Author Topic: The US Navy's Master Plan to Save Aircraft Carriers from Lethal Torpedo Attacks  (Read 805 times)

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rangerrebew

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The US Navy's Master Plan to Save Aircraft Carriers from Lethal Torpedo Attacks
Kris Osborn

September 28, 2016
 

The Navy is arming aircraft carriers with a prototype high-tech torpedo defense technology able to detect, classify, track and destroy incoming enemy torpedoes, service officials said.

The Anti-Torpedo Defense System, currently installed on five aircraft carriers and deployed on one carrier at the moment, is slated to be fully operational by 2022. 

The overall SSTD system, which consists of a sensor, processor and small interceptor missile, is a first-of-its-kind "hard kill" countermeasure for ships and carriers designed to defeat torpedoes, Navy officials said.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-us-navys-master-plan-save-aircraft-carriers-lethal-17870
« Last Edit: September 29, 2016, 03:19:06 pm by rangerrebew »

Offline driftdiver

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The US Navy's Master Plan to Save Aircraft Carriers from Lethal Torpedo Attacks
Kris Osborn

September 28, 2016
 

The Navy is arming aircraft carriers with a prototype high-tech torpedo defense technology able to detect, classify, track and destroy incoming enemy torpedoes, service officials said.

The Anti-Torpedo Defense System, currently installed on five aircraft carriers and deployed on one carrier at the moment, is slated to be fully operational by 2022. 

The overall SSTD system, which consists of a sensor, processor and small interceptor missile, is a first-of-its-kind "hard kill" countermeasure for ships and carriers designed to defeat torpedoes, Navy officials said.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-us-navys-master-plan-save-aircraft-carriers-lethal-17870

Must be pretty high tech since modern torpedoes are more like a missile then the torpedoes of WWII era.   
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Offline LateForLunch

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Must be pretty high tech since modern torpedoes are more like a missile then the torpedoes of WWII era.   

Man, you ain't lyin. Hyper-sonic torpedoes travel at infinitely higher velocity (hundreds of KPH) than conventional ones. They work by producing a bubble around themselves which works a little like the mythical "warp-field" of a Star Trek starship. The torpedoes have a cavitation mechanism at the front which produces a bubble around it reducing contact  (and therefore friction) with the water. It essentially travels within its own self-generated bubble.

The challenge for the Navy will surely be to detect the incoming target and deploy the countermeasures before any hypersonic torpedo hits the hull or gets close enough to detonate a high-explosive and damage/destroy the target by a shock-wave or shrapnel.

When a torpedo is travelling at hundreds of meters per second, the time available between detection and reaction is cut dramatically.

High-power sonar that can detect small objects at long distances is one feature needed for these counter-measure systems and there have already been several successful legal challenges to Navy testing / use of these systems because of evidence that their use can disrupt or damage the hearing of marine life.

No doubt the details are top secret, but one may extrapolate that some of the counter-measures would involve sending exploding torpedoes into the trajectory of the incoming enemy torpedo and to detonate it in the path of the target in order to divert it away from the ship or destroy it. 

There are also devices in use on military ground vehicles (like Humvees) which deploy a downward-directed stream of water along the sides, using precision sensors and explosive propellants. These systems effectively put up the equivalent of a "force field" in front of incoming RPG rounds, destroying them a few inches away from the surface of the vehicle which prevents the RPG round from detonating. It's a very high tech-fly swatter.   

Even though water is '"soft", when accelerated to high speed it takes on the quality of a solid. A downward-directed charge driving a shock-wave through the water along the side of a vessel would destroy any object passing through it before it could explode - even (theoretically), a hyper-sonic torpedo. 


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« Last Edit: September 29, 2016, 07:18:00 pm by LateForLunch »
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Online Fishrrman

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All these plans will go for naught once carrier-destroying cruise missiles come onto the scene...

Offline LateForLunch

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All these plans will go for naught once carrier-destroying cruise missiles come onto the scene...
hah hah well, that is certainly true. Of course a thermonuclear weapon also can spoil an admiral's breakfast too.

I am aware that one of the concerns in hypersonic torpedoes is that they may be used by smaller enemies (terrorists, etc.) who might only have one or two of them to expend. Hence the immediate need for countermeasures.

MADD sort of ensures that none of our larger enemies will destroy an aircraft carrier even if they can, since we would be able to determine the home nation of the aggressor and retaliate by oh say, obliterating their entire fleet or a few of their bases.

As I understand what I read about this, the eggheads see the asymmetrical threat which can't be deterred by MADD as the one that must be countered immediately. The strategic concerns such as matching forces over time with China, India, Russia or the other potentially-hostile players in the international naval theater who have things like tactical nukes, cruise missiles, ICBMs that can destroy carriers are a separate issue. 

The emerging technology of solid-state laser and charged-particle beam weapons may give the navies that can afford them a cushion to protect them against incoming missiles. The tracking/targeting systems have seemingly been perfected (though they are not equally effective in all weather conditions) which is the crucial factor since if you can't see/track/lock-on to them, you can't destroy them. The problem with energy weapons is that they are impeded or neutralized entirely by fog, clouds and bodies of water. 
« Last Edit: September 30, 2016, 02:12:49 pm by LateForLunch »
GOTWALMA Get out of the way and leave me alone! (Nods to General Teebone)