So then how are they so great if they will blow up a "friendly" instead of the bad one? They also could be triggered to go off from a distance as well. Then there's a chance of premature ejection.
Play the game "dangerous waters" by sonalysts. It is an extremely accurate submarine simulator, to the point where you actual have to control the same displays as on the original submarines (although they are probably not up to date given the top secret nature of these submarines).
These mines are only given passive sonar detectors. The problem with them is that you can only gain so much information.
The only piece of information you can reliably ascertain is target bearing and whether it is surface or subsurface.
You can frequently get the frequency of the sound, but this can be distorted through it's path in the ocean. But its good enough to generally narrow down the choices to a very limited number of ships or subs, maybe a dozen or so. Because different engineering characteristics produce different sounds.
At that point I think that it would input it into another sensor, whose name I honestly cannot remember. But it creates a screen where it can figure out how many props the craft has based on how many "lines" running from the top to the bottom there are. Surface craft frequently have 3-4 props. Subs usually have 6-8. If the mine can guesstimate which submarine it is based off of the passive array's data it can ascertain a reasonably accurate speed of the sub. This also checks whether its guess as to which one of possibly a dozen different craft is right. A submarine is not likely to be running at 20-30 knots unless its a seawolf.
After some more tracking lines given by the passive array it can possibly make a rudimentary targeting solution. then it probably has the torpedo fire a ping on sonar to determine depth and definite range. Once that is inputed into the targeting solution the torpedo is then launched in active sonar mode.
Hopefully it will destroy the sub.
If the computer is particularly good if it detects a sub running at 15-20 knots it may launch the torpedo in passive mode because the sub will be moving so fast it couldn't hear the torpedo if it actually wanted to. And its probably supercavitating so the torpedo will easily be able to track and follow it to the target.
But I doubt its that sophisticated to do that.
They also could be triggered to go off from a distance as well. Then there's a chance of premature ejection
How?
The only way I could see that this mine could be disrupted is if there is a set sonar frequency that can be emmitted by friendly ships that will disarm the mine. Knowing the USN, thats probably what they use.
How would you go about setting this thing off prematurely?
