Navy defends sonar use, environmental record

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Environmental groups worry about the effects on marine mammals of powerful anti-submarine sonars, like those carried by Arleigh Burke-class destroyers such as the Shoup. Critics said a 2003 Shoup sonar test directly resulted in a group of whales stranding themselves.



Navy defends sonar use, environmental record
By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Oct 28, 2007 9:28:39 EDT

In a time of hostility, an enemy submarine not only can strike a U.S. warship, but, positioned in certain chokepoints, subs also can cripple the global economy.

Yet finding a submarine silently sitting on the ocean floor requires active midfrequency sonar, a tool that has drawn the ire of environmentalists.

Several high-profile incidents in recent years have placed blame for the deaths of beached marine mammals — particularly species of beaked whales — on the use of submarine-hunting sonar by Navy warships.

But naval commanders such as Rear Adm. Larry Rice, former captain of the carrier Enterprise, say that using this technology “is a critical warfare specialty.”

“When we stopped hunting Russian submarines, I think everyone took the pack off and said, ‘Oh good. Thank goodness we don’t have to worry about submarines anymore,’ ” he said in a recent interview. “That’s a skill in the U.S. we haven’t kept up as well as we should have. And now, with the diesel-electric threat ramping up, we’ve got to train against it or we’re in big trouble.”

Big trouble is right: Some 41 friendly and not-so-friendly nations operate submarines — 250 subs in the Pacific alone, Rice said.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/navy_sonar_071028w/