ThIs Is How Modern Submarine Torpedo Attacks Occur

Virginia class SSN firing a Mk48 Mod6 torpedo. Raytheon

Warzone/The Drive: Modern Submarine Torpedo Attacks Are Nothing Like What You See In The Movies

We break down how modern torpedo attacks really go down and the types of torpedoes that are used to sink ships and other submarines.

Most modern submarine-launched torpedoes are dual-purpose, meaning they are able to sink a ship or submarine, but they have different characteristics and methods for achieving those goals. Single-purpose torpedoes have a very specific method of attack and can be difficult to evade. In this article, we will cover the capabilities of both kinds of submarine-launched torpedoes and how they actually work, which is very different than what you have probably seen in the movies.

Modern submarine torpedoes come in two variants: thermal and electric. Thermal torpedoes use a fuel, such as OTTO Fuel II, which can be burned without an external oxygen source. A gas turbine or axial piston engine converts this fuel into torque that spins counter-rotating propellers, propelling the torpedo up to speeds in excess of 60 knots. Higher speeds can be achieved if Hydroxylammonium Perchlorate (HAP) is injected during fuel combustion. A HAP boost gives thermal torpedoes a speed advantage over electric torpedoes.

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WNU Editor: It is definitely not like the movies.

The US Navy Is Boasting That They Are Developing A Better Torpedo

Technicians perform maintenance on a Mark 48 advanced capabilities torpedo at Keyport, Washington in 1982. Wikipedia

National Interest: Meet the Secret New U.S. Navy Torpedo That Promises To Be Even Deadlier

Watch out, Russia and China!

Key Point: Modifications to the weapon improves the acoustic receiver, replaces the guidance-and-control hardware with updated technology, increases memory, and improves processor throughput to handle the expanded software demands required to improve torpedo performance against evolving threats, according to Navy information on the weapon.

The U.S. Navy is now prototyping a new, longer range and more lethal submarine-launched heavyweight Mk 48 that can better destroy enemy ships, subs and incoming weapons at longer ranges, service officials said.

Many details of the new weapon, which include newer propulsion mechanisms and multiple kinds of warheads, are secret and not publically available. However, senior Navy leaders have talked to Scout Warrior about the development of the weapon in a general sense.

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WNU Editor: That must be one hell of a torpedo.

The Russian Navy Has The Monopoly On Supercavitating Torpedoes

Media: Wikipedia

National Interest: Russia's 200 Knot 'Supercavitating' Torpedoes Leave America Speechless

Key point: At the moment Russia has a monopoly on supercavitating missiles.

Imagine the sudden revelation of a weapon that can suddenly go six times faster than its predecessors. The shock of such a breakthrough system would turn an entire field of warfare on its head, as potential adversaries scrambled to deploy countermeasures to a new weapon they are defenseless against. While a lull in great power competition delayed the impact of this new technology, the so-called “supercavitating torpedo” may be about to take the world by storm.

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WNU Editor: A torpedo moving at 200 knots?!?!?!?

Work On Developing An Anti-Torpedo Torpedo Intensifies

Warzone/The Drive: German and Canadian Firms Developing SeaSpider Rocket-Powered Anti-Torpedo Torpedo

There is a growing demand for hard-kill anti-torpedo defenses to defeat newer torpedoes that are increasingly immune to existing countermeasures.

German and Canadian defense contractors are moving ahead with the development of a rocket-powered hard-kill anti-torpedo defense system called SeaSpider that they hope could become a standard feature on naval vessels in both of those countries. The project is another example of growing interest around the world in anti-torpedo torpedoes to defeat increasingly advanced threats. The War Zone has been closely following the U.S. Navy's own effort, which you can read about in depth in a recent feature.

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WNU Editor: I can easily see this defensive system being deployed on every warship.

U.S. Navy Wants To Have Torpedoes That Intercept Incoming Torpedoes

A Nimitz-class aircraft carrier fires a CAT interceptor during a test. USN

Warzone/The Drive: U.S. Navy Looking To Arm Its Subs With Tiny Torpedoes That Intercept Incoming Torpedoes

The compact weapons could give subs substantially greater magazine depth, a hard-kill anti-torpedo countermeasure, and more.

Tucked away in its most recent budget proposal, the U.S. Navy says that it is interested in giving its submarines the ability to launch small torpedoes. These weapons could offer added offensive firepower, as well as an all-new anti-torpedo defense interceptor capability. The mini-torpedos use a common body and future variants might also arm unmanned ships or submarines, as well as flying drones, act as naval mines, and more.

The Navy’s budget request for the 2020 Fiscal Year, which came out in February 2019, asks for more than $60 million to support the continued development of the AN/BYG-1 Submarine Payload Control System. Virtually all of the service’s existing submarines use variants of this software-driven combat control architecture to launch weapons and other payloads, via combinations of torpedo tubes, vertical launch systems, or countermeasures launchers, depending on the particular design. The Navy’s future Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines and Block IV and V Virginia-class attack boats, as well as Australia’s future Attack-class, will also use versions of this system.

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WNU Editor: The U.S. Navy has high hopes that this will work.

Is Russia's Nuclear-Tipped Super Torpedo Just Hype?

Screen capture from the moment Poseidon was revealed to the world, 2015. Image: YouTube

Popular Mechanics: The Truth Behind Russia’s 'Apocalypse Torpedo'

Shadowy underwater nuclear drone keeps shifting shape—but is it even real at all?

Poseidon is a Putin’s showpiece. First revealed in 2015, this nuclear-powered underwater drone—one of Russia's next-generation nuclear weapons—is nicknamed the "tsunami apocalypse torpedo" for its multi-megaton warhead that could create city-smashing waves.

