kneecaps

Thanks for your advice! I'm trying some of these things out at the moment. Can anybody quantify the performance hit on the towed array on the OHP and Type 22 by having other ships nearby? I'm trying to get a feel for how far out ships with good towed arrays need to be. (I know the OHP towed array is pretty awesome..at least thats the feel I got from it playing Dangerous Waters!). (As much as I like flying aircraft, there is something so tense and thrilling about hunting subs).

I'm thinking that I may keep my formations much tighter. In the particular scenario there is only one platform in each surface group with decent passive (the OHPs towed array is excellent I think!). This may prevent the units at the edge of the formations being 'picked off' by subs.

Firstly, is there an area where questions like this about specific scenarios have been asked? Been playing GIUK 2.0 Small NATO ASW Sortie for most of the day. I'm slowly getting better results, but my surface groups keep losing ships before even detecting the sub. First warning i'm getting is that torpedos are incoming in most cases. I am managing to sink around 2 enemy subs per game, but am either running of of time or red is meeting their victory condtions. I have my ships in a very wide formation. It appears that only the only towed arrays on the OHP and the Type 23 FFG are of any use in this arena. I have generous ASW helo patrols, 2 from the American group and 3 on the British group most of the time. When I've been able to detect diesels i've been able to close and kill them. However I detected an Akula once it was well within my group and it was able to kill a ship and escape. This is quite challenging!

Thanks..I thought as much...I had 3 ASW helos up at the time around 16NM out from the formation. The plus side was they seemed more intent on shooting down the helos than launching their ASMs at the merchants. This did in fact give my air defences a good opportunity to shoot them down. Formations without an Aegis platform really need some kind of fighter cover! I notice that the AS-7 Kerry's simply vanished once the last fighter had been taken down..presumably this is modelling loss of guidance from the launching aircraft?

Hi All, Playing the first scenario of GIUK 2.0, where I have to escort 2 merchants to Narvik. A flight of 6 floggers comes in...presumably intending to attempt to kill my ships. However the first thing they did was shoot down all 4 of my ASW helos. While this makes good sense I'd foolishly figured they wouldn't waste time trying to shoot down helicopters while in range of ship based SAMs... Regardless of my stupidity on this point...how does one defend against this? Land all your ASW helos as soon as you suspect an enemy flight is coming in? This is very crafty as the very thought of a fighter attack would force me to land all my helos, which is going to put them out of action for at least 60 minutes...leaving plenty of time for a sub to penetrate the task force. Is landing the helos the only way to protect them from fighters?

Almost, Range50 is the distance from radar to jammer where the jammer could potentially reduce the radar's range by 50%. Alrighty. We'll go with that. Thanks for that both! Very good info to know! I think this is going to really help my airstrike planning/packaging

Thanks very useful! However it's raised the question again. When referring to ranges. Are we referring to the distance between the jammer and the jamee...or the range quote as the 'power' for the jammer and the maximum detection range of the jamee?

Thanks once more! Very useful info! Important to know the range for the jammer is it's 'power'. How is this calculated...a formula?

Trust this answers your question, kneecaps. And welcome to HarpGamer. Hi! Thanks for the welcome (just started simming HCE, last time I played was Harpoon 97 (around 98-99). Thanks for the info. What I'm really trying to get my head around is the 'Range' quote for the ALQ-99..it lists 25NM. What does that mean? In your examples would the Prowler need to be whin 25NM of a threat radar to reduce it from 360nm to 301nm? I understand that range > 0 has an effect, but at what point does the effect become ineffective. I'd like some way to know (at least roughly) how far a jamming unit like the Prowler should be placed to get any kind of worthwhile effect, and also how much reduction in threat radar range may be acheived.

Thanks for your input, I'm aware that it's not 100% radar blinding. I'm more interested in the effective range. Can I have a Prowler orbit at 24.9 NM away from an enemy emitter and still get the full benefits of the jamming. I want to know how it's modelled. Presumably the 25 NM range on the ECM pod means that other friendlies must be within the 25 NM radius to get any kind of benefits from the jamming. Will having the friendlies the Prowler is 'escorting' neart, say within 2 or 3 miles provide benefits? I have feel for how this may work in "Real life" but thats not to say the sim is modelled anything like that.

How does one determine the range of ECM? The ALQ-99 on the Prowler lists 25.0 NM for the pod. Is this the maximum range at which any effect will be had on enemy sensors? If so, what does being closer do? Increase the chances of "successful" jamming on an enemy sensor, missile etc? Presumably multiple prowlers boost the effectiveness of the jamming within the 25 NM radius? Thanks