The SURTASS fleet supplements fixed seabed arrays with mobile long-range listening ships. By 1986 several Stalwart-class vessels are available to detect submarines entering the Atlantic and direct P-3s or Nimrods toward contacts. A submarine harassed before it reaches the convoy is already spending time and confidence on survival rather than attack. The Falklands conversion precedent also suggests that suitable merchant hulls could rapidly become helicopter carriers, increasing the defended area around a convoy.
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SURTASS ships and merchant conversions reinforce NATO ASW
Stalwart-class surveillance ships could cue maritime patrol aircraft, while Atlantic Conveyor-style conversions could add helicopter decks to convoy defenses.