Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!purdue!decwrl!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!djm@etive.edinburgh.ac.uk From: djm@etive.edinburgh.ac.uk (D Murphy) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: popup maneuvers Message-ID: <6347@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 8 May 89 01:49:09 GMT References: <5977@cbnews.ATT.COM> <6157@cbnews.ATT.COM> <6276@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: Edinburgh University Chemistry Department Lines: 54 Approved: military@att.att.com From: D Murphy In article <6276@cbnews.ATT.COM> nuchat!steve@uunet.UU.NET (Steve Nuchia) writes: > >[ Previous quote ] > >And I'm surprised that nobody has (apparently) been working on >anti-torpedo defenses. With several hundred pounds of torpex >homing in on *my* keel I'd sure want to shoot something at it. > >Something about the size of one of the shoulder-launched missles, >powered by a solid fuel rocket motor and designed for about 300 yards >underwater seems about right. How hard can it be to home on a torpedo's >propulsion system? > >Having spent a few weeks on a ship whose primary mission was torpedo >interceptor I've given it a little thought over the years :-) > >Of course there may be something in R&D or even the inventory >that I don't know about, but more likely it is really hard for >some reason I haven't thought of. >-- >Steve Nuchia South Coast Computing Services >uunet!nuchat!steve POB 890952 Houston, Texas 77289 >(713) 964 2462 Consultation & Systems, Support for PD Software. During WWII they had a sort of cluster depth charge (I think it was called `squid') carried by the escorts (first deployed on the `Flower' class Corvettes ?) which was launched out from the ship and detonated in a pattern underwater. Assuming you know that there is a torpedo coming in (you can occasionally see them at the RN torpedo range near Skye in Scotland's North West coast) they must make a hell of a noise travelling and be pretty easy to detect with sonar - it would surely be possible to revive such a system. A strike pattern with width, range and depth dimensions should be able to disable or damage a torpedo. Murff.... JANET: djm@uk.ac.ed.etive Internet: djm%ed.etive@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Murff@uk.ac.ed.emas-a Murff%ed.emas-a@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk trinity@uk.ac.ed.cs.tardis trinity%ed.cs.tardis@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk D.J. Murphy Chemistry Dept. Univ. of Edinburgh "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying." Woody Allen