SOSUS Underwater Hydrophone Arrays

Gday,

I'm looking for info - mostly operational if possible - on the Sound Surveillence System.

You would be surprised how little there is on the net.

Sorry to people that came on looking for some new conspiracy. The SOSUS system is just a lot of passive underwater hydrophones that listen for whales and earthquakes and such - and used to, during the Cold War, detect the Ruskie subs.

I know a fair amount of people on this site have a history with the services, so surely someone was involved in the program?

well, The only remarkable thing I know of about that, is the sound Bloop. You should look into it. It's really neat

Try looking up these:

Fixed Distributed System (FDS)

Advanced Deployable System (ADS)

They are used to monitor nuke testing around the planet...

Used mainly to track most of the comings and goings of vessels, military or not, through certain check points. like the straights of gibralter, greenland etc. Very sensative and can chart sounds and detect them several thousands of miles away.

The US navy is developing Unmaned underwater vehicles. Little remotely operated submarines that are possibly a new version of sosus, where they can patrol silently like a hunter killer sub, Act as a roving Sosus system, and can act like a more dangerous captor mine type of concept all in one.

thats the future of sosus. movable unmaned subs acting like roving hydrophone arrays with torpedos.

Been around since the 60's. That how they located the lost Scorpian sub if I recall in late 68 or 69.

My step-father was a program director who worked in honolulu, guam and kingsbay england. He doesn't talk about his involvement much and I know little about the project. But from what I understand, it was a cold-war era system used to monitor Soviet submarine activity. It was known as the "Red Line" ( as my father called it) and if a soviet typhoon (which was known for being very loud) was detected crossing it. The command structure would be alerted. Then appropriate countermeasures would be initiated. Usually closer scrutiny and trailing by one of our own boomer subs like the los angeles 688(i) or the ohio.

reply to post by b.vandiver


Boomers are missile subs. They'd never trail a Russian sub. Don't think I'm calling you a liar or something just correcting the information. A Boomer goes out from port, and spends all its time at sea hiding. They head out to a box at sea, and become a hole in the water. The Ohio is still one of the quietest subs in the world. To my knowledge there has NEVER been one successfully tracked for longer than a few minutes, and that one had some kind of mechanical issue causing a vibration that made it a little noisier.

reply to post by b.vandiver


Having spent just a bit under 20 years in SOSUS, I want to follow up a bit on some of your information - keeping in mind that you were getting it second hand.

I have never heard the term "program director" used in any way related to regular system operations, so I am wondering what it was that your step-father actually did (and since there were never very many of us, and the senior members all knew one another, I am wondering who your step father is. I probably know him).

Also, while there were SOSUS stations in both Hawaii and Guam, and there were two stations in Great Britain, there was never a station in Kingsbay, England - actually I have never heard of Kingsbay, England. There is a Kingsbay, Georgia, which is the East coast home of the Ohio SSBN's, but there never was a SOSUS station in the immediate neighborhood.

I have also never heard of the term ""red line", and if you research Soviet Typhoon class submarines, you will find that their operation areas and criteria are different from what was suggested by "crossing the red line".

Sorry if my post sounds critical, and I realize that your information is second hand, but I just wanted to correct a few possible misperceptions.

The ohios are remarkable subs. a machine built proper from the get go and she still does her job better than the new kids on the block even though shes aging. From what I've heard the people that know the ohios on a personal level -either served on/ or maintained one are very passionate about that line of boats. apparently they are still superb even after all these years.

Glad they are finding new ways to keep them in the fleet and doing what they do best.

I never worked on the SOSUS system, But the mine sweep I was on in the 70s would snag there SSQ-58A hydrophone buoys off the coast of calif.
these buoys were fiberglass and foam with a hydrophone hanging about 300 feet below the buoy.

They were marked US Navy Property Naval Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare Group SSQ-58A

The ships of this group were tied up at the next pier over at the long beach naval station so we did not have far to return them

I remember the first on we caught because the CO of the sweep had me open it up to make sure it had no explosives in it. (I had been a blaster before joining the navy) plus i had a top secret clearance.
He did not tell me about thinking there might be explosives till after I had opened it.

They claim the navy no longer uses the SOSUS system,but they are still making the SSQ series bouys I found contracts for them as late as 2008

reply to post by watch_the_rocks


Thought I would post some relevant information that could be of some importance here.. Maybe even bring this one back from the dead, even if only temporarily.

I just watched the most recent episode of UFO hunters on the History Channel last week. Here's the rundown..

Everyone's heard of Area 51--Groom Lake, Nevada. However, 2,500 miles away there's an underwater facility that's also highly secretive. Perched on the cusp of The Bermuda Triangle, it's called AUTEC. The Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center is a laboratory said to be used by the U.S. Navy for weapons testing and underwater research. UFO and USO activity in and around AUTEC fuels speculation that the U.S. government is secretly working with extraterrestrials; engineering and testing alien technology. The team heads here to speak with former base employees and to search the waters around one of America's most top-secret facilities.

They came across this bizarre underwater cable that apparently leads directly to AUTEC, although noone knows what is on the other end (Possibly some of these hydrophonic arrays?). The bizarre cable seems to be the right diameter for communications. On the show, they traced the cable all the way out into the open ocean until it drops into an abyss that is one of the deepest dropoffs in the entire ocean. I believe they said it was called "The Tongue of the Ocean". Noone knows what is on the other end. But I did search on google earth and this particular dropoff in the ocean does come up (though I'm not sure if it's even shown in the right spot). Whatever is there, it still remains a mystery. But perhaps this is the exact spot that this hydrophonic research is being conducted. Especially since the cable appears to be a COMM cable leading directly to AUTEC..

You can watch this episode of UFO Hunters HERE on "UFO Blogger". The site has all 5 youtube clips of this particular show.

Very cool episode!!@
They even talk to the very first remote viewer that was part of Project Stargate . He was eventually given the Legion of Merit award. And he is still a Remote Viewer today. Although, what he has seen with relation to USO's in the vicinity of AUTEC is pretty extraordinary (Not at all what you would expect). AWESOME!

At its peak, Stargate had as many as 14 labs researching remote viewing [8]

It was also reported that there were over 22 active military and domestic remote viewers providing data. When the project closed in 1995 this number had dwindled down to three

Project Stargate was a military operation in which Remote Viewers were recruited and trained to use Scientific Remote Viewing to gain intelligence on Russian military activities (originally). The program evolved into gaining intel in other areas over the years before it was closed/discontinued. But there is information out there claiming that this method of gathering intelligence remotely was in the 70-80 percentile.

-ChriS