:lol: I remember an early Heli sim where you were engaging the enamy and had plenty to do
when 'Bitching Betty' would pipe up with the warning 'Behind you' :roll:

It concentrated the mind ! :arrgh!:

Keeping in mind that I was not a sonarman so my knowledge on the subject should not be considered definative. As I recall the TA sensitivity was not especially better on the beams but bearing accuracy was. There is a small null zone directly foward and aft of the array but it is very small. Performance in the forward section is also hindered substantially by own ship noise.

Hmm ok, so there is same number of hydrophones not depending on the angle, and same sensivity, but in areas along the line of TW the base is very short and time of sound arrival changes very little with bearing so bearing resolution is poor... makes sense. But even on the beams, is bearing resolution so good as in DW ? It's working on low frequency after all.... in DW the bearing you get is just exact, even with very weak LF contacts...
How big would be this very small null zone of TA, 5 deg or something ?

We should also keep in mind my experience is 20 years ago. The accuracy would as you imagine vary depending on signal strength. Whether the operator is keeping a good eye. There is always a little slop but an error of more than a degree would be unusual. Assuming the array is straight and stabilized. 5 degrees sounds about right 10 at the most. Ownship noise makes the forward 20 degrees or so difficult to make contact in. As I recall the bearing error would be more apparent as you neared wash out speed.

I would imagine at some point if they haven't done it already they will be able to get quality input even at maximum speed.