Originally Posted by
Cazalet33
I wonder if perhaps they are using her as a base for naval ASW helicopters to cover a large area with numerous dips of their dunking hydrophones to listen for the pinger(s). Half a dozen of those helicopters could join up a lot of dots and do vastly more acoustic searching in a limited time than a full spec hydrographic survey vessel could ever hope to achieve.
Not likely that dipping sonar will be the search option of choice for this signal (the cable only goes down so far) but that ship is a great C2 platform and can take on board a variety launchable vehicles that can aid the search. Also good for further search for stuff afloat with the Search capability of its helicopters. (Per AT1's post).