogging for the convoy, but that is another issue entirely.