From:	Adam Getchell acgetchell@*******.edu
Subject:	magical effects for sea-going runners....
Date:	Tue, 16 Mar 1999 17:01:53 -0800

> Unfortunately, this doesn't hold true. Passive sonar looks for things
>which ar either a) definitely man-made, or b) LOUDER than the ambient
>noise. There is no real way to detect a silent area in the water; in
>addition, the natural thermoclines are not detectable without active
>sonar or other specialised equipment, AFAIK. the only time where
>someone who was using Silence in this way would be if he/she/it passed
>between an active source and some known fixed object; eg the seafloor,

Acoustic daylight sensors would spot it.

>away your own position. Aircraft, of course, are an exception: a
>submerged target currently has no recourse against them that I know
>of. Thus, they dont have to care if a target sees them. However,

There exist mast-launched subsurface SAMs by Russians. I believe the USN
was also working on this, but I'm not certain if they finalized the weapon.
Helicopters are generally the best all-around ASW assets, so if I was a sub
skipper, I'd want it.

> Veskrashen.

--Adam

acgetchell@*******.edu
"Invincibility is in oneself, vulnerability in the opponent." --Sun Tzu