STS vs AB
Sonar Technician (Submarine) (USN) vs Aviation Boatswain's Mate (USN)
The Navy told both of these they were "the backbone of the fleet." That skeleton apparently has a lot of backbones.
STS: The Uncensored Pamphlet. the BQQ-10 integrated submarine sonar suite processes input from the spherical array, the wide aperture array, and the towed array simultaneously, and your job is to manage all of it and identify what matters. Submarine life is 70 days submerged with a crew of 135, no sunlight, no phone calls, and the specific social physics of a small group of people who cannot get away from each other. AB: The Other Uncensored Pamphlet. jet blast, spinning propellers, arresting cables under tension, and aircraft moving in every direction — all on a pitching deck in the middle of the ocean. The work is physically brutal, the hours are relentless during flight ops, and the safety stakes are absolute. Neither pamphlet will be featured at the recruiting station. Both should be.
After the Uniform
The part the recruiter skips: what each job actually translates to once you're a civilian — and what it pays.
Salary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program. A guide, not a guarantee.
Recruiter vs. Reality
The pitch versus what people who actually did the job report back.
“You'll operate submarine sonar systems — the primary sensory equipment in an environment where acoustic detection is literally everything. Submarine sonar operators develop acoustic perception skills that take years to build and never fully degrade: contact classification from passive acoustic signatures is a cognitive skill that is rare and specifically valued. Submarine duty pays additional incentive pay, the community is genuinely elite, and earning your dolphins is a professional achievement that the submarine community takes seriously. Defense contractors supporting Navy undersea warfare programs — Raytheon, L3Harris — recruit STS veterans into acoustic analyst and sonar system technical positions. The clearance and the submarine qualification are both significant differentiators in the defense market.”
Submarine sonar is fundamentally different from surface sonar: your platform makes noise too, and the tactical equation is mutual — you are trying to hear them before they hear you, in an environment where physics determines the outcome more than doctrine. The BQQ-10 integrated submarine sonar suite processes input from the spherical array, the wide aperture array, and the towed array simultaneously, and your job is to manage all of it and identify what matters. The submarine is quiet — acoustic silencing is a design priority — and you become sensitized to every noise source aboard that could compromise your detection capability, which means you will spend a non-trivial portion of your career politely but firmly explaining to other rates why they cannot run that piece of equipment right now. Submarine life is 70 days submerged with a crew of 135, no sunlight, no phone calls, and the specific social physics of a small group of people who cannot get away from each other. The ocean acoustics expertise that submarine STS builds is among the most specialized technical knowledge in the Navy. Defense contractors maintaining submarine sonar systems hire directly from the STS community. The acoustic research community values your operational background. It is a rare and specific skill set, earned in a rare and specific environment, and both the scarcity and the environment are part of why people who do this job cannot fully explain it to people who did not.
“You'll work on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier — one of the most dangerous and adrenaline-fueled workplaces on earth. ABs launch and recover fighter jets, manage jet fuel operations, and direct aircraft weighing 60,000+ pounds in spaces tighter than a parking lot. It's the closest thing to a controlled disaster the Navy runs every day.”
The flight deck will try to kill you. Jet blast, spinning propellers, arresting cables under tension, and aircraft moving in every direction — all on a pitching deck in the middle of the ocean. The work is physically brutal, the hours are relentless during flight ops, and the safety stakes are absolute. One wrong step and you're a statistic. The ABs who thrive love the intensity and take genuine pride in the fact that nothing flies without them. The civilian airport and aviation fueling industry hires from this background, but nothing on the outside matches carrier flight ops.
The Real Life
Same dimensions, side by side. STS on the left, AB on the right.
Operating the submarine's sonar suite — the boat's primary sensor for detecting, classifying, and tracking contacts. STSs are the ears of the submarine. On a fast-attack: sonar watches are critical and the operators are among the most important people on the boat. You classify everything the boat hears — surface ships, submarines, biologics, and environmental noise. The work requires patience, excellent hearing, and analytical thinking.
—
A School at Groton (CT) is about 26 weeks. Covers acoustic theory, submarine sonar systems, contact classification, and submarine warfare tactics. After A School, Basic Enlisted Submarine School (BESS) adds several more weeks. The pipeline is long but thorough.
—
Low. Sonar operations are console-based. However, submarine qualification requires learning every system on the boat and moving through tight spaces.
—
Sonar Technician (Submarine) is where the submarine hunter/hunted dynamic is most real. The recruiter will talk about submarine life and sonar operations — both are accurately described as intense. You will spend months underwater, listening to the ocean, classifying every sound, and being the primary sensor operator for a nuclear submarine. The work is genuinely thrilling during operations and genuinely tedious during quiet transits. What they won't tell you: submarine life is not for everyone. No sunlight, no phone calls home, shared bunks (hot-racking on fast-attacks), and the psychological weight of being underwater for months. The submarine community demands your submarine qualification (Dolphins), and earning them requires learning every system on the boat. The civilian career path is specialized but well-compensated: undersea acoustics, submarine systems engineering, and defense contracting. Submarine veterans carry a quiet confidence that the rest of the Navy recognizes. If you can handle the lifestyle, STS is an extraordinary experience.
—
Recent Reviews
Community Takes
Be the first to share your take on STS vs AB
Compare Other MOS
Search by code or title, or browse by branch