How to avoid counter-detection and know when you've been spotted?
 

In the SEALing their fate campaign mission, there is a check box that essentially asks if you've been counter detected during a mission where you're inserting a SEAL team into south Cuba.

How do you avoid being counter detected and is there a way to find out if you've been counter detected? During the mission, I was pinged for a bit, I went underneath the layer and tried to put some distance at 18 kts but no TIW or WF situation of any kind.

Does any of the manuals have a chapter on staying undetected? I read the red book and it does have a few tidbits on stealth, but nothing that helps avoid being detected by patrol while trying to reach shore to deploy SEALs.

Some of this depends on how you like to play the game.

But first, keep in mind that those missions were "ported" over from an earlier Sonalyst game. Back in the day, the idea was to stay close (10 to 20 feet) to the bottom so you could get lost in the clutter. That tactic may or may not work in RA. :03:

Next, figure out what is pinging away on the surface. Patrol craft have a loud active ping because they need one. :up: The rest of their sonar isn't all that great. Figure out what the active contact is and what it's doing. Is it reacting to you at all or is it just blasting away to be a nuisance? Are you doing anything to minimize your cross section? Sometimes, keeping a "bow on" aspect will allow you to get much closer without being detected.

Sometimes it pays off to save your mission a lot, especially if you're new to a type of mission. Save, play "chicken" for a while, check your mission status to see if you were detected, reload your saved game to change your tactics if its needed, etc.

Last, what type of bottom are you dealing with? Sea floor (bed) types come in three flavors- rock, sand, and mud. That order is important, its much easier to be detected near a rock bottom than a mud bottom. This becomes very important when you're working too shallow to rely on thermal layers.

Thanks for answering!

I also have a follow up question.

How possible is it to "Trojan horse" your way into a harbor?

I've read that players will often hide underneath noisy neutrals like oil tankers or cargo ships, to mask their signature in multiplayer.

Is that possible to do with AI ships in singleplayer? And if I hide right underneath the cargoship keel, (at a depth of 120ft or so) is it possible to go undetected by active sonar too?

In the mission you were talking about, the fishing boat tips you off to mines when it gets blown up. :o

Hiding under a surface contact helps as long as they can become a torpedo magnet. Recall how your sonar displays multiple contacts on the same bearing.
In some ways, you aren't fooling anyone (especially in narrow band). You're using the other ship as a shield. Just be careful, think about how you assign target depths in a shooting solution. Are you fooling anyone or not?

One last thing to consider- suppose you're hiding 40 feet under a freighter that gets hit by a torpedo. You're still 40 feet away from a large explosion. :doh: In the game it isn't that big of a deal, in real life you'd be tone deaf at least.
Plus, there's no certainty that the torp will lock on to you.