Recently, but before the Kursk disaster, I have read many reports about a torpedo that can achieve speeds over Mach 1 underwater. It is being developed separately by the US and Russian Navies. The winner will have a clear edge over any Navy in the world.
It works by developing an air bubble (supercavitation) around itself allowing it to achieve this enormous speed under water. It also rumored to be the cause of the Kursk accident.
I still do not see how a ‘bubble’ will allow an object to go that fast underwater. Can anyone explain this concept to me? Won’t the water still cause resistance to the bubble, thereby limiting its speed?
The article did a good job of explaining the “how”. The bubble does not move through the water. You are constantly generating “new” bubble [water vapor, rocket exhaust] at the front of the object. The “old” bubble behind the object collapses.
As the article points out, at this time, it only goes straight. If the target changes speed or turns you can miss. You also would have to turn the sub to aim a a second target. It is best used for a surprise first shot. After that, conventional torpedoes that can track the target will work best.
It would have to travel above water making it a missile rather than a torpedo. In any fuid, air or water, the fluid has to be displaced for the missile to pass. There is no way of getting around that. Displacing water that fast would require enormous amounts of energy. I doubt this can be done
You might be able to make a two-stager that moves into a suitable position as a conventional wire-guided torpedo, then jettisons the conventional gear and ignites the rocket. A liquid teflon injection system in the nose might reduce drag initally to allow it to reach the critical speed where the supercavitation bubble is formed.
I wonder if the shock wave qualities of one of these things detonating (if they carry an explosive charge at all) at speed would change markedly, as the explosion would have a chance to rapidly expand within the bubble before slamming into the vapor-liquid interface. A smaller charge might be able to be used, allowing for a more powerful rocket.
I did not understand that it had been done. Rather that it could conceivably be possible, maybe… one day when many problems are overcome.
I did not mean to say it is impossible, I mean to say moving anything through water at such speeds requires enormous amounts of energy supercavitation or not. I cannot see how this can be practical any time soon. A missile skimming the surface would require only a fraction of the power.
I do not think we’ll see this any time soon.
Moving people through air at supersonic speed is much easier and 30 years ago everyone thought it would be commonplace today.
Problem is, it can only go straight–if the target turns, it’s a loss. And they’d be sure to hear that giant string of collapsing bubbles in plenty of time to turn.
Wellll, I’m not too sure about that. The Russian torpedo mentioned in the article was said to go about 500 km/h, which is roughly equal to 300 mph. At that speed, travel time from one ship to another 1/2 mile away would be about 6 seconds. That’s not a lot of time to move a whole ship, and you’re not even taking into account reaction time of that ship’s crew. I think a more daunting task is aiming such a weapon from half a mile away. And what if it hits a whale or something? That’s a lot of water in front of the target. I can see how it would make a great short-range meapon though.
All in all, I think this is very intriguing concept.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but if the torpedo is travelling faster than the speed of sound, they would not be able to hear the bubbles collapsing in time to turn. The torpedo would be going faster, yadda yaddah yaddah.
The topedeo the Russians were working on would have been capable of reaching 500 kph which is well below the speed of sound in sea water of 5500 kph. The US Naval Undersea Warfare Center has broken the speed of sound in water with a specially designed bullet. This was a ballistic projectile and didn’t go very far. I doubt it would be practical to make a self propelled under sea weapon that could sustain super sonic speeds underwater.
The Russian torpedeo could be heard coming and it would also point to the exact location of the launch. It would be like a giant “I’m here please shoot at me” sign. It would probably only be useful as something a sub could drop off and fire from a distance. A weapon like this would also be tremedously loud, I bet sonar equipment could hear it from half way around the world.
I saw a followup report on the weapons that were being tested by the Kursk, I think this is how some of those rumors started, because they were testing new torpedoes that were supposed to do 200 mph. But its unlikely that they could achieve these speeds with the rumored “cavitation drive.”
New reports say the torpedoes were short range “standoff missiles” which would be torpedo launched, shoot up to the surface and travel to the target as a conventional missile. Then when they reach the target, they drop back into the water and hunt the target. I guess it would be a sea-to-air-to-sea missile. Sounds like a combination of SLCM (sub launched cruise missiles) like the Harpoon with advanced antisubmarine warhead like the ASROC. This could easily travel a very long range to a target in almost no time. The US and Soviets maintain and experiment with these sorts of weapons all the time and they are dangerous as all hell.
Anyway, read this report entitled
Secret torpedo test ‘blew sub apart’