How often we do visual observations depends on how interested we are in the contact.
Generally it's a function of how fast he could become a danger to us in a worst-case scenario. If it would take him 8 minutes to maneuver to a point where he could run us over or force us deep, we'll take an observation at least every 8 minutes.
Generally, once we have a guy who's going 'straight and stupid' we'll just kind of keep an eye on him, and only do an observation if something changes. If they start to get kind of close (I have to be general here) we'll start taking a lot of observations, but be assured that it WILL be more often than every hour or so...a LOT more often. We're almost constantly entering scope observations into the system. Remember that while we're at PD the scope is our PRIMARY sensor, something that is not well emulated in the game.
As for the towed array, we will almost always use it while on mission unless the waterspace prevents it. In the game it is your best sensor, and you should always use it unless bottom depth is too shallow.
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