Shore headquarters prioritize contacts; ships retain caution

The computing, staff work, and communications needed to fuse theatre-wide information exceed what a single ship can carry. Shore facilities such as Northwood can receive contact reports, compare them, run risk analysis, and assign priorities for further investigation. NATO and national command headquarters therefore sit at the highest coordination level of the submarine hunt rather than replacing tactical decisions at sea. Their identifiable locations and concentration of command functions also make them strategically valuable targets that require protection.