patrick_g said:
You got me there, I'll have to ask some of my "contacts." I was on an LA class nuke when I was at SUBASE San Diego and attended ASW school at San Diego but don't recall hearing about Uncle Bob. Maybe my sidebars with instructors about Red Storm Rising (the game) or my after lunch nap got in the way.
I only got into in-depth analysis of one ASW platform, the LAMPS-MK III paired with a DD-963 (Spruance class.) Our lab was big into ASW. I have also toured aboard some big grey Russian things the first time they held "open house" alongside North Island. I got to inspect their version of a LAMPS chopper, topside only of a missile frigate, and an oiler that had a sauna and small pool on board for the officers recreation. That was the first time I ever heard of a Soviet man of war puling alongside at North Island and having an"open house." The crews got taken to old town for lunch and a brief shopping trip. I traded solar powered calculators and such for all sorts of uniform items, medals, pins, etc.
Pat
I spoke to a "friend" who is still in the business, he said there isn't a classification on "Uncle Bob" these days...so here goes...
"Uncle Bob" was the brevity-code word for an LA Class Fast Attack Submarine back in the cold war days...more especially the 80's and early, early 90's. It was a way of talking about it, without the world knowing what you were talking about, whether on radio communications or out in public. This precaution was/is because U.S. Naval Submarine movements/whereabouts are TOP SECRET, just as their Hertz (Hz) signature lines (the digital gram lines denoting their "noise" in the water) are.
Back then, we would fly missions looking for Soviet Submarines. It was part of the "game"...they would stalk our ships, subs...we'd stalk them. Most of the time, we'd stay passive and they wouldn't know we were there, unless we screwed up by flying to low to the water or pass too closely to them. In that situation they would "hear" us flying over...the P-3, has a distinct Hertz line, or signature, just like everything else in the water...no two are identical, that's why it's called a "signature". Sometimes, we'd let them know we were there either by intentionally flying too closely to where we know they are, or by dropping "active" sonar buoys...basically pinging the **** out of them. Being "active" has it's drawbacks though...I'll get to one instance in a moment.
We were on patrol in the Mediterranean Sea in the early 90's. We were tracking a Victor III class submarine. Anyhow, we
WERE NOT authorized to go active, we didn't know why, we didn't ask...(in the military you don't ask, you just do what you are ordered). Well, to make a long story shorter, we had been tracking this guy for hours, passively, without him knowing we were there. We accidentally dropped an active sonar buoy and accidentally lit it off. The Sensor Operator in the back of the plane starting yelling over ICS (Internal Communication System), Uncle Bob, Uncle Bob...we knew we were screwed.
You see, unbeknownst to us, (but our superiors knew, thus no "active" authorization) there was an LA Class submarine shadowing this guy. He had been there for days without the Soviets knowing. We lit off an active buoy which:
A. Let the Soviet Sub know we were there
B. Let the Soviet Sub know that not only were we there, but we gave our sub "Uncle Bob's" position away to the Soviets.
C. Pissed the crew of Uncle Bob off!!!!
D. Got us into serious HOT WATER with our Commanders.
Needless to say, when an active buoy "pings" everyone hears it...if there's one return...one sub. Two returns...two subs!
You get the picture. Now you know about Uncle Bob!
I'm not military so it's fair to let me know.
