Quote:
Originally Posted by p7p8
688i Flt III going 3-4 knots - hmm, it is wasting advanteges of SSN.
1) At low speed TA will be scratch the bottom (Persian Gulf is shallow water)
2) You are still much louder than any SSK
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Yeah, it will scrape, but you don't need much more than 1/4-1/3 of the full length out to get full acuity.
This second point needs to be quantified. I hope to do that at some point but yes in general the SSN will be louder than the SSK at low speeds, but there are a lot more factors to that when specifics are introduced such as specific speeds and class comparisons. But the 688I is noticeably louder than a Seawolf (that data will be published soon).
Either way, it is tricky with sonobuoy fields. There's no way to really know if they are there (you may be able to see them with HF sonar but it may be too late at that point). Going as slow as the mission dictates is just to mitigate risk.