Remember the surprise the USN got from the Japanese Long Lance Torpedo in WW II. A lot of ships sank in "Iron Bottom Sound" because of them.
This torpedo looks like it would give the new USN Surface Ship Torpedo Defense (SSTD) system a tough time with its high speed and acoustic countermeasures resistance. Performance sounds like it exceeds the USN Mk48 since the Chinese Navy already has a Mk48 equivalent with the Yu-6. I remember working on the Mark 48 Mod 5 (ADCAP) at Hughes GSG in the 1980's which converted a basically analog to digital machine:
Yu-6 torpedo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yu-6 (鱼-6) torpedo is the Chinese equivalent of the Mark 48 torpedo. In addition to wire and active / passive homing guidance, wake homing guidance is also incorporated. Many domestic Chinese sources have claimed that Yu-6 torpedo is in the same class as the Mk 48 Mod. 4 torpedo, but official information of Yu-6 torpedo released by the Chinese government is limited and such claim thus cannot be confirmed by sources outside China.
At least one Mark 48 torpedo was reportedly recovered by Chinese fishermen in the late 1970s or early 1980s, and China might have begun the reverse engineering in the 1980s. However, due to the inexperience of the Chinese technological base at the time, as well as the concentration on economic development, most of the reverse engineering attempt was put on hold after research had been completed on Otto fuel II, wire guidance and some other subsystems, but some research continued on much smaller scale. In comparison to the first generation Chinese wire guided torpedo Yu-5 torpedo, which must use acoustic guidance in the terminal stage or when the wire is severed, the wire and acoustic guidance can be switched from one to another at any time in the Yu-6 torpedo. Furthermore, when the wire of Yu-6 torpedo is severed, the targeting information stored in the memory would enable the computer onboard to calculate the approximate new location of the target, augmenting the acoustic homing to achieve a higher kill probability.
Yu-6 heavyweight torpedo Specifications
* Diameter: 533 mm
* Guidance: passive / active acoustic homing + wake homing + wire guidance
* Propulsion: Otto fuel II
* Speed: maximum > 65 kt (for attack)
* Range: maximum 45 km+ (at the cruise speed)"
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| new Chinese high-speed maneuvering torpedo |
Scoop on New Torpedo
China’s navy recently conducted a test of a new high-speed maneuvering torpedo that poses a threat to U.S. ships and submarines.
Defense officials said the new torpedo is the latest example of what the Pentagon calls Beijing’s anti-access, area-denial, or AA/AD, high-tech weaponry.
Other new weapons include China’s recently deployed anti-ship ballistic missile, the DF-21D, which is designed to sink U.S. aircraft carriers far from China’s shores.
China’s military showcased last month another high-tech weapon designed to target Navy ships and submarines. U.S. submarines are considered one of the U.S. military’s most important counter weapons to the AA/AD threat.
The torpedo test was disclosed on a Chinese blog, a frequent outlet for official leaks of new weapons systems in the Chinese arsenal.
The blog Tencent, one of China’s largest online outlets, revealed Oct. 15 that China’s navy conducted an underwater test launch of a new precision-guided, maneuvering torpedo in the South China Sea.
China has been blamed for growing tensions in the South China Sea region over the past several months by asserting claim to nearly 90 percent of the waters, bringing it into potential conflict with Vietnam and Philippines and raising concerns in Indonesia and Malaysia about growing Chinese hegemony.
The blog post included a series of photos revealing what was described as a new type of high-speed “intelligent” torpedo that sank a 1,000-ton target ship in the test firing.
“The new-type torpedo that was launched from a long distance and at a great depth nimbly skirted around the jamming ‘acoustic decoy’ and struck right in the middle of the 1,000-ton-plus target ship, sinking it with a loud boom,” the posting reported.
The report said the new torpedo represents a “leap” for the People’s Liberation Army Navy to “the front ranks of the world.”
Rick Fisher, a China military affairs expert, said the new torpedo signals a shift in China’s past practice of relying on Soviet-Russian and stolen American technology to build torpedoes.
China also is said to be using Russian underwater warfare know-how to build a torpedo-killing anti-torpedo. The killer torpedoes are launched against incoming underwater torpedoes that, like the reported new Chinese weapon, are immune to U.S. electronic countermeasures.
“If China is developing torpedoes that are able to out-fox towed decoys like the U.S. Nixie system, then it becomes more urgent that the U.S. Navy deploy its own ‘anti-torpedo’ torpedo,” said Fisher, senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center.
The Nixie system is a ship-towed electronic decoy that simulates the signature of a ship in the water. It is intended to divert homing torpedoes from hitting ships carrying the decoy.
“The U.S. has had such a [anti-torpedo] system under development for many years, but it now needs to be preserved in time of tighter budgets, and even accelerated,” Fisher said.
The designation for the new Chinese torpedo and the type of submarine or ship it was fired from were not identified. One photo showed the torpedo fired from a ship. Other photos showed it being loaded on a submarine.
However, the test was conducted near the South China Sea’s Hainan Island. A tunnel entrance to a coastal submarine base on the island was photographed several years ago by satellites.
The base is home to China’s new Type 094 attack submarines and the torpedo test was likely fired from the nuclear powered sub.
The posting said China’s torpedo technology in the past was a “weak area” of military development. But armed with the new “all digital” torpedo, attack submarines will be able to “fight winning battles.”
According to the blog, the torpedo was fired at a preset course “like a kite that was tethered to the submarine, as it was still receiving real-time instructions from the submarine.”
Then at a certain point, the torpedo “guidance device” was activated and the torpedo searched for its target. Within minutes it “automatically adjusted the attack depth and started to charge toward the target ship at a greater speed, successfully piercing the target!” the report said.
The torpedo pierced the target four times before its high-explosive warhead exploded, sinking the ship
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