The enemy subs using active sonar a lot is grounded in history. The USS Lapon trailed a Soviet Yankee class for 47 days, being able to reacquire it several times after losing contact because the Soviet sub would light off its active sonar.
Because most Soviet boats prior to the Victor 3 are so noisy, this significantly degrades the performance of their passive sensors, and as such they rely more on the active. In game, they will do sprint and drift tactics, and alternate between active sonar search and doing passive listening while drifting. This has the added gameplay benefit of their sonar emissions giving you a hint as to their direction, even if you are not in a position to detect them passively.
The surface ships employ the same sprint and drift tactics in the game, but they use active sonar much more liberally since they are essentially blind at higher speeds.
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