This article is about the self-propelled weapon. For the pre-1900 naval meaning of "torpedo", see naval mine. For other uses, see Torpedo (disambiguation).
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The modern torpedo is a self-propelled weapon with an
explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled
underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact
with its target or in proximity to it.
Historically, it was called an automotive, automobile, locomotive or fish torpedo; colloquially called a fish. The term torpedo was originally employed for a variety of devices, most of which would today be called mines. From about 1900, torpedo has been used strictly to designate an underwater self-propelled weapon. The original torpedo is a kind of fish: an electric ray.
While the battleship had evolved primarily around engagements between armoured ships with large-caliber guns, the torpedo allowed torpedo boats and other lighter surface ships, submersibles, even ordinary fishing boats or frogmen,
and later, aircraft, to destroy large armoured ships without the need
of large guns, though sometimes at the risk of being hit by longer-range
shellfire.
Today's torpedoes can be divided into lightweight and heavyweight
classes; and into straight-running, autonomous homers, and wire-guided.
They can be launched from a variety of platforms.
Contents
Etymology
The word torpedo comes from the name of a genus of electric rays in the order Torpediniformes, which in turn comes from the Latin "torpere" (to be stiff or numb). In naval usage, the American Robert Fulton introduced the name to refer to a towed gunpowder charge used by his French submarine Nautilus (first tested in 1800) to demonstrate that it could sink warships.
History
The concept of a torpedo existed many centuries before it was
developed as a working device. A possible early description is found in
the works of Syrian engineer Hassan al-Rammah in 1275, who described, "...an egg which moves itself and burns."[1]
Main article: naval mine
Confederates laying torpedoes in Charleston Harbor
In modern language, a 'torpedo' is an underwater self-propelled
explosive,—but historically, the term also applied to primitive naval
mines. These were used on an ad hoc basis during the early modern period
up to the late 19th century. Early spar torpedoes were created by the
Dutchman Cornelius Drebbel in the employ of King James I of England;
he attached explosives to the end of a beam affixed to one of his own
submarines and they were used (to little effect) during the English expeditions to La Rochelle in 1626.[2]
An early submarine, the Turtle, attempted to lay a bomb with a timed fuse on the hull of HMS Eagle, but failed in the attempt. In 1800, the American inventor Robert Fulton, while working in France, coined the term torpedo in reference to the explosive charges he outfitted his submarine Nautilus with, which he then offered to the French government and British government, both of whom were uninterested.
Torpedoes were used by the Russian Empire during the Crimean War in 1855 against British warships in the Gulf of Finland. They used an early form of chemical detonator.
During the American Civil War, the term torpedo was used for what is today called a contact mine, floating on or below the water surface using an air-filled demijohn
or similar flotation device. These devices were very primitive, and
were apt to prematurely explode. They would be detonated on contact with
the ship, or after a set time, although electrical detonators were also
occasionally used. The USS Cairo was the first warship to be sunk on 1862 by an electrically detonated mine. Spar torpedoes
were also used; an explosive device was mounted at the end of a spar up
to 30 feet (9.1 m) long projecting forward underwater from the bow of
the attacking vessel, which would then ram the opponent with the
explosives. These were used by the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley to sink the USS Housatonic although the weapon was apt to cause as much harm to its user as to its target.
Invention of the modern torpedo
Whitehead torpedo's general profile: A. war-head B. air-flask. B'.
immersion-chamber CC'. after-body C. engine-room DDDD. drain-holes E.
shaft-tube F. steering-engine G. bevel-gear box H. depth-index I. tail
K. charging and stop-valves L. locking-gear M. engine bed-plate P.
primer-case R. rudder S. steering-rod tube T. guide-stud UU. propellers
V. valve-group W. war-nose Z. strengthening-band
Following the invention of the Whitehead torpedo by British engineer Robert Whitehead in 1866, the word torpedo
came to describe self-propelled projectiles that traveled under or on
water. By the turn of the 20th century, the term no longer included
mines and booby-traps as the navies of the world added submarines, torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers to their fleets.
A prototype self-propelled torpedo was created by a commission placed by Giovanni Luppis, an Austrian naval officer from Rijeka, a port city of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and Robert Whitehead, an English engineer who was the manager of a town factory. In 1864, Luppis presented Whitehead with the plans of the salvacoste
(coastsaver), a floating weapon driven by ropes from the land that had
been dismissed by the naval authorities due to the impractical steering
and propulsion mechanisms.
Whitehead was unable to improve the machine substantially, since the
clockwork motor, attached ropes, and surface attack mode all contributed
to a slow and cumbersome weapon. However, he kept considering the
problem after the contract had finished, and eventually developed a
tubular device, designed to run underwater on its own, and powered by
compressed air. The result was a submarine weapon, the Minenschiff
(mine ship), the first modern self-propelled torpedo, officially
presented to the Austrian Imperial Naval commission on December 21,
1866.
The first trials were not successful as the weapon was unable to
maintain a course on a steady depth. After much work, Whitehead
introduced his "secret" in 1868 which overcame this. It was a mechanism
consisting of a hydrostatic valve and pendulum that caused the torpedo's hydroplanes to be adjusted so as to maintain a preset depth.
Production and spread
Robert Whitehead (right) invented the modern self-propelled torpedo in 1866. Pictured examining a battered test torpedo in Rijeka c.1875.
After the Austrian government decided to invest in the invention,
Whitehead started the first torpedo factory in Rijeka. In 1870, he
improved the devices to travel up to approximately 1,000 yd (910 m) at a
speed of up to 6 kn (11 km/h), and by 1881 the factory was exporting
torpedoes to ten other countries. The torpedo was powered by compressed
air and had an explosive charge of gun-cotton.[3]
Whitehead went on to develop more efficient devices, demonstrating
torpedoes capable of 18 kn (33 km/h) in 1876, 24 kn (44 km/h) in 1886,
and, finally, 30 kn (56 km/h) in 1890.
