Why Submarines Aren’t Being Used in the Search for Missing Jet

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Trefor Moss, Why Submarines Aren’t Being Used in the Search for Missing Jet. China Real Time, Mar 12, 2014.
blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/03/12/why-submarines-arent-being-used-in-the-search-for-missing-jet/

Quote:

"Royal Malaysian Navy chief Admiral Abdul Aziz Jaafar * * * said in a statement Tuesday [Mar 11] that the sonar system commonly used by submarines is designed to track moving targets, not stationary objects. 'It is effective for detecting and searching for moving underwater contacts that produce sound, for example the sound of engines, movement, and radio or sonar transmissions,' he explained.

"Adm Jaafar’s comments came in response to questions about why Malaysia had not committed its submarines to the search mission. The navy operates two advanced Scorpène submarines, which it recently bought from France.

"Submarines were also not the best way to locate objects on the seabed, such as the aircraft’s black box. 'The use of a submarine to look for the black box is impractical,' he said. “'he black box transmits a very low frequency signal which must be located [from the surface] before it can be recovered.'  The Republic of Singapore Navy has also deployed a submarine rescue vessel, MV Swift Rescue, to assist the search, according to the Ministry of Defense. However, none of the 10 countries contributing to the search have dispatched submarines, relying instead on aircraft and surface ships in the hope of finding some trace of flight 370.