It looks like those sick bastards are in fact going to start using much more active sonar. What a disgrace - it's not even necessary. We don't have any enemies that have subs that are so quiet that we'd need active sonar to find them. And we sure have enough boats of our own to keep track of any such risks without even involving the skimmer pukes, errrr surface ships.

I was a sonar tech on a fast attack submarine while in the US Navy. Back in the day, during the glory days of the USSR, we could hear all their subs with just passive sonar. We'd track 'em and toy with 'em to our heart's content. The only thing they had was their boats were fast and because of their supply of titanium they could make boats that could dive a little deeper.  

In fact, it's silly to use active sonar because it gives away your position - it's like turning on a spotlight at night in the desert - you can see everything you are pointing at, but EVERYONE can see you.  The only time you actively ping is if you need a fire control solution because you are ready to shoot a torpedo.

It would be nice if the hawks would spend money wisely on things like pay raises for enlisted folks and quit squandering it on foolish multi-billion dollar aircraft carriers and anti-missile systems. Look, there's a soldier on food stamps! Bump military spending by 30% - we'll give them 4.1% more in pay - after bickering over the extra half a percent they want. Those are real percentages they are debating.

Now, that having been said - whales are frightening when you are sumberged in the sea with them! You can detect their presence - not so much from the noise they make but from the noise they block. It's like being afraid of the boogeyman - there was always these rumors of new technology the Russians were going to employ that would make their boats much more quiet. Never saw it happen myself, but I'm sure it helped jack up more than one budget.