The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word ASDIC
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
A
S
D
I
C
More clues leading to the result ASDIC
- Anterior part of cochlea on bats aids sonar
- Supermarket bringing in charge for a detection device
- Location finder, like the Even Shorter OED?
- Submarine detector sounds like small boy
- Worked mostly in army unit on Sonar
- Echo sounder takes net revised distance
- Spies about to steal extremely sophisticated device to detect submarines
Buddy explains!
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.