A succession of news reports have carried wildly disparate accounts of Poseidon’s capabilities. So this another example of overblown Russian military vaporware or is there something more to it?

Here's what we can say: At more than six feet in diameter and 65 feet long, weighing perhaps a hundred tons, Poseidon is the largest torpedo every developed, coming in at thirty times the size of a heavy torpedo. In fact, the torpedo is so big it can be carried only by specially-modified submarines.

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Previous Post: Russia's Military To Receive 32 Long-Range Nuclear-Tipped Super-Torpedoe (January 21, 2019)

WNU Editor: The problem that I have with this Russian "super" torpedo is that it would take a long time to reach its target while a submarine launched or land launched missile would do the job very quickly. This does sound like Russian military vaporware.

Russia's Military To Receive 32 Long-Range Nuclear-Tipped Super-Torpedoes

Screen capture from the moment Poseidon was revealed to the world, 2015. Image: YouTube

Foxtrot Alpha: Russia Says It Will Soon Have More Than 30 Nuclear Apocalypse Torpedoes: Report

Russian state news media is reporting that the country’s armed forces will receive more than thirty, long-range nuclear-tipped super-torpedoes. Named Poseidon, the super-torpedoes will be armed with thermonuclear warheads designed to obliterate coastal cities and other targets and spread lethal radioactive fallout. The fast-moving, nuclear armed torpedo would be difficult for U.S. and allied forces to stop, and failure to do so would guarantee the deaths of millions.

Poseidon, originally known as Kanyon or Status 6, was originally revealed in in November 2015 when the weapon’s name and a picture were “accidentally” leaked by Russian state television. The leaked information included a range of 6,200 miles, maximum submergence depth of 3,280 feet and a top speed of 56 knots, which works out to 64 miles an hour on land. The name was changed to Poseidon in 2018, and full scale tests are anticipated to begin this year.

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WNU Editor: This is a big torpedo. The stats are the following ....

.... with a diameter of 6.5 feet and a length of 65 feet. It will be nuclear powered, giving it the ability to cross the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans solo. It will be inertially guided, allowing it to avoid the need to surface to get a GPS fix on its position. The warhead was previously claimed to be up to 200 megatons but is now reported at 2 megatons.

The Vietnamese Found A Chinese Torpedo

Warzone/The Drive: A Vietnamese Fisherman Reeled In A Chinese Torpedo In The South China Sea

It's now in the hands of the Vietnamese military and they will likely pick it apart for any intelligence value.

Vietnamese fisherman Tran Minh Thanh landed an unusual catch the other day, finding what appears to be a Chinese torpedo off the country's coast. Under the watchful eye of local border guards, Tran dragged it ashore where onlookers got a chance to see it before government officials took it away for further inspection.

Tran reportedly found the torpedo more than four miles out to sea from his village in Vietnam's central Phu Yen province, which would be within the country's national waters, on Dec. 18, 2018. The weapon is slightly over 22 feet long and has a diameter of just over 21 inches. It's size and shape, coupled with Chinese markings, strongly suggest that it is Yu-6 from the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

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WNU Editor: That is one big torpedo.

Why The Modern Day Torpedo Can Sink A Ship With One Hit

Business Insider/We Are The Mighty: Here's why a modern torpedo sinks a ship with one hit

* In World War II, torpedos did the most damage by directly hitting the targeted ship, punching a hole in the hull and capsizing it.
* This was a problem — as defensive anti-aircraft capability developed, planes launching torpedoes needed to do so from higher altitudes, at faster speeds, and from further away in order to survive.
*Now, modern torpedos are equipped with magnetic exploders designed to explode below the ship and break it in two.

If you've seen any submarine-themed movie, whether it's Hunt for Red October, the classic Operation Pacific, or Crimson Tide, you understand the severity of an incoming torpedo.

Anyone who knows naval history knows that torpedoes are lethal to ships — just look at what they did to the liner Lusitania, the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV 7), and a host of other ships.

Back through World War II, the primary way torpedoes did their damage was with a direct hit. The impact of the torpedo on a ship's hull would drive a firing pin that sets off a warhead.

The hope here is that the blast punches a hole in a ship, allowing water to flood in, causing the ship to list to one side or the other and, eventually, capsize. Generally, this approach worked well, but it could take many direct hits to do damage enough to sink a vessel.

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WNU Editor: This is how the South Korean warship Cheonan was sunk .... ROKS Cheonan sinking.

This Russian Torpedo Threatens The U.S. Navy

The supercavitating head of the Shkval torpedo. Wikimedia Commons

David Hambling, Scout Warrior/Business Insider: This crazy fast Russian torpedo could spell trouble for US carriers

A new superfast Russian torpedo may tip the scales decisively in underwater warfare.

It is a successor to the 1970’s Shkval (Russian for ‘Squall’), which has an impressive speed of over 200 knots, far faster than any NATO torpedo, making it difficult to stop. However, it has range of less than ten miles compared to more than 30 for the US Mk 48. Shkval is also limited by the fact that it cannot use sonar guidance when travelling at speed. Western analysts have tended to be scathing about the Shkval, calling it a suicide weapon because of its short range. One Russian commentator described it as ‘amusing but useless’.

However, a new Russian torpedo is likely to see the Shkval’s defects remedied. The Khishchnik ("Predator") is a new supercavitating torpedo at an advanced stage of development. Unlike various supposed superweapons which they boast about publicly, the Russians are keeping very quiet about Predator.

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WNU Editor: A lot of speculation on this Russian torpedo. Is it real? I guess we will find out.