Quote:
Originally Posted by oldE
Actually,SOSUS was operational from the early '60s to the end of the Cold War and was concentrated on both US coasts as well as locations in the Pacific and North Atlantic which allowed the US (and Canadian) Navy to track the movements of Soviet submarines.
Portions of it remain, but most of the bases which monitored the SUSOS equipment were shut down twenty years ago. The technology was three decades old and had to be updated or scrapped.
Again, it comes down to how much money you want to spend on a capability when there is no perceived need for it.
This is the same situation with military radar in the Indian ocean. Nobody is expecting fleets of penguin bombers to attack from Antarctica, so there are few assets covering the expanse.
Now you may choose to believe that someone watched this flight from the time it took off to the time it touched down again, but if it was indeed outside of heavily trafficed areas, as the satellite signals indicated, there was nobody watching that big piece of sky.
Best
Les
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Funny but the little bit of reading I could find online says they automated the SOSUS systems and added to it. Systems in the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and since the Gulf Wars I would suspect the Arabia Sea. It's a cheap easy way to track surface and sub-surface ships at a great range.
Lets say you have a military base on a little island in the middle of nowhere. On this island you have a runway big enough for a space shuttle to land on. Some SAC bombers and the Nukes to put on those planes. Fighter planes. Supply ships to transport Marines and all there gear to anywhere they might be needed. A submarine base. And just for fun we will add radar tracking capability powerful enough to see out into space. Wouldn't you put a ring of microphones around that island to let you know if anyone (even penguins) were heading towards you?
As to military radar, I'm pretty sure that since December 7th, 1941 all military radar is manned 24/7 just in case the penguins decide to march.