Royal Navy
representatives visited Fiume for a demonstration in late 1869, and in
1870 a batch of torpedoes was ordered. In 1871, the British Admiralty paid Whitehead £15,000
for certain of his developments and production started at the Royal
Laboratories in Woolwich the following year. In 1893, RN torpedo
production was transferred to the Royal Gun Factory. The British later established a Torpedo Experimental Establishment at HMS Vernon and a production facility at the Royal Naval Torpedo Factory, Greenock in 1910. These are now closed.
The Nordenfelt-class Ottoman submarine Abdülhamid (1886) was the first submarine in history to fire a torpedo while submerged.
Whitehead opened a new factory near Portland Harbour, England in 1890, which continued making torpedoes until the end of the Second World War.
Because orders from the RN were not as large as expected, torpedoes
were mostly exported. A series of devices was produced at Fiume, with
diameters from 14 in (36 cm) upward. The largest Whitehead torpedo was
18 in (46 cm) in diameter and 19 ft (5.8 m) long, made of polished steel
or phosphor-bronze, with a 200-pound (91 kg) gun-cotton warhead. It was
propelled by a three-cylinder Brotherhood engine, using compressed air
at around 1,300 psi (9.0 MPa) and driving two contra-rotating
propellers, and was designed to self-regulate its course and depth as
far as possible. By 1881, nearly 1500 torpedoes had been produced.
Whitehead also opened a factory at St Tropez in 1890 that exported
torpedoes to Brazil, Holland, Turkey and Greece.
Whitehead purchased rights to the gyroscope of Ludwig Obry
in 1888 but it was not sufficiently accurate, so in 1890 he purchased a
better design to improve control of his designs, which came to be
called the "Devil's Device". The firm of L. Schwartzkopff
in Germany also produced torpedoes and exported them to Russia, Japan
and Spain. In 1885, Britain ordered a batch of 50 as torpedo production
at home and at Fiume could not meet demand.
By WW1, Whitehead's torpedo remained a worldwide success, and his
company was able to maintain a monopoly on torpedo production. By that
point, his torpedo had grown to a diameter of 18 inches with a maximum
speed of 30.5 knots with a warhead weighing 170 pounds.
Whitehead faced competition from the American Lieutenant Commander John A. Howell, whose own design, driven by a flywheel,
was simpler and cheaper. It was produced from 1885 to 1895, and it ran
straight, leaving no wake. A Torpedo Test Station was set up on Rhode Island in 1870. The Howell torpedo was the only USN model until Whitehead torpedoes produced by Bliss and Williams entered service in 1894. Five varieties were produced, all 18 in (46 cm) diameter. The United States Navy started using the Whitehead torpedo in 1892 after an American company, E.W. Bliss, secured manufacturing rights.[4]
Torpedo boats and guidance systems
HMS Lightning, built in 1877 as a small attack boat armed with torpedoe.s
Ships of the line were superseded by ironclads,
large steam powered ships with heavy gun armament and heavy armour, in
the mid 19th century. Ultimately this line of development led to the dreadnought category of all-big-gun battleship, starting with HMS Dreadnought.
Although these ships were incredibly powerful, the new weight of
armour slowed them down, and the huge guns needed to penetrate that
armour fired at very slow rates. This allowed for the possibility of a
small and fast ship that could attack the battleships, at a much lower
cost. The introduction of the torpedo provided a weapon that could
cripple, or sink, any battleship.
The first boat designed to fire the self-propelled Whitehead torpedo was HMS Lightning, completed in 1877. The French navy followed suit in 1878 with Torpilleur No 1, launched in 1878 though she had been ordered in 1875. The first torpedo boats were built at the shipyards of Sir John Thornycroft, and gained recognition for their effectiveness.
At the same time inventors were working on building a guided torpedo. Prototypes were built by John Ericsson, John Louis Lay, and Victor von Scheliha, but the first practical guided missile was patented by Louis Brennan, an emigre to Australia, in 1877.[5]
The Brennan torpedo was the first practical guided torpedo.
It was designed to run at a consistent depth of 12 feet (3.7 m), and
was fitted with an indicator mast that just broke the surface of the
water. At night the mast had a small light, only visible from the rear.
Two steel drums were mounted one behind the other inside the torpedo,
each carrying several thousands yards of high-tensile steel wire. The
drums connected via a differential gear to twin contra-rotating
propellers. If one drum was rotated faster than the other, then the
rudder was activated. The other ends of the wires were connected to
steam-powered winding engines, which were arranged so that speeds could
be varied within fine limits, giving sensitive steering control for the
torpedo.[6]
The torpedo attained a speed of 20 knots (23 mph) using a wire .04
inches (1.0 mm) in diameter but later this was changed to .07 inches
(1.8 mm) to increase the speed to 27 knots (31 mph). The torpedo was
fitted with elevators controlled by a depth-keeping mechanism, and the
fore and aft rudders operated by the differential between the drums.[7]
Brennan travelled to Britain, where the Admiralty examined the torpedo and found it unsuitable for shipboard use. However, the War Office proved more amenable, and in early August 1881 a special Royal Engineer committee was instructed to inspect the torpedo at Chatham and report back directly to the Secretary of State for War, Hugh Childers.
The report strongly recommended that an improved model be built at
government expense. In 1883 an agreement was reached between the Brennan
Torpedo Company and the government. The newly appointed
Inspector-General of Fortifications in England, Sir Andrew Clarke, appreciated the value of the torpedo and in spring 1883 an experimental station was established at Garrison Point Fort, Sheerness
on the River Medway and a workshop for Brennan was set up at the
Chatham Barracks, the home of the Royal Engineers. Between 1883 and 1885
the Royal Engineers held trials and in 1886 the torpedo was recommended
for adoption as a harbour defence torpedo. It was used throughout the British Empire for more than fifteen years.[7]
Around 1897, Nikola Tesla patented a remote controlled boat and later demonstrated the feasibility of radio-guided torpedoes to the United States military, only to be turned down.
