Jump to content

Crazy Ivan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 84.13.17.72 (talk) at 14:29, 21 June 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Crazy Ivan is a U.S. Navy term for a Soviet submarine maneuver, characterized by any number of sudden and sharp turns, used by submarine crews to "look behind" them. Because of the acoustic distortions and noise caused by propeller blades, it is nearly impossible for conventional sonar to detect objects directly behind a submarine. So, with sudden turns, the area where the sonar is not effective shifts relative to the current heading of the submarine, causing previous gaps in sonar coverage to be revealed while masking known areas. This gap in sonar coverage because of the submarines own propeller is commonly known amongst submariners as "the baffles."

The "Crazy" part of the name comes from the fact that these maneuvers were very sudden and "Ivan" was a common nickname used to refer to the Russians. A standard tactic of pursuing submarines would be to closely follow the Soviet submarine hidden right in the sonar gap, causing the U.S. submarine to go undetected. Because of this, there were two dangers for the submarine's crew. The first would be, of course, detection by the Soviet submarine if the sonar gap shifted and the U.S. Navy submarine would be revealed. A common countermeasure was to stop the engine and pumps in the pursuing sub and rapidly go for maximum silence, which would lead to the second danger, collision. With its inertial momentum, the U.S. sub's forward movement would continue with the possibility of collision with the unknowing Soviet submarine dead ahead in the process of turning sharply. An example of Crazy Ivan gone wrong happened on June 20, 1970, when USS Tautog collided with the Soviet Echo class submarine known as "Black Lila". Fortunately, both boats survived the collision.

The Crazy Ivan phenomenon is used as a plot device to add tension to The Hunt for Red October, a book by Tom Clancy, and the subsequent movie of the same name. The name is also borrowed for an evasive maneuver executed by the spacecraft Serenity in the science fiction television series Firefly in the episode "Serenity", though it more closely resembled an aerial Bootlegger's turn. Andromeda is another television series who borrowed the term.

Given the classes of submarine in The Hunt for Red October and the time of the story taking place in relation to real submarine technology, the vessels involved would already have had a towed array sonar. This means that this maneuver would not have made sense, because the towed array sonar fills in the gap in the baffles. In fact, this maneuver would actually have been very disadvantageous because of at least two reasons:

  1. The submarine performing this maneuver would unnecessarily give away its position to all other craft in the vicinity who have passive sonar (due to the high speed and possible cavitation) and
  2. As the towed sonar array is towed on a relatively thin and thus vulnerable wire, extreme maneuvers at high speeds would bear the risk of losing said towed array (which is one of a submarine's most effective sensors) due to the cable breaking in the process.
  3. Even if the towed array survives the harsh treatment, the sharp turn would bring it in disorder greatly reducing its effectiveness for some time.

However, submarines do not always leave their arrays deployed, and during this time they would be susceptible to following.

Other uses

"Crazy Ivan" is also the name of a unit one can buy as the Soviet faction in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2.

See also

References

It is also a type of unit used on computer game Red alert 2 by the Soviets

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crazy_Ivan&oldid=59815872"