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How? The ULW comms network was decommissioned years ago! How would they know?!
by sgt101 7y ago
How? The ULW comms network was decommissioned years ago! How would they know?!
- ceejayoz 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_submarines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_submarines Radio and satellite comms on the periscopes, among other things.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 7y agoSatellites, and surfacing to periscope depth (or enough to otherwise deploy an antenna) at predetermined, randomized and secret intervals?
- sgt101 7y agoRisky - home base would have to know, and you know what The Hell's Angels say about secrets...
- pdonis 7y agoThe satellites don't have to know when the subs are going to come to antenna depth to receive messages. They just broadcast them continuously, and subs receive them when they decide to.
- mywittyname 7y agoAn always broadcasting satellite may give away position.
- ceejayoz 7y agoOf the satellite, not the sub, and that's not an issue.
- chrisseaton 7y agoPeople know where satellites are anyway - you can literally see them in the sky. You can't hide them!
- mywittyname 7y agoObviously tracking an individual satellite would not provide you with any information, so I'm not sure why anyone would expect my comment to mean that. The major countries all have thousands of merchant vessels traveling in every major shipping lane all over the world. My thinking is navies would be worried about these ships being equipped with sensors that analyze satellite signals looking for what could be intended for submarine communication. Eaves droppers wouldn't even need to break the encryption of the signal, they'd only need to be aware of a signal is being broadcast to only a specific region of the the ocean and that bears other attributes associated with military communication.
- ceejayoz 7y agoSimple solution: Don't broadcast to a specific region of the ocean. (HQ may not even know exactly where the sub is, so this is probably necessary anyways.)
- mywittyname 7y agoOr simplest solution: don't broadcast to them at all. Which was the point I was making as to the likely reason they don't do it. Broadcasting over a larger area reduces the ability of an adversary to infer location from the signal, but increases the likelihood of intercept. That alone might not be terribly useful, but it can be combined with other bits of information and form a more complete picture. For example, if you know when and where the sub was last docked, fleet movements, regional events that are of military interest, and you have a signal with a message you suspect was intended for them, then that's enough bits of information to be useful. There are trade-offs. If you're required to minimize the the likelihood of discovery at all costs, then it makes sense to never even attempt communication while underway.