Use in conflict
Torpedo boat attack on the Chilean battery ship Cochrane during the 1891 Chilean Civil War
Royal Navy's frigate HMS Shah was the first naval vessel to fire a torpedo in anger during the battle of Pacocha against rebel Peruvian ironclad Huascar on 29 May 1877. The Peruvian ship successfully outran the device.[8] On 16 January 1878, the Turkish steamer Intibah became the first vessel to be sunk by self-propelled torpedoes, launched from torpedo boats operating from the tender Velikiy Knyaz Konstantin under the command of Stepan Osipovich Makarov during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. In another early use of the torpedo, Chilean frigate Blanco Encalada was sunk on April 23, 1891 by a torpedo from the gunboat Almirante Lynch, during the 1891 Chilean Civil War. The Chinese turret ship Dingyuan was purportedly hit and disabled by a torpedo after numerous attacks by Japanese torpedo boats during the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894. At this time torpedo attacks were still very close range and very dangerous to the attackers.
Knyaz Suvorov was sunk by Japanese torpedo boats during the Russo-Japanese War.
Several western sources reported that the Qing dynasty Imperial Chinese military, under the direction of Li Hongzhang, acquired electric torpedoes, which they deployed in numerous waterways, along with fortresses and numerous other modern military weapons acquired by China.[9] At the Tientsin Arsenal in 1876, the Chinese developed the capacity to manufacture these "electric torpedoes" on their own.[10] Although a form of Chinese art, the Nianhua, depict such torpedoes being used against Russian ships during the Boxer Rebellion, whether they were actually used in battle against them is undocumented and unknown.[11]
The Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) was the first great war of the 20th century.[12] During the course of the war the Imperial Russian and Imperial Japanese navies launched nearly 300 torpedoes at each other, all of them of the "self propelled automotive" type.[13]
The deployment of these new underwater weapons resulted in only one
battleship, but two armored cruisers and two destroyers being sunk in
action; with the remainder of the 80 some odd warships being sunk by the
more conventional methods of gunfire, mines, and scuttling.[14]
On 27 May 1905, during the battle of Tsushima, Admiral Rozhestvensky's flagship, the battleship Knyaz Suvorov, had been gunned to a wreck by Admiral Togo's 12 inch gunned battleline. With the Russians sunk and scattering, Togo prepared for pursuit, and while doing so ordered his torpedo boat destroyers (TBDs) (mostly referred to as just destroyers in most written accounts) to finish off the Russian battleship. The Knyaz Suvorov
was set upon by 17 torpedo firing warships, ten of which were
destroyers and four torpedo boats. 21 torpedoes were launched at the pre-dreadnought, and three struck home, one fired from the destroyer IJN Murasame and two from torpedo boats #72 and #75.[15] The flagship slipped under the waves shortly thereafter, taking over 900 men with her to the bottom.[16]
Aerial torpedo
In 1915, Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske conceived of the aerial torpedo.
The end of the war fuelled new theories, and the idea of dropping
lightweight torpedoes from aircraft was conceived in the early 1910s by Bradley A. Fiske, an officer in the United States Navy.[17] Awarded a patent in 1912,[18][19] Fiske worked out the mechanics of carrying and releasing the aerial torpedo from a bomber,
and defined tactics that included a night-time approach so that the
target ship would be less able to defend itself. Fiske determined that
the notional torpedo bomber
should descend rapidly in a sharp spiral to evade enemy guns, then when
about 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 m) above the water the aircraft would
straighten its flight long enough to line up with the torpedo's intended
path. The aircraft would release the torpedo at a distance of 1,500 to
2,000 yards (1,400 to 1,800 m) from the target.[17]
Fiske reported in 1915 that, using this method, enemy fleets could be
attacked within their own harbors if there were enough room for the
torpedo track.[20]
Meanwhile, the Royal Naval Air Service
began actively experimenting with this possibility. The first
successful aerial torpedo drop was performed by Gordon Bell in 1914 -
dropping a Whitehead torpedo from a Short S.64 seaplane. The success of these experiments led to the construction of the first purpose-built operational torpedo aircraft, the Short Type 184, built from 1915.[21]
The Short Type 184 was the first torpedo aircraft when built in 1915.
An order for ten aircraft was placed, and 936 aircraft were built by ten different British aircraft companies during the First World War. The two prototype aircraft were embarked upon HMS Ben-my Chree, which sailed for the Aegean on 21 March 1915 to take part in the Gallipoli campaign.[22] On 12 August 1915 one of these, piloted by Flight Commander Charles Edmonds, was the first aircraft in the world to attack an enemy ship with an air-launched torpedo.[23]
On 17 August 1915, another Turkish ship was sunk by an aerial
torpedo. On this occasion Flight Commander Edmonds torpedoed a Turkish
transport ship a few miles north of the Dardanelles. His formation
colleague, Flt Lt G B Dacre, was forced to land on the water owing to engine trouble but, seeing an enemy tug
close by, taxied up to it and released his torpedo, sinking the tug.
Without the weight of the torpedo Dacre was able to take off and return
to the Ben-My-Chree.[24]
World War I
Launching a torpedo in 1915 during World War I
Torpedoes were widely used in the First World War,
both against shipping and against submarines. Germany disrupted the
supply lines to Britain largely by use of submarine torpedoes (though
submarines also extensively used guns).[25]
Britain and its allies also used torpedoes throughout the war. U-boats
themselves were often targeted, twenty being sunk by torpedo. Two Royal
Italian Navy torpedo boats scored a success against an Austrian-Hungarian squadron, sinking the battleship Szent István with two torpedoes.
Initially the Imperial Japanese Navy
purchased Whitehead or Schwartzkopf torpedoes but by 1917 they were
conducting experiments with pure oxygen instead of compressed air.
