[Yef]

More about the squall:


"The Shkval is a 6,000-pound rocket torpedo, about 27 feet long with a range of about 7,500 yards. It can fly through the water at more than 230 miles an hour.

The solid-rocket-propelled "torpedo" achieves this high speed by producing a high-pressure stream of bubbles from its nose and skin, which coats the weapon in a thin layer of gas. The Shkval flies underwater inside a giant "envelope" of gas bubbles in a process called "supercavitation."

The Shkval is so fast that it is guided by an autopilot rather than by a homing head as on most torpedoes. The original Shkval was designed to carry a tactical nuclear warhead detonated by a simple timer clock. However, the Russians recently began advertising a homing Version, which runs out at very high speed, then slows to search for its target.

"As there are no known countermeasures to such a weapon," stated David Miler in an April 1995 article "Supercavitation Going to War in a Bubble" (Jane's Intelligence Review), "its development could have significant effect on future maritime operations, both surface and subsurface, and could put Western naval forces at a considerable disadvantage."

Scientific American reports that China has purchased around 40 Shkval torpedoes from Kazakstan, "raising the possibility that Beijing could threaten American naval forces in a future confrontation in the Taiwan Strait." The magazine also says that a Chinese submarine officer was on board the ill-fated Kursk "to observe the test of the new Version of the Shkval."