SOSUS is a "strategic" sensor, which means that it would not be controlled by any player. Instead, a scenario might begin with a player being given a "SOSUS probability area" as much as 80 nm across, possibly as small as 20 nm across, and told that there is a sub in it, possibly with a first-or second-generation nuclear plant. The NATO player's job, with a SAG or MPA or sub, would be to localize, classify, and attack the contact. In a long-duration game, which covered a LOT of the Atlantic, it might be possible to create a detection table for subs based on their noise level and speeds over the last few hours. The referee (a necessity in a game of this size) would roll and pass the resulting area of probability to the NATO player. SOSUS had a pretty good success rate when dealing with first generation Soviet subs (H, E, N) and even second generation boats (C, V, Y, D), but its performance started to slip against late second-generation platforms like the Victor III, and third (Akula, Sierra) and fourth-generation (Severdovinsk) subs are almost impossible for it to spot. SURTASS vessels operated as mobile parts of the SOSUS system, partly to deal with the increasingly quiet Soviet/Russian subs, to provide redundancy (the SOSUS station locations were all well-known), and to increase coverage near known Russian OPAREAs. While some preliminary processing of the acoustic data is done on board, most of the stuff is sent straight to the main supercomputers at dedicated analysis centers via datalink. BT Back to The Naval Sitrep #14 Table of Contents Back to Naval Sitrep List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com