Because of explosions they abandoned the experiments but resumed them in
1926 and by 1933 had a working torpedo. They also used conventional
wet-heater torpedoes.
World War II
In the inter-war years, tight budgets caused nearly all navies to
skimp on testing their torpedoes. As a result, only the Japanese had
fully tested torpedoes (in particular the Type 93, nicknamed Long Lance postwar by historian Samuel E. Morison)[26][27] at the start of World War II.
The lack of reliability caused major problems for the American
submarine force in the early years of the American involvement in World
War II, primarily in the Pacific Theater.
A Japanese Type 93 torpedo -- nicknamed "Long Lance" after the war
Many classes of ships, including submarines, and aircraft were armed with torpedoes.[clarification needed]
Naval strategy at the time was to use torpedoes, launched from
submarines or warships, against enemy warships in a fleet action on the
high seas. Targeting unarmed enemy merchant shipping was prohibited by rules of war. (In the event, most merchantmen were armed and acted as de facto naval auxiliaries, required to report the position of enemy submarines, rendering the distinction irrelevant.[28][page needed])
There was concern torpedoes would be ineffective against warships'
heavy armor; an answer to this was to detonate torpedoes underneath a
ship, badly damaging its keel and the other structural members in the hull, commonly called "breaking its back". This was demonstrated by magnetic influence mines in World War I.
The torpedo would be set to run at a depth just beneath the ship,
relying on a magnetic exploder to activate at the appropriate time.
Germany, Britain and the U.S. independently devised ways to do this;
German and American torpedoes, however, suffered problems with their
depth-keeping mechanisms, coupled with faults in magnetic pistols
shared by all designs. Inadequate testing had failed to reveal the
effect of the Earth's magnetic field on ships and exploder mechanisms,
which resulted in premature detonation. The Kriegsmarine and Royal Navy promptly identified and eliminated the problems. In the United States Navy, there was an extended wrangle over the problems plaguing the Mark 14 torpedo (and its Mark 6 exploder). Cursory trials had allowed bad designs to enter service. Both the Navy Bureau of Ordnance and the United States Congress
were too busy protecting their own interests to correct the errors, and
fully functioning torpedoes only became available to the USN 21 months
into the Pacific War.[29]
Loading 21" RNTF Mark VIII torpedoes into a Vickers Wellington medium bomber, May 1942. This type of torpedo was later used to sink the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano during the 1982 Falklands War
British submarines used torpedoes to interdict the Axis supply shipping to North Africa, while Fleet Air Arm Swordfish sank three Italian battleships at Taranto by torpedo and (after a mistaken, but abortive, attack on Sheffield) scored one crucial hit in the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck. Large tonnages of merchant shipping were sunk by submarines with torpedoes in both the Battle of the Atlantic and the Pacific War.
Torpedo boats, such as MTBs, PT boats, or S-boats,
enabled relatively small but fast craft to carry enough firepower, in
theory, to destroy a larger ship, though this rarely occurred in
practice. The largest warship sunk by torpedoes from small craft in WW2
was the British cruiser Manchester, sunk by Italian MAS boats on the night of 12/13 August 1942 during Operation Pedestal. Destroyers of all navies were also armed with torpedoes to attack larger ships. In the Battle off Samar,
destroyer torpedoes from the escorts of American task force "Taffy 3"
showed effectiveness at defeating armor. Damage and confusion caused by
torpedo attacks were instrumental[original research?] in beating back a superior Japanese force of battleships and cruisers.[30] In the Battle of the North Cape in December 1943, torpedo hits from British destroyers Savage and Saumarez slowed German battlecruiser Scharnhorst enough for British battleship Duke of York to catch and sink her, and in May 1945 the British 26th Destroyer Flotilla (coincidentally led by Saumarez again) ambushed and sank Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro.
Post–World War II
Because of improved submarine strength and speed, torpedoes had to be given improved warheads and better motors. During the Cold War
torpedoes were an important asset with the advent of nuclear-powered
submarines, which did not have to surface often, particularly those
carrying strategic nuclear missiles.
A number of navies have launched torpedo strikes since World War II, including:
- During the Korean War the United States Navy successfully attacked a dam with air-launched torpedoes.[31]
- Israeli Navy units attacked the technical research ship USS Liberty with gunfire and torpedoes during the 1967 Six Day War, resulting in the loss of 46 crew.
- A Pakistan Navy Daphne class submarine sank the Indian frigate INS Khukri on 9 December 1971 during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, with the loss of over 18 officers and 176 sailors.
- The British Royal Navy nuclear attack submarine HMS Conqueror sank the Argentine Navy light cruiser ARA General Belgrano during the Falklands War with the loss of 323 lives.
- The Croatian Navy crippled the Yugoslav patrol boat PČ-176 Mukos with a torpedo launched by Croatian naval commandos from an improvised device during the battle of the Dalmatian channels on 14 November 1991, in the course of the Croatian War of Independence. Three members of the crew were killed. The stranded boat was later recovered by Croatian trawlers, salvaged and put in service with the Croatian Navy as OB-02 Šolta.[32]
- On 26 March 2010 the South Korean Navy ship ROKS Cheonan was sunk with the loss of 46 personnel. Subsequent investigation concluded that the warship had been sunk by a North Korean torpedo fired by a midget submarine.
Energy sources
The USS Mustin (DDG-89) launches a dummy torpedo during exercises.
Compressed air
The Whitehead torpedo of 1866, the first successful self-propelled torpedoes, used compressed air as its energy source. The air was stored at pressures of up to 2.55 MPa (370 psi) and fed to a piston engine that turned a single propeller at about 100 rpm. It could travel about 180 metres (200 yd) at an average speed of 6.5 knots
(12.0 km/h). The speed and range of later models was improved by
increasing the pressure of the stored air. In 1906 Whitehead built
torpedoes that could cover nearly 1,000 metres (1,100 yd) at an average
speed of 35 knots (65 km/h).
