Sensors - The Enemy Below

The Silent Service is a DLC for Command: Modern Operations, walking you through the nuances of modern submarine operations.
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FelixCulpa
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Sensors - The Enemy Below

Post by FelixCulpa »

The image is from the scenario The Enemy Below.

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Situation: Segundo cruising on the surface at 2kts waiting for the 0900Z COMSUBPAC report.
Conditions: August, 5:57PM, No rain, Wind/Sea 1

The AN/BLR-1 detects a ship 11nm away! i.e., it transmitted

In those conditions I would have thought the Mk1 Eyeball would have spotted even a small vessel.
Dimitris
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RE: Sensors - The Enemy Below

Post by Dimitris »

Not necessarily. The radar/ESM horizon is longer than the visual horizon, because it can take advantage of surface ducting.
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FelixCulpa
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RE: Sensors - The Enemy Below

Post by FelixCulpa »

Thx for the reply.

The Segundo had been on the surface for a considerable time in good (not perfect) weather/sea conditions. I'm guessing the mk1 eyeball with no binoculars, at conning tower height would be around 11-15nm. The 50nm claimed would be with binoculars I presume (pretty impressive if that is just with binos).

The contact ended up being the vanguard of the convoy. So as luck would have it, the Segundo (on the surface) and the convoy were on a reciprocal course for hours.

Appreciate this is coding not reality, and a trigger was probably fired when the Segundo got within 11nm of the van. It does raise questions about how sensors operate in the game. Obviously it would be unrealistic to expect coding allowing the convoy to transmit irregularly - for AN/BLR1 purposes. I still suspect that the convoy, traveling at 14kts, should have been spotted by the watch crew prior to a fortunate transmission contact by the AN/BLR1.

Is there any information available re the mk1 eyeball spotting algorithm?

Anyway, thx, I'm probably being too much of a gamer!

Rory Noonan
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RE: Sensors - The Enemy Below

Post by Rory Noonan »

Hey FelixCulpa,
Sorry for the slow response; I've been travelling the last few days.

Visual horizon for an observer at 5M ASL of an object that is 10M high is about 10.5NM. The 50NM mentioned in Mk1 Eyeball data is to allow visual detection of things like contrails etc that are a long way away.

The contact detected via ESM is imprecise and the word 'estimated' related to range in the contact report is an important one. The actual distance is probably a bit more than 11NM, so I strongly suspect everything is working as designed.

If you suspect something wacky is going on please submit a bug report with a save file through the tech support forum and I will happily look into it for you.
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FelixCulpa
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RE: Sensors - The Enemy Below

Post by FelixCulpa »

No probs, thx for the response.
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