New sonar ruling backs global restrictions

[unhappycamper]

New sonar ruling backs global restrictions
By Chris Amos - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 8, 2008 16:42:37 EST

Another federal judge has cited environmental concerns in limiting sonar operations that the Navy says are vital for protecting its ships from enemy submarines.

Elizabeth D. Laporte, a San Francisco-based magistrate, on Wednesday said restrictions that have barred the Navy from testing a new, more powerful type of sonar system in waters off the coasts of California and Hawaii should be extended to more distant waters such as those near the Great Barrier Reef, the Galapagos Islands and Pelages Sanctuary.

The system being tested, the Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System-Low Frequency Active, sends a powerful sound wave from a transmitter suspended beneath a ship. Sensors towed behind the ship detect reflections of those waves and use that information to pinpoint the location of enemy submarines.

SURTASS holds great promise because it could allow the Navy to detect enemy submarines at up to 100 nautical miles, a distance that would give them “enough time to react”, according to a statement released by Navy officials.

But attorneys from the case’s lead plaintiff, the National Resources Defense Council, said the sonar can detect ships at great distance for a good reason: It puts as much acoustic energy into the water as do 500 supertankers running at full speed.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/02/navy_sonar_080208w/