Engineering: Deep silence: Avoiding detection

Despite what Hollywood would have us believe, modern submarines do not stalk the deep, hunting out hostile vessels using dazzling technology.

The reason today's submarines are hard to find - and in some cases to avoid - is because they are quieter than their predecessors. The ultimate protection for the ultimate deterrent, it seems, is to slip through the water as silently as a marine mouse.

"All submarines are making less noise now," said Commodore Stephen Saunders, editor of Jane's Fighting Ships.

"The modus operandi of nuclear submarines is to operate as stealthily as possible. What these submarines do not do is go round very quickly, as propellor or propulsion noise could give them away."

To maintain their low sonic profiles, he added, they do not use active sonar, which involves using the familiar pings, to detect other vessels. Instead, they rely on passive sonar, listening for the noises generated by other submarines.

"Great efforts have been made to improve the quality of sonar, but the effectiveness of sonar has not kept up with advances in noise-quieting when it comes to moving machinery. That these subs did not detect each other is perhaps a feature of how successful the UK and France - not to mention the US - have been in making their nuclear submarines quieter."

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