nak@cbnews.ATT.COM (Neil A. Kirby) (05/09/89)
From: nak@cbnews.ATT.COM (Neil A. Kirby)
While I no longer remember what the right acronym is, I would
think that non-nuclear, rocket launched torpedoes would be a Good
Thing. I could understand not wanting to shoot a nuke armed torp only
five miles away. I would think that adding five extra miles to the
range of say a Mk48 would make some ASW Frigate Captain's day.
So my question is, do we have non-nuclear rocket launched
torpedoes? How effective are they? Are they in common use?
Could a missile the size of the Russian Kelt carry one?
Neil Kirby
...cbsck!naktek@CS.UCLA.EDU (Ted Kim (ATW)) (05/11/89)
From: tek@CS.UCLA.EDU (Ted Kim (ATW)) In article <6383@cbnews.ATT.COM> nak@cbnews.ATT.COM (Neil A. Kirby) writes: > ... I would think that adding five extra miles to the > range of say a Mk48 would make some ASW Frigate Captain's day. The Mk48 is a "heavy" torpedo only fired from subs, so its likely not to calm down any FF captain. FFs carry "light" torpedos like Mk46 and Mk50. > So my question is, do we have non-nuclear rocket launched > torpedoes? How effective are they? Are they in common use? Its my understanding that when they spoke of retiring the ASROC, they were only going to retire the nuclear depth charge version. ASROC also can carry the widely used Mk46 and toss it an additional 5 nm. ASROC is on practically every DD in the USN that has any pretension of being ASW capable. I think effectiveness is more dependent on how good the Mk46 is as a homing torpedo. The future systems for the USN is the Sea Lance (30 nm range) and the vertical launch version of the ASROC (10 nm range). Both should carry the Mk50s (the Mk46 replacement). The VL ASROC is to fit into the Mk41 VLS for surface ships. Originally Sea Lance was just supposed to be for subs, but there seems to have been some rethinking of this. (eg, look at the comments next to Sea Lance in the USNI Naval Review list of weapons projects.) > Could a missile the size of the Russian Kelt carry one? It could carry something that heavy, but of course they would have to extensively reengineer it. The Soviets also have their ship launched (SS-N-14 Silex) and sub launched (SS-N-16) rocket torpedos. Ted Kim ARPAnet: tek@penzance.cs.ucla.edu UCLA Computer Science Department UUCP: ...!ucbvax!cs.ucla.edu!tek 3804C Boelter Hall PHONE: (213) 206-8696 Los Angeles, CA 90024 ESPnet: tek@ouija.board