Dr. V. V. Ol'shevskii is perhaps most familiar to Western readers as the
author of "Characteristics of Sea Reverberation," published in
translation by Consultants Bureau (New York, 1967). The present book,
"Statistical Methods in Sonar," is, in part, a sequel to the first book,
where now the author's stated purpose is "to acquaint a broad range of
specialists with the use of contemporary statistical methods for solving
theoretical and applied sonar problems. " As the author quite properly
observes, the work is illustrative, devoted to a variety of relevant,
specific technical problems from an analytical point of view, and is not
in any way intended to be an all-inclusive treatise. Nevertheless, as
the reader can verify subse- quently, the author has succeeded in
accomplishing his stated purpose. He has, moreover. provided us with a
use- ful and, in a number of instances, provocative work, which even
five years after its original appearance retains its freshness and
interest with material not to date covered in other books on the subject
(for example, see Horton [ Q], Stephens [41] ). * In this Foreword
we first concisely review the author's material, on a chapter-by-chapter
basis, after which a short general critique is given. Attention is
called to various topics of particular interest to the professional
audience. as well as to a number of highlights which deserve the
reader's notice (a few additional comments on the technical editing are
then included).