SteveStevenson

There's different ways to handle broken rangefinders.  The reason I want them included was that it was a very (very!) common critical hit in historical battles and it caused issues -- though I admit I'm lumping optical rangefinders with search radar as well.

So different effects could include:

• Reducing maximum range by X km until repaired.
• Increasing gunnery dispersion by Y % until repaired (maybe make it like the ship isn't locked on).
• Improving the surface detection concealment of enemy ships by Z km until repaired.  Note, this only affects ships that only this ship can spot.

The one that makes the most sense would be increasing gunnery dispersion.  The only issue here is that a ships Damage Control Party is already heavily overtaxed, especially on battleships, so it's hard to justify adding more of a burden onto it, especially with submarines having been added.

Speaking to that, maybe it can be more of a degradation over time the more rangefinding (optical or electrical) equipment is KOed over the course of the battle, similar to AA mounts so it isn't a DCP issue. The main rangefinders on most ships seem to always be redundant fore and aft, with the more advanced American and Brit ships having dual radar sets as well. I dunno, maybe I'm getting too far down a rabbit hole on it.

At the very least, damage con needs to be split into "fire fighting," "hull demagnetisation" (aka sub ping remover) and "module repair." I would suggest being able to have only two active at once and different cool down times. Added bonus it lets ships / tech tress be differentiated - eg. US can have excellent fire fighting, UK hull demag - ships / commanders that have historically distinguished themselves can get bonuses etc. 

PS and the Soviet navy will be able to use all 3 with reduced cool downs

/s