Shark tactics?

[Jamesrbird]

Originally Posted by LoBlo

Yeah, the wide range of sonar capabilities is sortof baffling... how can active sonar have such widely variable speed/range capabilities... does this really simulate reality?...

... of course no one will ever tell.

Hello, First time poster.

The various types of sonar exist because, based on the frequency of sound, you get various performance on Sonar.

Generally, the lower the frequency of sound, the farther the sound can travel in water before attenuating below usefull levels. Inversly, the higher frequency of sound, the better the resolution of the data obtained from the sonar. Thus, MF Sonar has pretty good range, but does not give you great data clarity (generally just contact bearing and range). High frequency sonar can have sufficent resolution to allow for a level of imaging (which is why side scan sonars used in underwater survey use this range), but they are only useful for very short ranges.

As for the directionality of sonars in the game, that is realistic. a Transducer element is directional, so, to gain 360 coverage, you will need multiple transducers. Also, The higher the frequency of the sonar, the smaller the transducer that is required to produce a coherent beam, so that plays in to the selection of frequency.

As for HF sonar stealth, I think that is also likely realistic. Submarines rely on passive sonar for detection, so their arrays would be focused on frequencys that propogate well in the water. HF sonar frequencys are so high as to not be particularly usefull for passive sonar to listen to because the noise would not travel very far from the sound source, so they are probably not listened for