(April 12, 2017 at 3:20 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: It depends on the platform, but it's safe to say that the systems are about 10 years behind the curve.
We wouldn't use active sonar as the primary detection strategy for a DE sub. MAD (magnetic anomaly detector) buoy arrays are fantastically effective from P-3/P-8 platforms in the sky.
Those are all short range detection methods that require the sub to be localized first, somehow.
Around 2006, a chinese diesel electric sub caused a panic at the Pentagon when it penetrated the innermost ASW ring around USS Kitty Hawk during an USN exercise off japan, and demonstrated it had been able to do so by surfacing next to the carrier. While a diesel sub in the right place at the right time is probably silent enough to have a good chance of penetrating the anti-submarine defenses of any relatively slow moving or stationary high value target, the question remains how did the Chinese get their diesel sub into the right place to pull this off?
However, in general, diesel submarines don't have the speed and endurance to stalk surface battle groups. They are primarily ambush weapons used to chock off maritime bottlenecks that surface battle groups have to pass. The 2010 incident where a NK SSK sunk a South Korean corvette was such a coastal water ambush attack.
So if the Vinson group remains at high seas and maneuver at substantial speed, it should be relatively safe from North Korean SSKs.
