Cloak of Silence - Stealth tech not for aircraft, but for submarines this time around

[joegrundman]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

A little off topic but this is what always bothered me about the movie Hunt for Red October.

Here the russians spent millions of dollars and thousands of man hours on a super secret 'stealth' propulsion system "undectectable" yet a seaman figures out how to track it within a few hours using the gear they already had on the boat.

yeah, you just got to roll with those sorts of blows in Clancy books.

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

I think I'd be bothered if I was on a Boomer and suspected a Hunter Killer was nearby listening out for me

this is not the problem. The cloaking device will not affect passive sonar at all. It will curve active sonar around the hull.

So it will have a bigger effect on active sonar homing torpedoes and helos trying to finish off the sub long after initial detection, and also giving the submarine a much better chance to get away.

This because most vessels rely on passive for inital detection, although i remember reading that due to the increased quitness of modern submarines, general use of active is increasing.