Aviation assets are undoubtedly the most mobile, flexible and cost-effective ASW systems available to the world's navies. Whether they are shore-based long-range maritime patrol aircraft or ship-based short-range helicopters, aircraft form the primary means of defense against a submarine attack and are the key weapon in an offensive against enemy submarine forces. Ironically, this primacy of aviation assets as an ASW tool has evolved despite the extreme difficulties facing the sensors such aircraft deploy. Aircraft, by their nature, fly above the sea; submarines, by their nature sail underneath it. Between the two is a virtually impermeable barrier that defeats most attempts to detect one from the other. Under certain circumstances, aircraft can visually detect submarines; under equally constrained circumstances, submarines can hear aircraft. Anything more than that represents the interesting technical challenge that drives the market for airborne ASW sensors.
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