Why Killing Enemy Submarines Is Not as Easy as It Use to Be

[Shadow]

This is actually an article I just read on the bus. Figured this is a good forum for it since it has a few bits of interesting facts about (really) modern sub warfare, and could be contemplated when making present day mods/DLC.

"A useful reference is a 2016 NATO publication, Alliance airborne anti-submarine warfare. It isn’t the lightest read going around, and it even includes a warning notice.

But it contains some useful analysis, provided you avoid head injuries while reading it. I read it so you don’t have to.

The take-home message is clear: the days of passively listening for noisy submarines are over. The report makes the following crucial observation: ‘As the ocean grows louder and warmer while submarines become quieter, Cold War methods of submarine detection have begun to falter in today’s ocean environment.’

The ocean environment is indeed getting steadily noisier. One of the interesting (and happy) reasons is the resurgence of whales, which fill the ocean with a cacophonous long-range noise as well as being false passive and active targets. Cargo shipping and deep-sea oil exploration also contribute, resulting in a doubling of background noise every decade or so over the past 50 years."

Link to the article