In poking around the net as to a good explanation of how the SOKS array functions, I found this posted to a UK military forum, supposedly posted by someone who really knows his Russian military hardware.
It was posted in 2005.
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=48279
Quote:
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5) Yep, both Akula and Sierra have non-acoustic sensors. Strangely enough, the acoustic suite of the Sierra is less efficient than the Akula's (Skat-KS with analogue processing) but this is probably compensated by greater operational depth. Countermeasures are still classified for all subs (they have been used during "Aport" and "Atrina" ops though), however, it is possible that the experimental, 300m/sec 2nd stage submarine rocket APR-3M can also be launched individually and not only with the first stage, as a "last chance to cut-the-wires" means.
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Can someone explain to me exactly what the implication about the APR-3 is here? I thought it was 1) unfielded 2) for airdropped purposes only.
YES, I know I put the APR-3 on the STALLION, but up to this point, I had no actual references about this weapon being used on Russian submarines. So, what is this guy saying here? :hmm:
I interpret this to mean that the APR-3 can be used as a independantly launched weapon and also as a SUBROC payload on Russian subs, but of course, this is the most favorable interpretation for my purposes, so I'm not inclined to believe my own read of this passage.
So what's up here?
Cheers,
David