Past the initial couple of dozen miles sonar is using convergence zones where sound will return to the surface at regular intervals of every 30 or so miles. The SS-N-16 has a range of 100-120km, so it could be fired at a contact at the first or second convergence zone, possibly the third. Convergence zone contacts tend to be spotty, fading in and out so you won’t get anything like an exact fix, just an area in which the sub or ship is located.
There’s one thing about SUBROC in particular that demonstrates the more practical use of these sorts of weapons on area contacts. SUBROC doesn’t have a conventional payload option. It only carries a W55 nuclear depth bomb unlike ASROC and such which carry either a torpedo or a nuclear depth bomb.
It kind of reminds me of the Javelin hand missile launcher which does a short jump before igniting its engines proper. This is to mask the heat signature to limit the possibility of return fire.
Hm, no…not really. The initial ‘soft’ booster is to get the missile out of the way of the operator before the engine proper fires. Otherwise the operator would be at risk of the backblast from the launch if the missile was fired from any enclosed space. In fact, it says exactly that in your source.
The booster’s effect on denying return fire is unexistant.
kombatminipig is right. The Javelin is an awesome weapon, but without the “soft” booster it might be face-meltingly awesome…literally.
At the risk of angering miniature combatant pigs armed with missiles (Javelinas, I assume) I’ll add that the word “unexistant” appears to be nonexistent.
