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Keating: Sonar restrictions hinder readiness

The Pacific Fleet’s senior commander told a military technology group Tuesday that restrictions on active sonar usage stymie the Navy’s efforts to prepare for a major emerging threat.

“Our ability to find and fix any submarine in the Pacific is not as robust or healthy as it used to be,” U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Timothy Keating said during a talk on the Pacific region at West 2008, a conference co-sponsored by AFCEA International and the U.S. Naval Institute.

“If we can’t use the equipment that you give us, we could end up fighting with one hand behind our back. So we need [to use] active sonar in an appropriate manner,” he added.

Navy commanders say that even a throttling back on active sonar power, such as the reduction by 6 decibels from the typical 235-decibel sonar, which the Navy requires if marine mammals are spotted from 500 meters to 1,000 meters away, means a 75 percent loss of sonar detection capability. Sonar technicians say those lower power levels make it much tougher for them to distinguish, for example, real potential targets from ocean currents, marine mammals, commercial vessels and other ambient underwater noise.

“I have to have the assurances that the kids who are deploying now know what to do with sonar,” he said.

Keating’s remarks came one day after a federal judge reinstated limits on active sonar usage off the California coast that require the Navy to not use active sonar within 12 miles of the Southern California coastline, to shut down active sonar when whales are spotted within 2,000 meters, and to power down sonar when ocean conditions cause sound waves to travel farther.

The reinstatement is the latest round in a yearlong legal fight between the Navy and the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that has sought to restrict Navy active sonar use in training exercises because of evidence that active sonar, which uses intense sound waves to allow a ship or submarine to detect adversary submarines, can kill or seriously injure large numbers of whales.

But Navy officials say restrictions imposed by U.S. District Judge Florence Marie Cooper will sharply reduce the effectiveness of active sonar training in exercises that measure the readiness of carrier and amphibious strike groups for deployment.

They say active sonar is their only reliable way to detect diesel submarines, currently operated by potential adversaries including Iran, Venezuela and China, and that sonar operators require continuous training in real-world conditions to maintain their proficiency.

Michael Jasny, a NRDC lawyer, downplayed the effect Cooper’s restrictions will have on Navy training. Jasny, said restrictions imposed by Cooper would only lead to about two additional sonar shutdowns per exercise. Even when sonar is shut down, he said, regulations only require that it be shut down until either 30 minuts passes, the ship moves to at least 2200 yards away from the whale.

The amount of time the Navy shut down is relatively small,” he said. “In after action reports, shutdowns were between 10 and 20 minutes. I’ts well less than one percent of the time they operate. We are talking about three hours out of a thousand. It is very small.”

NRDC officials say they understand the Navy’s need to train using active sonar, but say the Navy can train effectively within Coopers’ restrictions. Navy officials dispute that.

Navy previously officials asked Cooper to lift her injunction after the White House, citing “paramount national interests” and arguing that compliance with the laws would “undermine the Navy’s ability to conduct realistic training exercises,” granted two last-minute exemptions to two federal environmental statutes: the National Environmental Policy Act and the Coastal Zone Management Act. Navy officials argued that these exemptions took away the legal basis for Cooper’s involvement in the case and would have allowed the Navy to revert to its self-imposed sonar usage safeguards — practices NRDC officials say are inadequate.

But Cooper brushed aside that argument. “Such a reading ... produces the absurd result of permitting agencies to avoid their NEPA obligations by recharacterizing ordinary, planned activities as emergencies in the interests of national security, economic stability, or other long-term policy goals. ... This cannot be consistent with congressional intent.”

Navy officials at the Pentagon were unavailable for comment Tuesday night.

Gidget Fuentes contributed to this report.