MacCaulay
Banned
The problem is acquiring the target in the first place. The best weapon against a submarine is another submarine and the allies in the gulf used nuclear subs which are too large for the shallow gulf.
If Iraq had managed to get a dozen reasonably modern subs (Kilo or German U-210) then allied forces would have been hard pressed to find them.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the Coalition, if they were actually facing an Iraq with submarines, would go in there with the tools they needed to engage them. They would factor that into their force structure, just like they factored in the Iraqi armour, the Scuds, etc.
And if we're talking about the war taking the same tack, what with Desert Shield leading into Desert Storm, then the US, British, French, and god knows which other navies would have time to find the subs and keep track of them. If anything, they'd at least be able to know the general area.
EDIT: Something else to think about with that runup, is that we'd probably be playing games with them. Making runs and learning their moves. Diesels aren't impossible to track. And the fact that it's in a confined area like the Gulf means that we can be reasonably sure that we'll find them fairly quick with a good search plan.
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