Ok, I've found the perfect, and realistic option.
All sonobuoys go to the same depth after launch (this is the transmitter on the surface) and then the delay of them coming online is to simulate a cable deploying with the sonar array down to the proper length.
The difference between the Deep and Shallow buoys is the simulated length of the cable, and this is controlled by the Z offset in the sensor dialogue. If the depth of the water is less than this offset, the buoy doesn't show any contacts, simulating that the array cable of the buoy is sitting on the bottom.
So, disabling the VLADs for shallow water operations is as simple as making the cable length longer. This means that we CAN have two depths of VLADs, one around, as MaHuJa suggested around 600 ft and one around 1200 ft or so, whatever we want.
So, this is what I am going to do.
I am going to set the VLAD Shallow cable to be deeper than the DIFAR Deep cable, and set the VLAD deep cable to be really deep. I am also going to increase the sensitivity of the DIFAR to be as close to the VLAD as possible without exceeding it. And presto! We have everything we can ask for!
So, this is what I am going to. Yeah! Realistic buoys, the DIFAR is useful now for shallow water and the VLAD is useful now for deep water, the way it should be!
I'm pumped about this one, that useless DIFAR was getting on my nerves.
Unfortunately, the problem with this is that we still have to deal with the AI platforms dropping the deep buoys in shallow water. Any thoughts on how to deal with this?
Since only very few AI launchers use the VLAD buoys, I can perhaps create a new VLAD with the short cable and assign it to the AI buoy launchers, that wouldn't be too hard. I can't find any doctrines that relate to aircraft launching buoys, however, which is strange. I need to keep looking. :hmm: