Quote:
Originally Posted by Alcibiades
Can anyone please help with the basics of how to track a ship with just the hydrophone?
With full realism, I can only get bearing to the ship. How can I estimate the ships speed, range, and heading?
Example: I am heading 000 (north) at 5 knots. contact bearing 90. unknown range. 5 minutes later, contact is bearing 94. unknown range.
So how to estimate how far away the ship is, what it's speed is, and it's approximate heading?
Right now I just guess and try to plot an intercept until I get into visual range.
any help would be appreciated.
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Ooohh me, pick me!!
I'll give a stab at answering this example...
Full realism, means no lines on the map (no map contacts).
OK we need to use the noodle here.
Being that the contact was reported at 90 degrees to us this means that the contact must be closing. Not going south or going north or else we would have hit at 89 or less or 91 or more.
Five minutes later it's bearing is at 94. Now we need to know how far our sonar picks up. Let's assume it picked up at 9000 yards when the sonar guy alerted us. 5 minutes later it's at 94 degrees but we have moved 5 knots / 60 minutes * 5 minutes = 0/417 nautical miles or 833 yards.
So if SIN in 4 degrees X 9000 yards = 628 yards would be the distance moved from us and we traveled 833 yards north, then target must be moving (given unknown figure of current range) roughly 280 degrees (mostly west) at about 10 knots or 270 at 5 knots.
Some guessing is required because of no new information on range. Best course of action is to turn due east and stop for a few minutes to take more bearings. If bearing increases (to your starboard) then target is going more south probably around 240. If bearing decreases then target is going more north like 290 or so. If bearing stays steady then you are in the sweet spot.
After about 5 minutes, you may need to turn the boat again before it gets into hearing range and get closer to the track and prepare a shot if enemy.
That's how I do it.