# Can an ASROC be remote-detonated after launch? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 12, 2016, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-asroc-be-remote-detonated-after-launch/762523 "2016-08-12T03:03:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-asroc-be-remote-detonated-after-launch/762523/1 "2016-08-12T03:03:00Z")
> **[RUM-139 VL-ASROC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RUM-139_VL-ASROC)** > > The RUM-139 Vertical Launch Anti-Submarine Rocket (VL-ASROC or VLA) is an anti-submarine missile in the ASROC family, currently built by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Navy. > Design and development of the missile began in 1983 when Goodyear Aerospace was contracted by the U.S. Navy to develop a ship-launched anti-submarine missile compatible with the new Mark 41 Vertical Launching System. The development of the VLS ASROC underwent many delays, and it was not deployed on any ships until 1993. During... > **[Zipang (manga)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipang_(manga))** > > Zipang (Japanese: ジパング, Hepburn: Jipangu) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kaiji Kawaguchi. It was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Morning from 2000 to 2009, with its chapters collected in forty-three tankōbon volumes. It tells the story of the members of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force who are transported back in time more than 60 years to 1942. > A twenty-six episode anime television series by Studio Deen and directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi was broadcast ... > **[JDS Mirai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JDS_Mirai)** > > JDS Mirai (DDH-182) is a fictional helicopter defense destroyer of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), created for the Japanese manga and anime series Zipang. The central point of the plot of the anime is that the modern warship Mirai is transported back sixty years through time to 1942 on the eve of the Battle of Midway. The ship's weapons alone are enough to change the course of World War II, but equally potent are the advanced technology and knowledge of future events on board. Th... I was just watching the early episodes of _Zipang_, a 2004 animated naval sf series about a Japanese destroyer, the _Mirai_, which goes through a weird electrical storm and ends up back in 1942, near where the Battle of Midway is about to be fought. At one point the _Mirai_ launches an anti-submarine rocket (ASROC) but then the crew decides to destroy it before it hits its target. Did such missiles have that capability in 2004? Do they have it now? ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-asroc-be-remote-detonated-after-launch/762523/2 "2016-08-12T03:58:18Z")
[Range safety](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_safety) devices do exist, which permit the destruction of rockets which veer off course, usually space launches or test flights (the Challenger Solid Rickets were destroyed this way). I doubt a deployed rocket would carry it, for the simple reason that the enemy might discover a way to set it off before it reaches. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-asroc-be-remote-detonated-after-launch/762523/3 "2016-08-12T14:16:31Z")
Not seeing any evidence by google, but that doesn’t prove much. I’m skeptical about a wireless remote destruct in a weapon system, however. It would be a supreme tactical intelligence coup to force your enemy’s weapons to self-destruct as soon as they were launched. Range safety is less of a consideration when the actual business of the launch is to inflict damage somewhere downrange. I was prepared to doubt that wired devices (like a wire-guided torpedo) would have that (_Hunt for Red October_ movie notwithstanding), but at least there’s a technological basis for assuming they’re secure from enemy interference. And a [Stranger on a Train post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7497588&postcount=28) from 10 years ago makes it plain that he believes they do. (No cite given at that time, but **Stranger** ’s uncited statements are generally better than most citations anyway.) > [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > Torpedos do have destruct systems (again, detonating the main charge) which can be used if they’re being wire-guided ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-asroc-be-remote-detonated-after-launch/762523/4 "2016-08-12T15:36:44Z")
I’m not sure if you’re asking about any type of an anti-submarine weapon that is launched via a rocket, or if you’re asking about a specific weapon which was called “ASROC.” The RUR-5 ASROC family of weapons developed by the United States and used by many NATO countries had both a torpedo conventional variant and a nuclear depth bomb variant. Neither of these was wire guided, and neither could be remote detonated after launch. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-asroc-be-remote-detonated-after-launch/762523/5 "2016-08-12T16:44:10Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Not seeing any evidence by google, but that doesn’t prove much. > > I’m skeptical about a wireless remote destruct in a weapon system, however. It would be a supreme tactical intelligence coup to force your enemy’s weapons to self-destruct as soon as they were launched. Range safety is less of a consideration when the actual business of the launch is to inflict damage somewhere downrange. > > I was prepared to doubt that wired devices (like a wire-guided torpedo) would have that (_Hunt for Red October_ movie notwithstanding), but at least there’s a technological basis for assuming they’re secure from enemy interference. And a [Stranger on a Train post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7497588&postcount=28) from 10 years ago makes it plain that he believes they do. (No cite given at that time, but **Stranger** ’s uncited statements are generally better than most citations anyway.) [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fPtmRZQVHo) I don’t see how a wire-guided torpedo _dropped from a helicopter, which subsequently flies away_ could even work. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-asroc-be-remote-detonated-after-launch/762523/6 "2016-08-12T16:49:41Z")
Keep in mind that an ASROC is merely a standard Mk46 torpedo mounted on a rocket booster that basically launches the torpedo to the right spot, and the torpedo does the actual homing. So it would make no sense whatsoever to build in some sort of command detonation ability into either the booster part or the torpedo itself, since the booster is dumb, and the torpedo isn’t really geared toward having radio communications. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-asroc-be-remote-detonated-after-launch/762523/7 "2016-08-12T18:05:16Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > I’m not sure if you’re asking about any type of an anti-submarine weapon that is launched via a rocket, or if you’re asking about a specific weapon which was called “ASROC.” > > The RUR-5 ASROC family of weapons developed by the United States and used by many NATO countries had both a torpedo conventional variant and a nuclear depth bomb variant. Neither of these was wire guided, and neither could be remote detonated after launch. They just refer to it on the show as ASROC, and the Wiki link I provided shows that the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force is one of the operators of that particular system. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-asroc-be-remote-detonated-after-launch/762523/8 "2016-08-12T20:05:58Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fPtmRZQVHo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fPtmRZQVHo) > > I don’t see how a wire-guided torpedo _dropped from a helicopter, which subsequently flies away_ could even work. I was broadening the question of whether any weapon would have a remote self-destruct to include those with a closed-loop command connection, not self-guided or wirelessly remote controlled. ASROC and SUBROC never qualified in either characteristic, of course. Nor would any air-dropped torpedo, which they actually qualifies as. Well, the torpedo variant does. The [nuclear depth charge variant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UUM-44_SUBROC) :eek: doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-asroc-be-remote-detonated-after-launch/762523/9 "2016-08-13T04:02:39Z")
It’s the old trope of nuclear weapons having a self-destruct device or means of disarming the warhead post-launch; it makes for more suspenseful fiction and its more exciting if Steven Segal can disarm the Tomahawk about to nuke Hawaii with seconds left on the clock. The fail-safe on nuclear weapons is not launching them, there is no reason you’d want to have the ability to disarm a nuclear warhead after its launched and very obvious reasons why you would not want to make it possible. The scene sounds like its pretty much stolen from [The Bedford Incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bedford_Incident) where the _Bedford_ accidentally fires an ASROC at a Soviet submarine - and the captain tries to disarm it. Excellent Cold War movie, I can’t recommend seeing it enough if you haven’t already. The [“The Bedford will never fire first. But if he fires one, I’ll fire one.” “Fire one!”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOll3v55Dmo) scene on youtube.