Angle Of Bow.......Quick Question

[aso544]

If he is heading straight toward me that AOB is "0", but what if he is heading to my starbord side (90 degrees)? Is the AOB still zero or does my bow heading factor into this equation as well?

[mookiemookie]

No, your bow heading doesn't matter. As LST said, all angle on bow means is where you are in relation to his bow. Think of it this way, if the other ship's watch crew spotted your submarine, they would call out "Submarine spotted, bearing ___" That number would be the AOB.

[jesterofsanity]

I think mainly why people get confused about AOB is because most people write it out as "Angle of Bow" or "Angle on Bow." It's actually "Angle Off Bow" which, if you think about it in relation to the target, makes a whole lot more sense (at least to me).

[Snowman999]

Not quite. AOB (Angle on the Bow) has to include Port or Starboard--the target's port or starboard side as seen by the sub. AOB can therefore never be numerically greater than 180 degrees. In your example it would be possible for the submarine to be bearing 270 relative, and thus give an AOB of 270 (without port or starboard, which renders it incorrect too.) An AOB of 270 isn't possible.

AOB is taught in USN Sub School (the real one, not the one in the game <g>) using vectors. The Line-of-Sight (LOS) is an imaginary line extending from the center of the observer's vessel (sub) through the center of the target. The vector is the target's course (AOB results) and speed (length of vector.) If the target's bow is to the right of the LOS it's a starboard AOB; left it's a port. Broadside is a 90 AOB, either port or starboard, etc. The AOB is the angle between the LOS and the TARGET'S bow.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Snowman999

Not quite. AOB (Angle on the Bow) has to include Port or Starboard--the target's port or starboard side as seen by the sub. AOB can therefore never be numerically greater than 180 degrees. In your example it would be possible for the submarine to be bearing 270 relative, and thus give an AOB of 270 (without port or starboard, which renders it incorrect too.) An AOB of 270 isn't possible.

AOB is taught in USN Sub School (the real one, not the one in the game <g>) using vectors. The Line-of-Sight (LOS) is an imaginary line extending from the center of the observer's vessel (sub) through the center of the target. The vector is the target's course (AOB results) and speed (length of vector.) If the target's bow is to the right of the LOS it's a starboard AOB; left it's a port. Broadside is a 90 AOB, either port or starboard, etc. The AOB is the angle between the LOS and the TARGET'S bow.

D'oh! Forgot to mention that part about it being relative to port or starboard. Ah well, I knew someone would come along and explain it better than me.

[Tieg]

Concur with snowman999. As a current instructor at Naval Submarine school I can backup snowman's claim. Also, as for the term angle off the bow...that is incorrect...we here at subscol have an impressive array of references...and believe it or not one of our more important ones I am going to share with you right now...we would appreciate it if you didn't share this with any Navies foreign.

www.google.com

Don't get me wrong...we have bowditch and notice to mariners as well as some other instructions and what not...but before we crack open a book...most of the time I google it due to the fact some nice soul out there has taken the info and put it on the internet. Hope I didn't bust anyone's bubble by letting the reference out.

Anyhow, with a little bit of ingenuity I googled angle on the bow and came out with the following:

Angle on the bow -- Relative bearing of submarine from the target ship measured to starboard or port from the target ship's head from 0° to 180°. (ref: http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/ss-doc-4.htm )

Also looked through this link only because of all the different fleet boat terminology which was cool: http://www.maritime.org/fleetsub/chap2.htm

This one is a good link that some guy converted over into SH3 terminology and images and posted on the subsim forum: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3Den%26sa%3DN

This one has a great illustration...treat the arrows as your sub and all you have to determine is whether your seeing the port side or the starboard side of the ship so for the example given those are all starboard angle on the bows except for the 0 and 180 degrees: http://www.sailingusa.info/current_deviation.htm

You could go on and on looking for stuff if you like.

I hope this helps you and good hunting and remember...if you got a 90 degree angle on the bow at 1000yards or less...let them fish fly and send them japs to the bottom.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Tieg

This one is a good link that some guy converted over into SH3 terminology and images and posted on the subsim forum: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3Den%26sa%3DN

That "some guy" is "Onkel" Neal Stevens, webmaster of Subsim. :rotfl:

[Tieg]

Webmaster??? as in God???

Only 2 things come from Texas....

Webmasters and ..... well lets just leave it at webmaster...don't want to get excused from the website

[aso544]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

That "some guy" is "Onkel" Neal Stevens, webmaster of Subsim. :rotfl:

Dang, I wish SH4 had the same tools for computing / plotting the AOB. The post in this thread did help me in figuring out AOB though.....hopefully!

Thanks guys!!!

[valpospe]

Not an expert here by any measure....but this is what I usually do.

If you have a plot line for the target's course just use the angle tool on the map. It takes three clicks. The first one is just out in front of your target along its course, the second click is at the bow of the target ship. The third click is back on your sub. The angle displayed should be the AOB value, then you just need to notice whether his port or starboard is presenting to you and Yahtzee. Pretty quick and painless if you have a good idea of the target's course and has been working well for me.

-happy hunting

[Snowman999]

Concur with snowman999. As a current instructor at Naval Submarine school I can backup snowman's claim.

Thanks. I graduated SOBC in 1981; it's been a while.

[XLjedi]

Originally Posted by Snowman999

AOB is taught in USN Sub School using vectors.

You mean something like this?

This was a fairly simple example I drew up previously to show folks how to easily calculate AoB with the formula if you put your sub on a 90° beam of the target's expected course.

And from the other side...

[mookiemookie]

Another way to simply think about it is to imagine you're holding two flashlights on the bridge of the target ship. Straight ahead is 0, directly behind you is 180. Aim one directly ahead of you, and the other at the submarine. Whatever the angle between the two flashlight beams, that's your AOB. In other words, if the sub is directly aside you on the starboard side, it'd be a 90 degree starboard AOB. If it's directly aside you on the port side, it's a 90 degree port AOB.

[Daniel Prates]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Another way to simply think about it is to imagine you're holding two flashlights on the bridge of the target ship. Straight ahead is 0, directly behind you is 180. Aim one directly ahead of you, and the other at the submarine. Whatever the angle between the two flashlight beams, that's your AOB. In other words, if the sub is directly aside you on the starboard side, it'd be a 90 degree starboard AOB. If it's directly aside you on the port side, it's a 90 degree port AOB.

I think that's "bearing", not "AOB".

EDIT: relative bearing, anyways. The course to a target, considering a north/south line, is "true bearing", whereas the course to a target, considering your own axis ov advance, is "relative bearing". What you are describing is relative bearing, not AOB.

'AOB' is the direction towards which the target is pointing, as you look at it directly.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Daniel Prates

I think that's "bearing", not "AOB".

He mentioned "on the bridge of the target ship". The bearing he sees you at is the AOB.