Sensors - War Stories

> At 06:02 29/05/01 -0400, you wrote:
lit
> >up their vessel as a cruise liner and sailed into the middle of a
[Naval
> >exercises

I have to be a bit careful about details, I'm afraid. Yeah Yeah, consider the
usual BS about "I could tell you, but I'd have to shoot you" said. I've worked
with (and on) some state-of-the-art sub and minehunting sonars, so I
can't talk about them in anything but general terms.

2 incidents I can tell about though.

Story 1: I do recall one SURFEX (Surface Exercise) in the late 80s where the
Brisbane's crew tried (eventually successfully) to Dress Ship ( ie have lots
of pretty running lights rigged, just like a cruise liner) during a Force 10
gale. It worked, too. We sailed right through the patrol boat cordon with
nothing but a
commercial nav radar (Kelvin-Hughes KH-975) on. The gale helped a lot,
visibility was atrocious, and radar clutter really bad. We were rolling
through 90 degrees, so I pity the poor bastards on the patrol boats. They
called off the SURFEX when a second patrol boat seaman broke a bone due to the
rough seas, but I digress.

I must admit the fact that the crew didn't tell Dad (Father - the CO -
the Captain) where to get off when he requested volunteers to dress ship in a
full gale impressed me no end. It was a dangerous and difficult evolution, and
they knew it.

Story 2: A Chief Petty Officer of the RAN once told me about a time when HMAS
Perth was exercising in the Indian Ocean in the mid 70s with a US Fleet. This
was the Nadir of the US armed forces, they had huge morale and drug problems,
and by Australian standards were very, very slack. Dangerously so, from our
viewpoint. A very different navy from the USN of the last 15 years. The
Aussies thought
that a bit of possum-stirring might be good for all concerned.

Anyway, one night, the Aussies gimicked a Whirly-1 (WLR-1 - a jammer
that was obsolescent even then) to give a signature just like a Russian Don K
Military Nav radar, and set her off right when the Perth was right in the
middle of the fleet, near the CV.

The USN was Not Amused. But it did liven them up :-)