Abstract: When sonars are used for military purposes they have to ensure unobtrusive operation, afeature that can be potentially secured by ‘silent sonars’ or continuous wave frequency modulation sonars (CW FM sonars). The article presents how these sonars operate and identifies the relations between their parameters. The Doppler effect and its impact on the CW FM sonar are studied to identify how it affects the sonar’s parameters. The results of simplified theoretical calculations are supported with results of computer simulations of a more realistic model.