At higher pressures the cooling experienced by the air as it expanded in the engine caused icing problems (see adiabatic cooling).
This drawback was remedied by heating the air with seawater before it
was fed to the engine, which increased engine performance further,
because the air expanded even more after heating. This was the principle
used by the Brotherhood engine.
Heated torpedoes
Passing the air through an engine led to the idea of injecting a liquid fuel, like kerosene,
into the air and igniting it. In this manner the air is heated more and
expands even further, and the burned propellant adds more gas to drive
the engine. Construction of such heated torpedoes started circa 1904 by Whitehead's company.
Wet-heater
A further improvement was the use of water to cool the combustion chamber
of the fuel-burning torpedo. This not only solved heating problems so
more fuel could be burnt but also allowed additional power to be
generated by feeding the resulting steam into the engine together with
the combustion products. Torpedoes with such a propulsion system became known as wet heaters, while heated torpedoes without steam generation were retrospectively called dry heaters.
A simpler system was introduced by the British Royal Gun factory in
1908. Most torpedoes used in World War I and World War II were
wet-heaters.
Compressed oxygen
The amount of fuel that can be burned by a torpedo engine (i.e. wet engine) is limited by the amount of oxygen it can carry. Since compressed air contains only about 21% oxygen, engineers in Japan developed the Type 93 (nicknamed Long Lance postwar)[26]
for destroyers and cruisers in the 1930s. It used pure compressed
oxygen instead of compressed air and had performance unmatched by any
contemporary torpedo in service, through the end of World War II.
However, oxygen systems posed a serious danger to any ship that came
under attack while still carrying such torpedoes; Japan lost several
cruisers partly due to catastrophic secondary explosions of Type 93s.
During the war, Germany experimented with hydrogen peroxide for the same purpose.
U.S. World War II PT boat torpedo on display
Wire driven
The Brennan torpedo had two wires wound around internal drums. Shore-based steam winches
pulled the wires, which spun the drums and drove the propellers. An
operator controlled the relative speeds of the winches, providing
guidance. Such systems were used for coastal defence
of the British homeland and colonies from 1887 to 1903 and were
purchased by, and under the control of, the Army as opposed to the Navy.
Speed was about 25 knots (46 km/h) for over 2,400 m.
Flywheel
The Howell torpedo used by the US Navy in the late 19th century featured a heavy flywheel
that had to be spun up before launch. It was able to travel about 400
yards (370 m) at 25 knots (46 km/h). The Howell had the advantage of not
leaving a trail of bubbles behind it, unlike compressed air torpedoes.
This gave the target vessel less chance to detect and evade the torpedo,
and avoided giving away the attacker's position. Additionally, it ran
at a constant depth, unlike Whitehead models.
Electric batteries
Electric batteries of a French Z13 torpedo
Electric propulsion systems avoided tell-tale bubbles. John Ericsson invented an electrically propelled torpedo in 1873; it was powered by a cable from an external power source, as batteries
of the time had insufficient capacity. The Sims-Edison torpedo was
similarly powered. The Nordfelt torpedo was also electrically powered
and was steered by impulses down a trailing wire.
Germany introduced its first battery-powered torpedo shortly before World War II, the G7e. It was slower and had shorter range than the conventional G7a, but was wakeless and much cheaper. Its lead-acid rechargeable battery
was sensitive to shock, required frequent maintenance before use, and
required preheating for best performance. The experimental G7ep, an enhancement of the G7e, used primary cells.
The United States had an electric design, the Mark 18, largely copied from the German torpedo (although with improved batteries), as well as FIDO, an air-dropped acoustic homing torpedo for anti-submarine use.
Modern electric torpedoes such as the Mark 24 Tigerfish or DM2 series commonly use silver oxide batteries that need no maintenance, so torpedoes can be stored for years without losing performance.
Rockets
A number of experimental rocket-propelled torpedoes were tried soon
after Whitehead's invention but were not successful. Rocket propulsion
has been implemented successfully by the Soviet Union, for example in
the VA-111 Shkval—and has been recently revived in Russian and German torpedoes, as it is especially suitable for supercavitating devices.[33]
Modern drive systems
Modern torpedoes use a variety of drive mechanisms, including gas turbines (the British Spearfish), monopropellants, and sulfur hexafluoride gas sprayed over a block of solid lithium.
Propulsion
The first of Whitehead's torpedoes had a single propeller and needed a
large vane to stop it spinning about its longitudinal axis. Not long
afterward the idea of contra-rotating propellers
was introduced, to avoid the need for the vane. The three-bladed
propeller came in 1893 and the four-bladed one in 1897. To minimise
noise, today's torpedoes often use pump-jets.
Some torpedoes—like the Russian VA-111 Shkval, Iranian Hoot, and German Unterwasserlaufkörper/ Barracuda—use supercavitation to increase speed to over 200 knots (370 km/h). Torpedoes that don't use supercavitation, such as the American Mark 48 and British Spearfish, are limited to under 100 kn (120 mph; 190 km/h), though manufacturers and the military don't always release exact figures.
Guidance
A torpedo dropped from a Sopwith Cuckoo during World War I
Illustration of General Torpedo Fire Control Problem
Torpedoes may be aimed at the target and fired unguided, similarly to an artillery shell,
or they may be guided onto the target. They may be guided automatically
towards the target by some procedure, e.g., sound (homing), or by the
operator, typically via commands sent over a signal-carrying cable (wire guidance).
Unguided
The Victorian era Brennan
could be steered onto its target by varying the relative speeds of its
propulsion cables. However, the Brennan required a substantial
infrastructure and was not suitable for shipboard use. Therefore, for
the first part of its history, the torpedo was guided only in the sense
that its course could be regulated so as to achieve an intended impact
depth (because of the sine wave running path of the Whitehead,[34]
this was a hit or miss proposition, even when everything worked
correctly) and, through gyroscopes, a straight course. With such
torpedoes the method of attack in small torpedo boats, torpedo bombers
and small submarines was to steer a predictable collision course abeam
to the target and release the torpedo at the last minute, then veer
away, all the time subject to defensive fire.
