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Littoral ASW[/h] Littoral ASW operations protect naval forces, commercial and logistics shipping from enemy submarines, and thereby enable naval forces to project power ashore, conduct strategic sealift operations, and control or interdict sea lines of communications (SLOCs) that affect littoral objectives. In the context of US joint force operations, successful littoral ASW clears the undersea battlespace of hostile submarine influence and permits US and combined forces to maneuver at will to best employ their assets at the time and place of their choosing. In limited regional conflicts, the loss or crippling of a key ship could unacceptably disrupt joint or naval force operations. The political realities of many regional conflicts could allow an adversary to equate a stalemate at sea with a strategic victory.
The ASW systems and practices employed in the open-ocean are not necessarily those that work best in littoral waters. Littoral ASW requires a complementary set of capabilities that address the special circumstances of naval operations in littoral waters. The littoral battlespace's complex, noisy environment undermines the effectiveness of acoustic ASW sensors optimized for deep water, open-ocean ASW. In this environment, increasingly quiet and capable submarines operated by potential adversaries further erode the position held by open-ocean ASW forces. Quiet threats operating in harsh environments increase the utility of non-acoustic and active acoustic sensor systems. To be effective, sensors must be able to automatically adapt to the environment.
http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/docs/aswcncpt.htm
