Struggling to understand Active/Passive Sonar Ranges

[JOhnnyr]

Can someone tell me how I determine the range of a sonar? I'm doing the sub tutorial 1.4 - and I see that this ship has a hull mounted sonal with a range of 35nm?

https://imgur.com/a/nXj2RgM

1) Is this the passive and active range? If not, and they are different, how do I determine the valus for Active/Passive?

2) This seems like a pretty far range, yet I was not detected when inside this zone (I was under the layer). How can I tell if they are using Active pings? Is there any way to determine how much noise my sub is generating?

3) How can I tell what the sensor arc is? (according to baloogan's wiki it is less than 360 despite what it looks like in the game)

Thank you!

[Cik]

1. range is not "range" in the way you are thinking. it's more of a soft cap than a guarantee of any specific performance. radar/sonar detection range will vary over an extremely wide band based on capabilities of searching sensor and capabilities of detectee

2. you are too quiet to detect at max range. this will vary depending on your speed, type of sub, their speed, and oceanographic conditions. it will display any active sensors in white text over the contact, so for instance if a SA-2 is scanning with it's radar it will have a white text next to the battery that says "FLAT FACE F" and if it's illuminating you another one that says "FAN SONG F" or "RADAR ILLUMINATOR" there isn't an exact way of knowing how much noise you are making. granted that'd be mostly useless anyway, gain some experience and you can do it by feel the majority of the time.

3. turn on the sensor ring display and look at it. usually hull sonar is 270 (all arcs but rear) towed is 360 at least most of the time afaik.

[JOhnnyr]

Thank you very much for this info!

The sensor ring is 360 degrees in the game, but on the wiki it's 270. Not sure if that is just accounting for baffles? (Though some sonar in the wiki shows as 360, so I'm unsure how to interpret this)

Is there any kind of rule of thumb to know how close is too close? Or are there just too many variables?

[Cik]

what sonars are you looking at in particular? it's going to vary drastically by sonar type (hull vs. towed esp)

there are rules per condition that you can develop as rules of thumb. they aren't perfect. you can gain a lot of running room by attacking things that are inferior to you and steering clear of technological peers. failing that, keep yourself on the opposite side of the layer and move carefully.

post the scenario you are looking at and i can expand in more detail on what maneuvers i'd make and why. ultimately it's going to be extremely situational- in one scenario what one can easily get away with will be certain death in other situations. you'll find that this is how it works in every other domain too, and it often changes on a per scenario, per era, and per unit basis.