Silent Running Mode: Difference between revisions

Line 26:

* ''[[Wing Commander (film)|Wing Commander]]'': Numerous examples, ranging from individual fighters to an entire fleet of ships, using the "energy and heat signatures" version of the trope. For best effect, they typically attempted to conceal themselves in the clutter of an asteroid or debris field, or in the case of the fleet, by putting themselves in low orbit over a planet. At one point, the heroes' [[Battle Star]] is attempting to lay low inside of an asteroid's crater, while the Kilrathi methodically drop warheads into each crater trying to find the one the Terrans are sheltering in.

** They also assume that [[Space Is Noisy]], so everyone must stay quiet and whisper lest the enemy ships hear them.

* Done twice in [[Master and Commander]]. First, Captain Aubrey has his men tow a crippled HMS Surprise into the fog to avoid further bombardment by the French frigate, the Acheron. Then later when the Acheron sneaks up on the Surprise again, Captain Aubrey uses a decoy to distract his opponents and keeps the lights of the stern at the Surprise well doused, all the while running a course east in order to bring the ship on the Acheron's tail the very next morning.

== Literature ==

* Referenced in ''[[The Areas of My Expertise]]'' in a table of short words and abbreviations used by submariners to conserve oxygen. It contains the term "SR" for Silent Running mode. It claims that the term comes from the movie ''[[Silent Running]]'', because it is the sub-mariners' favorite movie.

* Yep, [[The Thrawn Trilogy]]. Kaarde starts out ''Dark Force Rising'' hiding on an asteroid, passive-scanning Myrkr being taken over by the Empire. He only gets caught because Thrawn knows Kaarde is exactly the sort of person to do that, and he only escapes because his Force-sensitive copilot turned everything back on before Thrawn's Interdictor Cruisers finished generating a gravity well trap.

* One of the common concepts of the tactics used in the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' books is that the spaceships used in the battles are virtually invisible when the "wedges" that normally propel them are powered down, and the rare obedience to physics means that a powered-down ship is not motionless and can coast on a ballistic course with virtually no chance of detection. They're almost incapable of maneuvering, though. Honor uses this trick, along with a ridiculous amount of luck, to get the drop on a Havenite fleet guarding the Cerberus system, from which she and a few hundred thousand POWs and Peep political prisoners are attempting to escape.

Line 39:

== Live Action TV ==

* The ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode "Balance of Terror." A virtual [[Recycled in Space|remake]] of the 1957 film ''[[The Enemy Below]]''.

** ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' has its own "Balance/Enemy Below" episode that reference both the original and the remake. It was also a bit silly.

** The ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "Face of the Enemy" specifies that a Romulan ship's systems have to be perfectly balanced and calibrated in order for its cloaking device to work; this was exploited when a Federation sympathiser created an engine imbalance to 'poke a hole' in the cloak and allow Enterprise to detect it.

Line 65:

== Video Games ==

* Possible, but rarely used in ''[[Mechwarrior]] 4''. Mechs could shut down completely to remove themselves from electronic detection. This wouldn't make you invisible, but a good observation point could let you set up an ambush.

* In the ''[[Fallout]]'' series of games there is a perk named silent running that takes the phrase much more literally.

* Included in the [[Silent Hunter Series]], and frequently necessary for survival.

* All [[Stealth Based Mission]]s involve this in ''[[Nexus the Jupiter Incident]]''.

* All [[Stealth-Based Mission]]s involve this in ''[[Nexus the Jupiter Incident]]''.

** Ditto for ''[[Star Trek Bridge Commander]]''.

** Ditto for ''[[Star Trek: Bridge Commander]]''.

* [[Shattered Horizon]] allows players to switch off the non-essential systems of their suits to avoid giving off light, showing up on radar, or being affected by EMP grenades. However, doing so disables the suit's thrusters, HUD, and audio simulation, so if you're spotted you're pretty much a sitting duck until you can get it switched back on.

* The ''Normandy'' of [[Mass Effect]] can briefly use one of these.

== [[Real Life]] ==

* Submarines—all (or nearly all) are designed to be as silent as possible.

** Interestingly, diesel subs are in general much quieter than nuclear boats. That's because on the nuclear sub the reactor cooling must be on ''all the time'', lest it suffers a meltdown, and cooling pumps tend to be quite loud. Also, being a large and heavy contraptions, they are exceedingly difficult to completely isolate from the hull. Even with the newest reactor designs, where the cooling could be driven by the natural convection on the low power settings, the rush of coolant itself through the tubes creates a fairly loud hum, and the reactor is even ''more'' difficult to completely soundproof. Diesel subs, on the contrary, can turn off virtually ''all'' their systems in a silent mode, the batteries or fuel elements are intrinsically silent, and electric motors on the low power produce virtually no noise. So the loudest sounds on a diesel sub would probably be from the crew moving around.

* See [http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-031.htm this] article. It was and to a lesser degree still is possible to move a whole strike fleet very close to the target if it doesn't give away itself. By the same token, planes may be run into an ambush where the first sign of a missile ship they see is a radar suddenly locking them from below.

* In the Sixties the CIA realised they needed a stealth helicopter for infiltrating countries like North Korea. Although realising a completely silent helicopter was impractical, they took a standard Huey and worked on reducing the noise signature of each component—modifications included replacing analogue components with early electronics and adding an extra rotorblade. Eventually they came up with an aircraft that when flown at a particular speed, along with nap-of-the-earth flying, was unlikely to be detected unless you were specifically listening for it.

* During [[World War II]], the Soviet Union organized "night bomber" regiments. In addition to flying when they'd be hard to see, they often switched their engines to idle and ''glided'' in over their targets, so the only sound of their approach was air hissing over their wings and fuselages. One such regiment had all-female flight crews, and the Germans they were attacking called them ''Nachthexen'' -- Night Witches.

Line 83:

[[Category:Seaborne and Submersible Vehicles]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:~~Silent Running Mode~~]]

[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]