How do you operate in an area with many contacts?
 

Background:
I am playing the 5th mission in the “Russian Rebellion” campaign which is called “Sovetskaya” in my german version of Dangerous Waters.
The task is to locate enemy subs and destroy them (either on USA’s or russion loyalist’s side).

I started in the Akula for the Russian loyalists with the task to locate rebel SSBNs and to locate and destroy all American subs.
Okay, I patiently started detecting and classifying all contacts. Finally I had found one of the USA’s Los Angeles 688i subs under the thermal layer. Unexperienced as I am I attacked it with an anti submarine rocket.
When the torpedo released from the rocket hit the water hell borke loose.

At the next moment everybody started shooting everybody else, torpedos all around me made it impossible for me to keep track of my contacts.

So what do you do to gain a situational awareness when there are many contacts in the scenario (weapons or ships/subs)?
And by the way: what do you to classify contacts with narrowband sonar which are travelling at almost the same bearing?

Simple get as close as you dare to any contact then fire, and once you got a master it should be alright you shouldnt loose them unless well you sink, or out side noise becomes massively great.

remember where they all are mark them down that helps alot too.

Try to get to a safe position, watch active intercept and sonar for loud contacts at approximately constant bearing (probably torpedoes on an intercept course). Wait for things to get calmer and see if there are any survivors left to shoot at.

Also if you want some sub school or what not visit the CADC ask mahuja or one shot they will tell you !:up:

This is a tough question, and one made even tougher by the fact that the TA contacts are mirrored and 1/2 the contacts that the TA picks up are false contacts.

The easiest answer is to know what you are looking for beforehand and concentrate on those signals. For example, the American subs will have a 60Hz narrowband signitures while your own friendly ships will not. Because of this you can ignore most anything else except signals that have a 60Hz line (unless you need to ensure friendlys aren't in the line of fire). You can also find other NB frequencies that are specific to the platform your hunting and try to keep an eye out for those frequencies only. To do this you will need some 3rd party sonar profile databases that will probably be available through SubGuru's website.

If there are a bunch of ships that you already know are friendly and already know will not be shooting at you then you can be a little more relaxed on tracking their activities. You right though, once shooting starts all heck breaks loose and you will have to be resigned on things becoming a little confusing for the time being. Such is a reality of Fog-of-War. If there is even a remote chance that one of those weapons being shot is heading your way, then high tail it outta there and be resigned to try to reacquire your prey after a sufficient evasion run.

Also, like has already been said, in confusing sonar environments your spherical and hull sonar are your friends. You will have to get in closer to use them, but that fact that they are not mirrored contacts makes things clearer, and they will provide more distinct (unique) sonar frequencies that will better ID who is who.

Other than that, use every piece of information and commonsense (and even educated guessing) that you can muster to put together the picture as well as you can. You will almost never be 100% accurate in your assessment, but if your picture is "good enough" you will have just enough clarity sufficient to make an attack and kill, even if the total picture isn't clear.

While I appreciate subgurus work for the community, I know how hard it is to find a certain download since you dont really know what you are looking for (and the site is not well designed)

Here some things you should definately get:

Cavitation profiles:

http://www.subguru.com/DW_Cavitation_Profiles.htm


Frequency profiles:

http://www.subguru.com/DW_missions/D...r_Profiles.zip
or
http://www.subguru.com/DW_missions/D...r_Profiles.zip

Weapon profiles:

http://www.subguru.com/DW_missions/DW_WEAPONS.pdf

Any tips on what to do if there are several contacts on roughly the same bearing (signals overlapping) and you want a tracker on a particular contact?
e.g. if I need to attack a CVBG and I'd want to assign a tracker to the CV. Unfortunately, the CV is usually in the middle of a bunch of other stuff and I never seem to be able to get the darn tracker on the contact I want. This is especially a problem with the waterfall display.

Regarding the original question, struggle to gain as many master contacts as possible as they are truth. If you don't yet have a goot tactical control don't be the first to shoot. If you suspect the presence of air treaths don't raise the Radar or the ESM, while you can use the periscope to improve your tactcon. If you see contacts changing position very quickly on the navmap and they are TA tracked, they're probably false contacts, drop them.
When the hell breaks out and there's air treath go under the layer if any (best thing, fire while under the layer already). If under the layer the signal is to weak, stay right over it. Drop an UUV over the layer. Maintaint tactical speed for the time needed to assign trackers to the incomings (get masters). If you notice something is close and closing in then retract your TA and get out of the hot area fast. While doing so you can drop some CM.
While leaving the hot area remember to check your baffles regularly and check the signal strength of the inbounds in the active control (AI will fire actives).
Once you're in a safe position regain tactical control and prepare for a second run if needed.

As for overlapping frequencies, turn off the auto filter to classify overlapping contacts, better of course would be a visual ID. If you are say 8+ nm away you can dare to raise the ESM mast, for 10-20 seconds. To assign 2 trackers on 2 overlapping contacts simply put the marker over the frequency of the first and assign track, shift to a freq of the second and assign track. Concretely the CV is quite noisy and you could manage to assign with the SA and periscope too remaining undetected. There's not much else you can do, except close in and maneuver in order to have the contacts on a wider bearing segment

Question to cavitation:
Does no cavitation mean that I am silent running?

I think you cavitate when you are going to fast for whatever depth you happen to be at. Generally the deeper you are the faster you can go without cavitating.

Just while I am talking about speeds, How fast can you go in the 4 subs and still remain silent. I always seem to creep about at about 4-6 knots and in some missions this is clearly not fast enough to manuever (sp?) into a better position. I know at shallower depths you cant go that fast because of cavitation problems.

I have been just lately dropping down to about 4- 500 feet and increasing to about 15 knots to "sprint" into a better position whether it is for a firing solution or just to get a better idea of where everything is. Obviously this isnt in a Kilo.

Is this a good tactic or am i broadcasting my position to all and sundry?

thanks

That's exactly what I want to know too :).
The only situation in which I go for 10-15 knots is when I am under a thermal layer. Otherwise (and especially in shallow waters) I am afraid of traveling faster than 6 knots in a sub.
Opinions, comments? :hmm:

As long as you don't cavitate you can consider yourself "silent".
In game your noise emanation increases very slightly every 4-5 knots of speed increase.
Except for the Kilo, you never are really silent, as the nuclear reactor can't be shut down...for example my normal speed wit a Seawolf is 15 knots, even when hunting...