In larger ships and submarines, fire control calculators gave a wider
engagement envelope. Originally, plotting tables (in large ships),
combined with specialised slide rules (known in U.S. service as the "banjo" and "Is/Was"),[35]
reconciled the speed, distance, and course of a target with the firing
ship's speed and course, together with the performance of its torpedoes,
to provide a firing solution. By the Second World War, all sides had
developed automatic electro-mechanical calculators, exemplified by the
U.S. Navy's Torpedo Data Computer.[36]
Submarine commanders were still expected to be able to calculate a
firing solution by hand as a backup against mechanical failure, and
because many submarines existing at the start of the war were not
equipped with a TDC; most could keep the "picture" in their heads and do
much of the calculations (simple trigonometry) mentally, from extensive
training.[37]
Against high value targets and multiple targets, submarines would
launch a spread of torpedoes, to increase the probability of success.
Similarly, squadrons of torpedo boats and torpedo bombers would attack
together creating a "fan" of torpedoes across the target's course. Faced
with such an attack, the prudent thing for a target to do was to turn
so as to parallel the course of the incoming torpedo and steam away from
the torpedoes and the firer, allowing the relatively short range
torpedoes to use up their fuel. An alternative was to "comb the tracks",
turning to parallel the incoming torpedo's course, but turning towards
the torpedoes. The intention of such a tactic was still to minimise the
size of target offered to the torpedoes, but at the same time be able to
aggressively engage the firer. This was the tactic advocated by critics
of Jellicoe's actions at Jutland, his caution at turning away from the torpedoes being seen as the reason the Germans escaped.
The use of multiple torpedoes to engage single targets depletes torpedo supplies and greatly reduces a submarine's combat endurance.[38]
Endurance can be improved by ensuring a target can be effectively
engaged by a single torpedo, which gave rise to the guided torpedo.
Radio and wire guidance
See also: Command guidance
Though Luppis' original design had been rope guided, torpedoes were not wire-guided until the 1960s.
During the First World War the U.S. Navy evaluated a radio controlled torpedo launched from a surface ship called the Hammond Torpedo.[39] A later version tested in the 1930s was claimed to have an effective range of 6 miles.[40]
Modern torpedoes use an umbilical wire, which nowadays allows the
computer processing power of the submarine or ship to be used. Torpedoes
such as the U.S. Mark 48 can operate in a variety of modes, increasing tactical flexibility.
Homing
Main articles: Acoustic homing and Acoustic torpedo
Homing "fire and forget" torpedoes can use passive or active guidance, or a combination of both. Passive acoustic torpedoes
home in on emissions from a target. Active acoustic torpedoes home in
on the reflection of a signal, or "ping", from the torpedo or its parent
vehicle; this has the disadvantage of giving away the presence of the
torpedo. In semi-active mode, a torpedo can be fired to the last known
position or calculated position of a target, which is then acoustically
illuminated ("pinged") once the torpedo is within attack range.
Later in the Second World War torpedoes were given acoustic (homing) guidance systems, originally by the Germans in the G7es torpedo.
Pattern-following and wake homing torpedoes were also developed.
Acoustic homing formed the basis for torpedo guidance after the Second
World War.
The homing systems for torpedoes are generally acoustic, though there have been other target sensor types used. A ship's acoustic signature is not the only emission a torpedo can home in on: to engage U.S. supercarriers, the Soviet Union developed the 53-65 wake-homing torpedo.
Warhead and fuzing
The warhead is generally some form of aluminised
explosive, because the sustained explosive pulse produced by the
powdered aluminium is particularly destructive against underwater
targets. Torpex was popular until the 1950s, but has been superseded by PBX compositions. Nuclear warheads for torpedoes have also been developed, e.g. the Mark 45 torpedo. In lightweight antisubmarine torpedoes designed to penetrate submarine hulls, a shaped charge can be used. Detonation can be triggered by direct contact with the target or by a proximity fuze incorporating sonar and/or magnetic sensors.
Control surfaces and hydrodynamics
Control surfaces are essential for a torpedo to maintain its course
and depth. A homing torpedo also needs to be able to outmanoeuvre a
target. Good hydrodynamics are needed for it to attain high speed
efficiently and also to give long range, since the torpedo has limited
stored energy.
Launch platforms and launchers
Further information: Torpedo tube
Torpedoes may be launched from submarines, surface ships, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, unmanned naval mines and naval fortresses.[41] They are also used in conjunction with other weapons; for example the Mark 46 torpedo used by the United States is the warhead section of the ASROC (Anti-Submarine ROCket) and the CAPTOR mine (CAPsulated TORpedo) is a submerged sensor platform which releases a torpedo when a hostile contact is detected.
Ship
Amidships quintuple mounting for 21 in (53 cm) torpedoes aboard the World War II era destroyer USS Charrette
Originally, Whitehead torpedoes were intended for launch underwater
and the firm was upset when they found out the British were launching
them above water, as they considered their torpedoes too delicate for
this. However, the torpedoes survived. The launch tubes could be fitted
in a ship's bow, which weakened it for ramming, or on the broadside;
this introduced problems because of water flow twisting the torpedo, so
guide rails and sleeves were used to prevent it. The torpedoes were
originally ejected from the tubes by compressed air but later slow
burning gunpowder was used. Torpedo boats originally used a frame that
dropped the torpedo into the sea. Royal Navy Coastal Motor Boats of World War I used a rear-facing trough and a cordite
ram to push the torpedoes into the water tail-first; they then had to
move rapidly out of the way to avoid being hit by their own torpedo.
Developed in the run-up to the First World War,[citation needed]
multiple-tube mounts (initially twin, later triple and in WW2 up to
quintuple in some ships) for 21 to 24 in (53 to 61 cm) torpedoes in
rotating turntable mounts appeared. Destroyers could be found with two
or three of these mounts with between five and twelve tubes in total.
