Anti-Aircraft torpedoes
 

So - Doing the Nordic Hammer scenario in RSR - I've written Harpoons and Tasms off as a bad idea because even when launched en masse at point blank range they get blown out of the sky before they hit anything, but here's a strange thing. I've noticed, reading my [game] obituary that I've killed a couple of Flankers and another couple of Helixes I guess it's possible that a low flying chopper might get in the way of a missile, or blast from a torpedo impact, but hardly a fast jet. Also I'm pretty sure that they went west when a mark 48 collided with an LST - The question marks are piling up a bit here - Anyone fancy enlightening me?

Reading the account of this engagement in the book, I'm struck by the vast difference between that and my experience. In the book they get pinged and the chief nonchalantly says "Even money they got us with that one" and nothing scary happens. I got one ping from a dipping sonar and twenty seconds later it was raining torpedoes. Also, I'm thinking that TIW reports followed immediately by explosions on the same bearing are depth charges?

It's a steep learning curve....

One of my videos shows my weird experience with a depth charge. No TIW, no loud explosion, no nothing. My sub just ends up going down but with 0% damage. I lose propulsion, depth control. It's actually pretty eerie because I can still try to emergency blow and my sub bobs up for a bit, but then she still keeps sinking. I was thinking to myself, "Wow, this is eerily similar to how it would be in real life."

I haven't got to that one yet. I have to say I'm constantly getting my assumptions blown out of the water, along with my boat. On the other hand, I'm finally finding a use for those trigonometry lessons I daydreamed through in the late 70's :)

Yesterday, trying to intercept a Typhoon, all I got was a weak 50Hz line on the TA Narrowband. I used MoBo to do some independant TMA and it gave me a range result of about 200,000 yards - I immediately scrapped that result on the assumption that it was way too far - anyway I lost the thing and when I finally conceded and hit Show Truth, the thing was 97 miles away.

Anyway, every day I learn something else and I'm having fun doing it. I wonder if I'll ever get good at this?

Haha, well it got it right! 97 nm is just about 200k yards. And don't worry, I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing when I'm in the middle of a crazy fray of action :D

Yeah - I checked out the last vid of the Nordic Hammer mission. Saved by the ELF. I did actually manage to survive that long, but I didn't read the message. I'd hit the Kuznetsov a couple of times and sunk one of the LSTs and then I got sunk :( I noticed the next time I went into the mission, that the next in line was available, but I wanted to survive this one before I tried it and so far that's proved beyond my capabilities.

I've often thought that the folks on here with a Naval background have a huge advantage over an ex ground-pounder like me. One thing I'm relearning though is that the same level of paranoia that had me diving into traffic to avoid a lamppost I didn't like the look of, is very handy when I hear that high-pitched tone that says "dipping sonar":o......

Wow, must have been the 3rd convergence zone.

I'm not particularly knowledgeable about this, but I'd say not. There was no layer and the water was less than 1500 feet deep. I know that VLF propagates further than any other frequency band and it was right on the limit of detectability - Also there was nothing else in the area, so I'd say it had to be direct path - but I'm prepared to be contradicted by someone who knows these things better than I do.

If it makes a difference I was playing with the LWAMI mod, which I understand has removed the caps on detection ranges...

What probably happened is the "surface duct" phenomena. First:

1. In warm water (positive gradient) sound bends upwards.
2. In cold water (negative gradient) sound bends downwards.


Then:

1. Sound is radiated from source in all directions.
2. Sound radiating downward from from source will bend upwards.
3. When it hits the surface, it is reflected in a downward direction.
4. When you have warm water (positive gradient) the sound will bend upwards again.
5. The sound will hit the surface, is reflected downward, and the process repeats.

That's a "surface duct" and is probably the mechanism of your long detection range.

You take advantage of the surface duct when you are in shallow water yourself.

Thanks :) I've heard the term used, but I didn't understand what it was. I can see I need to learn a lot more about this....

Hi in_vino_vomitus, I do not know if you already know this page (I bet many players of DW here know about it) but you can read and learn a ton of useful stuff from here:
http://fas.org/man/dod-101/navy/docs/es310/syllabus.htm

Of course the "U/W ACOUSTICS & SONAR" section is the one of interestest, but if you can spare the time and patience I suggest you to read form the start, "COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS".

Very intresting stuff, worth the time :salute:

Thanks! :) I'll do that thing :salute: