Russia new wonder weapon?

[Timstone]

You do know this is an excellent idea?

[ZeroAdunn]

Originally posted by Tnarg:
I just caught the tail end of a report on CNN regarding Russia's new wonder weapon or something.

What are you talking about Russia is a wonder weapon

[Yef]

The Russian super-torpedo:


"In 1997 Russia announced that it had developed a high-speed unguided underwater torpedo, which has no equivalent in the West. Code-named the Shkval or "Squall," the Russian torpedo reportedly travels so fast that no U.S. defense can stop it.

In late 2000, after the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk, new reports began circulating that the Chinese navy had bought the Shkval torpedo.

"The Shkval" stated Richard Fisher, a defense analyst and senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, "was designed to give Soviet subs with less capable sonar the ability to kill U.S. submarines before U.S. wire-guided anti-sub torpedoes could reach their target. The Chinese navy would certainly want to have this kind of advantage over U.S. subs in the future. At the speed that it travels, the Shkval could literally punch a hole in most U.S. ships, with little need for an explosive warhead."

"This torpedo travels at a speed of 200 knots, or five to six times the speed of a normal torpedo, and is especially suited for attacking large ships such as aircraft carriers," Fisher said. "


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"Pope, an American businessman, was charged by Russian authorities with spying, specifically that he had sought to buy plans for the "ultra-high-speed torpedo."

"Evidence does suggest" said Scientific American, "that both incidents revolved around an amazing and little-reported technology that allows naval weapons and vessels to travel submerged at hundreds of miles per hour – in some cases, faster than the speed of sound in water."

The new technology that allows for these superfast torpedoes "is based on the physical phenomenon of supercavitation."

According to Scientific American, the new generation of torpedoes, some believed capable of carrying nuclear warheads, are surrounded by a "renewable envelope of gas so that the liquid wets very little of the body's surface, thereby drastically reducing the viscous drag" on the torpedo.

The new technology "could mean a quantum leap in naval warfare that is analogous in some ways to the move from prop planes to jets or even to rockets and missiles."

[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."

[Atrocities]

Is this not the same new torpedo that blew up one of their subs a few years back?

*edit*

Missed this so ya it was.

" the ill-fated Kursk"

[ April 05, 2004, 12:34: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

[Yef]

Scientific American reports that China has purchased around 40 Shkval torpedoes from Kazakstan,

Hey, I didn't know Kazajstan had a navy!
The Caspian Sea Navy, perhaps?

[Puke]

I read about those a few years back, but they had supprising little press coverage. really cool stuff!