The Japanese went one better, covering their tube mounts with splinter
protection and adding reloading gear (both unlike any other navy in the
world),[42] making them true turrets and increasing the broadside without adding tubes and top hamper (as the quadruple and quintuple mounts did). Considering their Type 93s
very effective weapons, the IJN equipped their cruisers with torpedoes.
The Germans also equipped their capital ships with torpedoes.
Smaller vessels such as PT boats carried their torpedoes in fixed
deck mounted tubes using compressed air. These were either aligned to
fire forward or at an offset angle from the centerline.
Later, lightweight mounts for 12.75 in (32.4 cm) homing torpedoes
were developed for anti-submarine use consisting of triple launch tubes
used on the decks of ships. These were the 1960 Mk 32 torpedo launcher
in the USA and part of STWS (Shipborne Torpedo Weapon System) in the
UK. Later a below-decks launcher was used by the RN. This basic launch
system continues to be used today with improved torpedoes and fire
control systems.
Submarines
Modern submarines use either swim-out systems or a pulse of water to
discharge the torpedo from the tube, both of which have the advantage of
being significantly quieter than previous systems, helping avoid
detection of the firing from passive sonar. Earlier designs used a pulse
of compressed air or a hydraulic ram.
Originally, torpedo tubes were fitted to both the bow and stern of
submarines. Modern submarine bows are usually occupied by a large sonar
array, necessitating midships
tubes angled outward, while stern tubes have largely disappeared. The
first French and Russian submarines carried their torpedoes externally
in Drzewiecki drop collars.
These were cheaper than tubes, but less reliable. Both Britain and
America experimented with external tubes in World War II. External tubes
offered a cheap and easy way of increasing torpedo capacity without
radical redesign, something neither had time or resources to do prior
to, or early in, the war. British T class submarines carried up to 13 torpedo tubes, up to 5 of them external. America's use was mainly limited to earlier Porpoise-, Salmon-, and Sargo-class boats. Until the appearance of the Tambors,
most American submarines only carried 4 bow and either 2 or 4 stern
tubes, something many American submarine officers felt provided
inadequate firepower.[citation needed] This problem was compounded by the notorious unreliability of the Mark 14 torpedo.
Late in World War II, the U.S. adopted a 16 in (41 cm) homing torpedo (known as "Cutie") for use against escorts. It was basically a modified Mark 24 Mine with wooden rails to allow firing from a 21 in (53 cm) torpedo tube.[43]
Air launch
Aerial torpedoes
may be carried by fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters or missiles. They
are launched from the first two at prescribed speeds and altitudes,
dropped from bomb-bays or underwing hardpoints.
Handling equipment
Although lightweight torpedoes are fairly easily handled, the
transport and handling of heavyweight ones is difficult, especially in
the small space of a submarine. After the Second World War, some Type
XXI submarines were obtained from Germany by the United States and
Britain. One of the main novel developments seen was a mechanical
handling system for torpedoes. Such systems were widely adopted as a
result of this discovery.[citation needed]
Classes and diameters
Torpedo tube aboard the French submarine Argonaute
Main article: list of torpedoes by diameter
Torpedoes are launched several ways:
- From a torpedo tube mounted either in a trainable deck mount (common in destroyers), or fixed above or below the waterline of a surface vessel (as in cruisers, battleships, and armed merchant cruisers) or submarine.
- Early submarines, and some torpedo boats (such as the U.S. World War II PT boats, which used the Mark 13 aircraft torpedo) used deck-mounted "drop collars", which simply relied on gravity.
- From shackles aboard low-flying aircraft or helicopters.
- As the final stage of a compound rocket or ramjet powered munition (sometimes called an assisted torpedo).
Many navies have two weights of torpedoes:
- A light torpedo used primarily as a close attack weapon, particularly by aircraft.
- A heavy torpedo used primarily as a standoff weapon, particularly by submerged submarines.
In the case of deck or tube launched torpedoes, the diameter of the
torpedo is obviously a key factor in determining the suitability of a
particular torpedo to a tube or launcher, similar to the caliber
of the gun. The size is not quite as critical as for a gun, but
diameter has become the most common way of classifying torpedoes.
Length, weight, and other factors also contribute to compatibility. In the case of aircraft launched torpedoes,
the key factors are weight, provision of suitable attachment points,
and launch speed. Assisted torpedoes are the most recent development in
torpedo design, and are normally engineered as an integrated package.
Versions for aircraft and assisted launching have sometimes been based
on deck or tube launched versions, and there has been at least one case
of a submarine torpedo tube being designed to fire an aircraft torpedo.
As in all munition design, there is a compromise between standardisation, which simplifies manufacture and logistics,
and specialisation, which may make the weapon significantly more
effective. Small improvements in either logistics or effectiveness can
translate into enormous operational advantages.
Mark 30 torpedo on display at DCAE Cosford.
MU90 Impact triple launcher onboard F221 Hessen, a Sachsen class frigate of the German Navy.
