A couple of things to consider here. If I could not classify a contact I would not be shooting a fish at them to begin with. Hence if I could classify a contact chances are I would be able to have a decent TMA solution. The only reason active sonar would be used is if you have been caught with your pants down so to speak, and you have been fired on. You know the bearing of the incoming fish and use active sonar to see if you get a bounce back. This can be beneficial in that circumstance because more than likely if you were fired upon they have changed their course already. I have only seen our skipper use this tactic during what we callled snapshot drills. High speed evasive and counter targeting tactics.
Also if i am reading you correctly on this: If another sub is attempting to cloak itself under a noisy merchant they will have trouble hearing you as well because of their proximity to the merchant. Active sonar will have trouble dilineating two distict bounce backs. Again that would be predicated on the proximity of the two vessels to each other. I would attempt to get in the baffles of the merchant and use HF sonar to see if I could determine if there was something hiding beneath it.
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