Here's a rule for all you serious sub-drivers or sub-hunters to try. It was dropped from H 4 for space reasons.
4.3.10 Operator Proficiency (Optional Rule): Unlike radar systems, it takes a lot of education, training and practice to make a really good sonar operator. Remember Jonesy, the USS Dallas' eccentric sonar tech in the Hunt for Red October? He was so good that he could classify a target by simply listening to it and could tell you what the target was doing by just watching his sonar display. While there is a little poetic license involved, the movie is not far off in defining what a good sonar tech is like. Unfortunately, it costs a lot of money to get people to that level of profi-ciency and not every navy can afford it. The detection ranges in Annex M1 assume a proficient operator is manning the system and this is definitely not always the case. The following table lists the capabilities of a ship or submarine's sonar based on the proficiency of its operators.
Sonar Operator Proficiency
| Proficiency Level | # of Sonar Arrays Monitored |
Det Rng Modifier | Classification Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good | 4 | 1.0 | +10% |
| Competent | 3 | 1.0 | +0% |
| Poor | 2 | 0.75 | -15% |
The number of sonar arrays that can be monitored in a Tactical Turn depends greatly on how good the sonar operators are. For example, if a submarine has a passive hull array, a flank array, a passive ranging array and a towed array (4 sonar arrays) but has a "Poor" proficiency level, then only two of these arrays may be used in a Tactical Turn. The detection range modifier is applied in exactly the same way as all other sonar range modifiers when determining the 50% detection range. And finally, the classification modifier is added to base Pc value. It should be painfully obvious that a submarine with a "Good" sonar gang will have a significant advantage over a submarine with a "Poor" one.
BT
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© Copyright 1998 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms.
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