A Malafon torpedo-carrying missile of the 1960s
See also: List of torpedoes
Modern German Navy:
- DM2A4 heavyweight torpedo
- DM2A3 heavyweight torpedo
- MU 90 lightweight impact torpedo
- Mark 46 torpedo
- Barracuda (supercavitating torpedo)
The torpedoes used by the World War II Kriegsmarine included:
The torpedoes used by the Imperial Japanese Navy (World War II) included:
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
- Type 72 torpedo
- Type 73 Light Weight torpedo
- Type 80 torpedo (G-RX1)
- Type 89 torpedo (G-RX2)
- Type 97 Light Weight Torpedo (G-RX4)
- Type 12 Light Weight Torpedo (G-RX5)
- Advanced Experimental Torpedo (lightweight torpedo)
- Varunastra (heavyweight torpedo)
- Thakshak (heavy weight torpedo)[44]
- Torpedo Advanced Light
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Torpedoes used by the Royal Canadian Navy include:
The torpedoes used by the Royal Navy include:
- Spearfish torpedo
- Stingray torpedo
- Tigerfish
- Mark 8, designed in 1925, last used in action in 1982
Torpedoes used by the Russian Navy include:
It was reported on 20 May 2013 that the Russian Navy
did not have enough torpedoes for training or testing purposes. An
unnamed source in the Navy said that "Our manufacturers make obsolete
torpedoes that were developed back in the 1980s and we don't even have
enough of them for testing when building or refitting ships and
submarines. The torpedoes that we have in storage are out of their
service lives and can't be used." He added that the problem is that
torpedo development is out of step with the type and number of warships
that Russia is now building, he added. It is expected that the Navy will
only start getting modern fifth-generation torpedoes in 2017. The Fizik-1 or "product 2534" was ready five years ago but has still not been cleared for service while the next version, the Fizik-2, has already appeared.[45]
The major torpedoes in the United States Navy inventory are:
- the Mark 46 lightweight
- the Mark 48 heavyweight torpedo
- the Mark 50 advanced lightweight
- the Mark 54 Lightweight Hybrid Torpedo
- the Mark 60 Encapsulated Torpedo (CAPTOR), a moored anti-submarine mine that releases a torpedo as its warhead
Notes
This article incorporates text from Overland monthly and Out West magazine, by Bret Harte, a publication from 1886 now in the public domain in the United States.
The first air attack using a torpedo dropped by an aeroplane was carried out by Flight Commander Charles H. K. Edmonds, flying a Short 184 seaplane from Ben-my-Chree on 12 August 1915, against a 5,000 ton Turkish supply ship in the Sea of Marmara. Although the enemy ship was hit and sunk, the captain of a British submarine claimed to have fired a torpedo simultaneously and sunk the ship. It was further stated that the British submarine E14 had attacked and immobilised the ship four days earlier.
Never fired in anger, a fixed torpedo tube battery was built on the east of the harbour mouth, just up river from Kingswear Castle. The intent was to defend the river Dart.
References
- Blair, Clay. Silent Victory. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1975.
- Boyne, Walter J. Clash of Titans. Simon and Schuster; 1995. ISBN 0-684-80196-5.
- Brown, David. Warship Losses of World War Two. Arms and Armour, London, 1990. ISBN 0-85368-802-8.
- The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, online.
- Crowley, R.O. "Confederate Torpedo Service". The Century, Volume 56, Issue 2, The Century Company, New York, June 1898.
- Epstein, Katherine C. Torpedo: Inventing the Military-Industrial Complex in the United States and Great Britain. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014.
- Edwyn Gray The Devil's device: The story of Robert Whitehead, inventor of the torpedo Seeley; 1st UK ed. edition, 1975. ISBN 978-0-85422-104-2
- Edwyn Gray Nineteenth-Century Torpedoes and Their Inventors US Naval Institute Press, January 2004. ISBN 978-1-59114-341-3
- Lyon, David. The First Destroyers. Chatham Publishing, 1 & 2 Faulkner's Alley, Cowcross Street, London, Great Britain, 1996. ISBN 1-55750-271-4.
- Milford, Frederick J. "U.S. Navy Torpedoes: Part One—Torpedoes through the Thirties". The Submarine Review, April 1996. (quarterly publication of the Naval Submarine League, P.O. Box 1146, Annandale, VA 22003)
- Milford, Frederick J. "U.S. Navy Torpedoes: Part Two—The Great Torpedo Scandal, 1941-43". The Submarine Review, October 1996.
- Milford, Frederick J. "U.S. Navy Torpedoes: Part Three—WW II development of conventional torpedoes 1940–1946". The Submarine Review, January 1997.
- Morison, Samuel Eliot. History of United States Naval Operations in World War Two. Volume 3. Little, Brown, and Company, 1984 edition.
- O'Kane, Richard H. (1987). "Seventh Patrol", Wahoo: The Patrols of America's Most Famous World War II Submarine. Novato, California: Presidio Press.
- Olender, Piotr. Russo-Japanese Naval War 1904-1905, Vol. 2, Battle of Tsushima. Published by Stratus s.c.; Sandomierz, Poland, 2010. ISBN 978-83-61421-02-3.
- Perry, Milton F. Infernal Machines: The Story of Confederate Submarine and Mine Warfare. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985. ISBN 0-8071-1285-2.
External links
- "Modern Torpedoes And Countermeasures", by Austin Joseph, Bharat Rakshak Monitor, Volume 3(4) January–February 2001.
- Navy Fact File Torpedoes: Mark 46, Mark 48, Mark 50, the source of the US Navy torpedo data (via the Internet Archive)
- The US Navy – Fact File: Torpedo - Mark 46
- The US Navy – Fact File: Heavyweight Torpedo - Mark 48
- The US Navy – Fact File: Torpedo - Mark 50
- The US Navy – Fact File: Torpedo - Mark 54
- "A History of the Torpedo The Early Days"
- "Torpedo History" Geoff Kirby (1972)
- "Development of Rocket Torpedoes" Geoff Kirby (2000)
- Torpedo Display, US Naval Undersea Museum
- Torpedo Collection, US Naval Undersea Museum
- Super Cavitation Torpedo 'Barracuda'
- 1890-07-26: THE SIMS - EDISON ELECTRIC TORPEDO - THE TORPEDO AT FULL SPEED - SECTIONAL VIEW OF THE TORPEDO
- Our New Torpedo Bombers To Batter the Axis, September 1942, Popular Science illustration at bottom of page 94 shows how Whitehead's so called "secret unit" (i.e., the Pendulum mechanism) kept a torpedo level after entering the water, which made the self-propelled torpedo possible
- Torture Test For Tin Fishes August 1944 article on testing US torpedoes - detailed photos
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo
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