Regarding the Virginia class.

[Dark Fox]

Two things: this is just an fyi to whatever person can handle it. And, my keyboard is borked, so expect typos till I can replace it next tues. \
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and yeah, my keyboard does the slash when i hit return. sorry.\
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ok, so here's the deal. i actually worked on the virginia class project during its development. while i can't go into the super secret details, i can tell you that the virginias were being equipped with a type of sonar called the lwwaa. that's light weight wide accoustic array. basically it's a super sensitive passive sonar that's located in banks on each side of the external of the sub. the lwwaa is so senstive that the submarine is able to automatically quickly identify enemy ships and submarines, well before the usual sonar system would allow. not sure if you could include that in the game, but the point stands.\
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secondly, the virginias aren't classified as ssn. rather they're classed as nssn to differentiate them from the standard ssn submarines.\
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lastly, though it's not yet been fielded, far as i know, we were working on a variant of the mk84 (surface or sub launched torpedo) which was not wire guided, but instead programmed to recognize enemy target ships, or subs, while ignoring allied vessels. meaning that yes, it wouldn't hunt its own ship or sub. again, i'm not sure if that could be included in the game.

[The Bandit]

Originally Posted by Dark Fox

Two things: this is just an fyi to whatever person can handle it. And, my keyboard is borked, so expect typos till I can replace it next tues. \
\
\
and yeah, my keyboard does the slash when i hit return. sorry.\
\
\
\
ok, so here's the deal. i actually worked on the virginia class project during its development. while i can't go into the super secret details, i can tell you that the virginias were being equipped with a type of sonar called the lwwaa. that's light weight wide accoustic array. basically it's a super sensitive passive sonar that's located in banks on each side of the external of the sub. the lwwaa is so senstive that the submarine is able to automatically quickly identify enemy ships and submarines, well before the usual sonar system would allow. not sure if you could include that in the game, but the point stands.\
\
\
\
secondly, the virginias aren't classified as ssn. rather they're classed as nssn to differentiate them from the standard ssn submarines.\
\
\
lastly, though it's not yet been fielded, far as i know, we were working on a variant of the mk84 (surface or sub launched torpedo) which was not wire guided, but instead programmed to recognize enemy target ships, or subs, while ignoring allied vessels. meaning that yes, it wouldn't hunt its own ship or sub. again, i'm not sure if that could be included in the game.

Hey, sorry about your keyboard but I'll try to address a few things here. WAA/LWWAA (Wide Aperture Array) sonar, as best as I know it works off of using a method of triangulation. What each array (usually six in total, three on each side) hears is run through some type of computer which compares what each array heard and when against each other as a means of rapidly determining location (RAPLOC) as opposed to standard TMA process or active echo-location.

The Seawolves and at least one of the Los Angeles class had earlier versions of WAA, and who knows what new stuff the ones on the Virginias can do, but unfortunately given the way that sonar works in this game, there's really no other way to do this aside from just pumping up the detection range to insane levels (I don't know of anything that can be changed in the game to make a platform/sensor better able to localize contacts).

As far as NSSN, the actual boats are classified as SSNs in the Navy (USS Virginia SSN-774) but the Virginia was created under the "NSSN" (New SSN) Program, which at different times was known as the FAS (Future attack submarine) program or Project Centurion. The basic gist of this is that after the Cold War ended, the need for the Seawolf (the ultimate Cold War submarine) basically ended and the government wanted it axed because it was expensive. This had been tried many times earlier even with the Los Angeles class (which were much bigger than their predecessors and also much more expensive). So FAS/NSSN came into being as a more affordable replacement for the Seawolf (and by extension earlier Los Angeles class boats that were going to be retired). At the same time, the Navy didn't want to give up all the new capabilities they had in the Seawolf (which had also cost lots of $$$ to develop) so the NSSN was basically "how can we have our cake and eat it to?" get most / all of what we had in the Seawolf at less money. All things considered though, they've done a great job with the Virginia class (highly capable, on time and often under-budget) and I hope you're proud to have been a part of it (also please compare this to stuff like what's going on with the F-35 or even the new Aircraft Carrier).

Lastly with the Mk 48 (I assume we're talking about the CBASS Mod 7 or a variation of this but who even knows anymore) my understanding (as someone who just has passing knowledge of the subject) is that it looks at narrow-band frequencies to determine this but I may be quite wrong on this. Either way, while its probably possible to program something like that, it goes well outside of the scope for what would have been available in 68-84 (or even the 90s if KFG goes that far) so I wouldn't expect to see anything like that officially unless KFG does some type of modern DLC. I don't expect it to be something that a modder would be able to do in the game either but I guess you never know.