Interestingly, searches on Twitter and Instagram show many individuals who “sub spot” as a hobby. Some seemingly harmless Tweets and Instagram pictures have revealed themselves as significant security breaches in recent years. The rise of social media through platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram and crowd-sourcing websites (e.g., has made maintaining operational security far more difficult for militaries. Imagery enables researchers to visually monitor naval shipyards and activities, such as those in China and North Korea. Readily accessible high-resolution commercial satellite imagery is one of the essential tools for open-source analysis of submarine activity.

South China Sea: Secret Submarine underground navy base revealed in satellite images. Meticulous record-keeping of past detection events will give you a database of submarine locations.

Regular satellite monitoring of submarine bases will let you know when submarines leave harbor or return to port. If you constantly monitor another country’s submarine forces’ operational methodology, you can make a fairly good educated guess at roughly where their submarines will be at any particular moment in time. This is the most commonly overlooked method of locating a submarine: experience and common sense. Let’s check some of them: Basic intelligence With commercial satellite imagery, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), hydro-acoustic sensors, and even social media analysis, open-source researchers can better understand the size and composition of countries’ submarine fleets, monitor the construction of submarines and submarine bases, and potentially learn about patrol patterns and behaviors.Ī submarine can be detected by a number of different sensors and methods. Recent advances in commercial tools and technologies now give open-source researchers some ability to monitor submarine fleets. Military ASW employs technologies such as magnetic anomaly detectors (MAD), which detect tiny disturbances to Earth’s magnetic field caused by metallic submarine hulls, passive and active sonar sensors that use sound propagation to detect objects underwater, as well as radar and high-resolution satellite imagery to detect surfaced submarines. Submarine detection and monitoring was traditionally the exclusive domain of highly classified military units specializing in naval anti-submarine warfare (ASW). Nicknamed the “Silent Service,” submarines are considered the most survivable weapons-delivery platform.

World of warships news on submarines