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Because we have to use sound waves instead of radio waves. But the article is mostly about satellite based gravimetric mapping techniques which are fundamentally low resolution.
You can use laser, but that's only good for up to around 50m deep. https://www.dst.defence.gov.au/innovation/laser-airborne-dep...
I bet the US Navy has classified ocean floor maps that are far beyond those available to the public. Knowing the ocean floor better than your opponents is likely to be a big advantage when playing the various cat and mouse games with attack and ballistic missile subs that the US and the Soviet Union played for decades.
Still not good enough. US Navy subs have underwater collisions from time to time. In 2015 USS San Francisco collided underwater sea mount at full speed. It was supposed to be deep blue sea. In 2021 USS Connecticut collided with underwater mountain in South China Sea. US Navy needs to map ocean floor only to 500 meters to keep it safe for submarines but they can't even do that.
I bet the US Navy has classified ocean floor maps that are far beyond those available to the public. Knowing the ocean floor better than your opponents is likely to be a big advantage when playing the various cat and mouse games with attack and ballistic missile subs that the US and the Soviet Union played for decades.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can use laser, but that's only good for up to around 50m deep. https://www.dst.defence.gov.au/innovation/laser-airborne-dep...
that's not very useful for the task then is it? maybe along shorelines, but that's not what needs mapping since it's already been covered in details.
Not useless, but far from a solution.
I bet the US Navy has classified ocean floor maps that are far beyond those available to the public. Knowing the ocean floor better than your opponents is likely to be a big advantage when playing the various cat and mouse games with attack and ballistic missile subs that the US and the Soviet Union played for decades.
Still not good enough. US Navy subs have underwater collisions from time to time. In 2015 USS San Francisco collided underwater sea mount at full speed. It was supposed to be deep blue sea. In 2021 USS Connecticut collided with underwater mountain in South China Sea. US Navy needs to map ocean floor only to 500 meters to keep it safe for submarines but they can't even do that.
I wouldn't be surprised if the uss connecticut was a resolution issue with the mapping system. And also I think it might be hard for the USN to get accurate maps of the south china sea currently.
"San Francisco's captain Commander Kevin Mooney was reassigned to a shore unit in Guam during the investigation of the collision. The Navy concluded that "several critical navigational and voyage planning procedures" were not being implemented aboard San Francisco, despite Mooney's otherwise remarkably good record. Consequently, the Navy relieved Mooney of his command and issued him a letter of reprimand."
"The seamount that San Francisco struck did not appear on the chart in use at the time of the accident, but other charts available for use indicated an area of "discolored water", an indication of the probable presence of a seamount. The Navy determined that information regarding the seamount should have been transferred to the charts in use—particularly given the relatively uncharted nature of the ocean area that was being transited—and that the failure to do so represented a breach of proper procedures.
Nonetheless, a subsequent study by UMass Amherst indicated that the Navy's charts did not contain the latest data relevant to the crash site because the geographical area was not a priority for the Defense Mapping Agency"
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_San_Francisco_(SSN-711)
So it looks like the USN charts are not exactly cheap to generate. And there is a large human element of knowing where the charts are mostly accurate and where there is information missing.
Also keep in mind both of these are attack submarines and not Ohio class which generally are routinely patrolling the sea very deep and remaining as operationally quiet as possible to act as nuclear deterrents.
I think their track record is more interesting because they have to patrol and be extremely quiet (zero sonar).
The SSN/fast attack subs usually are escorting other groups / actively following targets so they end up in situations they can't entirely control.
I bet the US Navy has classified ocean floor maps that are far beyond those available to the public. Knowing the ocean floor better than your opponents is likely to be a big advantage when playing the various cat and mouse games with attack and ballistic missile subs that the US and the Soviet Union played for decades.
Any ship using sonar to map the floor would not be able to do so in secret. The only hope it would have would be to take advantage of just how vast the ocean is. However, sound carries a long long long way, and it would be very difficult to have a ship doing this in secret. Any opfor ship could just tail behind the ship and passively listen to the same signal and generate their maps in secret.
but could they just reduce the power of the sonar?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Still not good enough. US Navy subs have underwater collisions from time to time. In 2015 USS San Francisco collided underwater sea mount at full speed. It was supposed to be deep blue sea. In 2021 USS Connecticut collided with underwater mountain in South China Sea. US Navy needs to map ocean floor only to 500 meters to keep it safe for submarines but they can't even do that.
To be honest; that is actually a pretty dramatically good operational excellence. I wouldn't be surprised if the uss connecticut was a resolution issue with the mapping system. And also I think it might be hard for the USN to get accurate maps of the south china sea currently. "San Francisco's captain Commander Kevin Mooney was reassigned to a shore unit in Guam during the investigation of the collision. The Navy con…
Well said :-)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any ship using sonar to map the floor would not be able to do so in secret. The only hope it would have would be to take advantage of just how vast the ocean is. However, sound carries a long long long way, and it would be very difficult to have a ship doing this in secret. Any opfor ship could just tail behind the ship and passively listen to the same signal and generate their maps in secret.
not sure if ths is a daft question or not, but could they just reduce the power of the sonar?