if things go wrong an unwired torpedo can sink you as well. = work with other sensors or torps to triangulate an enemy's positionĪnd oh yes. = make itself seen so the enemy thinks you are someplace else = can miss a target and realize it needs to resume searching = hopefully sinks them before they can put weapons toward you = less expensive than the lives on your submarine The difference between men and boys is the size of their toys.Īs a drone the torpedo has the following characteristics: Today in the 2010s we are pretty familiar with remote controlled flyers that have gone from child's toy to part of the military complex. What its laser, or rather sonar, can see it can find. It is as scary as a shark with a laser beam. With the wire connected the torpedo is a lethal death drone. Earlier boats might have to use the non-wired torps which are entirely different fish to swim. Today's torps, meaning those in Cold Water, are mostly the wire controlled type. Someone decided it would be great if the sub could keep control of the torp to steer it onto target, change depth or prevent it from hitting themselves. The quieter a torp could listen the better it could find a target. The quieter the boat the harder to hit it. The process of getting the explosion to the desired location became part of the quiet arms race. The acoustic torp now went for that sound source making a wreck of the junk. This worked only briefly because a Canadian realized what was happening and tied junk off the back. This would mean it was now a self homing torpedo. In Germany they came up with the idea with an acoustic homing torpedoe. The spread used up the subs ammunition supply at two to six times the rate to get hits. Still there was the problem of angles and range with more distance between torps requiring a 'spread' to be fired. Well hopefully onto the attack direction and not back in the launching boat. That was needed because those early torps could turn once from their launch direction onto an attack direction. Going on into World War Two they made fancy mechanical computers like the TDC of the Americain fleet boats. It is this self propelled underwater explosive we call the torpedo. This process is a lot simpler if the torpedo contains its own propulsion. The sub would propel itself up to the ship, hope to hook on the explosive then energeticly be elsewhere before the hull shattering kaboom. Next the early subs would lash them on mean nasty sticks. Getting them to the enemy meant dumping them off the side. In the beginning a torpedoe meant an underwater explosive.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |