Re: EW

On Wed, 12 Apr 2000 16:16:05 -0400 "Thomas.Barclay"
<Thomas.Barclay@cbu.xwavesolutions.com> writes:
<snip>

>2) Regarding passive being slower than active: Yes, Roger(?), you were
>right, active has an outbound and inbound distance to travel BUT I 
>figured
>that an active system will ping out a bunch of pulses, get them back, 
>and
>have good data. Whereas a passive system will need to collect, sort 
>through,
>and interpret from weaker information (not as good of a signal as the 
>one
>series of nasty pulses from the active array) hence are effectively 
>slower.
>It isn't that any given pulse of an active system is faster (it isn't, 
>as
>you point out, for distance reasons) but that the quality of the 
>return on
>an active system is greater (that's why you go active!) and so you can 
>make
>meaningful findings from this info quicker - you need less sample data 
>to
>make conclusions and acquire targeting fixes. Or so went my thinking. 
>

Well, I was never navy (Navy/Marine/Coast Guard in family ,- I went
"zoomie" medic (read USAF - 7 years- and USAR supply/armorer - Army
Reserve - 3 years) but This sounds a LOT like the differences between
active/passive Sonar in "the Silent Service."

The key difference between okay and excellent passive sonar is not the
quality of the sonar itself (although that certainly can be a negative
factor) but - computer processing of the signals combined by constantly
updated sonar reference files - at least as often as ship or sub hits
base. 

Any Navy guys or sonar	technical people, please correct me if I am
wrong
- my work in 'real' life is more national capabilities analysis
oriented.

Gracias.
Glenn Wilson, Triple Threat Wargamer - (loses equally well in
SF/Fantasy/Historical Games.)  Prefers Fantasy Dwarves, Starguard
Science
Fiction, 1500-1700 North America Skirmishes, the First Crusade, and most
anything prior to firing pins and Machine Guns

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