File that under "oops"

[Prophet]

Today I thought I'd play the Kilo demo for fun. And it was fun, and then some.

It started off pretty standard, I found the O.H. Perry and the cargo ship right away, along with one lone freighter somewhere between myself and the convoy. No big deal, I locked down solutions on the cargo ship as well as the Perry just so I could keep tabs on it on the nav map. Then I launched my torpedo, but I accidentally flooded my tubes right as the Perry's sonar ping passed me, and somehow they were able to get a solution on me in about 10 seconds and launch one of their torpedoes back. :06: No matter, I set an evasion course and drop countermeasures.

Now my torpedo is on a pretty constant 184 bearing, and the Perry's torpedo initially came from a bearing of 208. After about a minute I start hearing the Perry torpedo's active pings, which I thought was strange, to have the torpedo go active so quickly. After another minute all goes quiet, so I assume my countermeasures fooled the torpedo, even though I was some 7-8 KM away from the torpedo itself...is that possible?

Anyway, suddenly I get "Loud explosion bearing 168." I'm immediately confused, because I know it's not my torpedo. I look at the nav map, and it seems the one lone freighter exploded...because the Perry's torpedo had struck it. Hilarious...of course I killed the cargo ship as well, so an all around good day for me as I'm now just a ghost in the sea, and a completely putrid day for the crew of the Perry. I imagine their AAR for the day will look something like this:

FIRED UPON UNKNOWN HOSTILE SSN...SUNK SAME...UNFORTUNATELY THE GISELA TIDE WAS LOST DUE TO A MAJOR UNEXPECTED STORM...NO INFORMATION REGARDING MISSING FREIGHTER IN VICINITY OF SAKHALIN

:har:

On a side note, is there a more accurate method of finding range to a target? I'm currently using alternating zigzags using sonar, but I'm open to better suggestion.

[NFunky]

I don't think flooding the tubes effects active detection though it does show up on passive. What aspect and range were from the frigate? I've noticed that sometimes it does take a few pings at long detection ranges/bad target aspect for a ship to get a fix. I'd bet you just happened to be at the outer edge of his detection envalope and he finally hit you with one ping too many. And yeah, the AI is pretty bad as far as avoiding friendly fire or neutral casualties.

As far as detection/ranging, in the Kilo it's usually faster and more accurate to just use the ESM/periscope/stadiometer for surface contacts. That particular mission has pretty ideal sonar conditions, so you will most likely pick the ships up passively before the come into peri range, but you'll still get a peri solution faster than doing TMA legs.

Finally, when I play that mission I tend not to come closer than 5-6 nm and keep my bow or stern pointed in the general direction of the Perry. You can remain undetected up to torpedo release at this range/aspect. Also, the Perry's Mk 46s have a range of about 7-8 nm, so you can simply turn tail and outrun any counterfire. I don't believe the FFG will ever launch its helo(s) in this mission so you only have to worry about its tube launched torpedoes.

[ASWnut101]

I don't believe the FFG will ever launch its helo(s) in this mission so you only have to worry about its tube launched torpedoes.Lol, don't make that mistake. I did. I died. :arrgh!:

Even if you're pretty sure your target or its escorts don't carry helos, it's always a good idea to clear datum upon torpedo launch. It can drastically improve the Kilo's survivability. ;)


On a side note, is there a more accurate method of finding range to a target? I'm currently using alternating zigzags using sonar, but I'm open to better suggestion.Well, for Kilo Demo, the easiest way is probably a combination of your periscope and sonar. Assign a broadband sonar tracker on the cargo ship, get DEMON info, then go up periscope and use your stadimeter to find a rough range (this can be difficult, as some ships are measured from their superstructure height while others from their highest mast) and a rough course. You can then quickly fine tune this information with the TMA and get a very accurate solution.

Although, it should still be rather easy with sonar alone. You know your target's speed and it's general course, so range should fall right into place. Maybe one TMA leg for accuracy's sake, and you've now got a solution good enough for a pair of USET-80s (those cargo ships have the maneuverability of a brick in LWAMI).