Modern air launched torpedos against surface ships

Is there a role for air launched torpedo to be used against surface ships in modern warfare? This could be either aircraft or missile launched for the attack. Against merchant shipping by aircraft is possible, use of a cruise missile carrier, that could also carry an explosive warhead to attack multiple targets, against military ships could also be possible.
 
the argentinians had a project to arm their CAS aircraft with torpedoes during the falklands war....but the war ended before the system saw combat
 

sharlin

Banned
It could be possible and considering the range of modern heavy weight torpedos they could be a stand off weapon but a cruise missile is still probably more efficient.
 
Only two countries still have aircraft that carry torpedoes for anti-ship use: China and North Korea. The ChiComs use Fantans (A-5s) in their Naval Aviation, though the JH-7 with air-launched antiship missiles is taking over that mission. The NKAF still has a Regiment of Il-28 Beagles equipped to carry torpedoes. The Fantans at least can survive in theory against a moderately-equipped opponent. The NKs, well....in the 1960s or 70s, they'd have a chance. These days, forget it.
 
It's my understanding that modern torpedoes operating as anti-ship weapons use their warheads to create 'bubbles' under their target's keels, introducing additional stresses (from the collapse of all that displaced water) that a straight missile wouldn't have. So there are possible reasons to do it other than additional stand-off range, or 'dropping' outside of Phalanx range or something.

That said, I don't know of any such system actually existing.
 

sharlin

Banned
Aye they basically break a ships back, a modern torpedo is so much more devastating than anything in WW2, even a long lance pails into insignificance compared to an ADCAP Mk 48.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mark_48_Torpedo_testing.jpg

Thats one torpedo detonating under the ship, it ripped her spine out and a huge chunk of her below the waterline and as you can see was quite devastating.

The thing is guidance, if you used the torps own sonar it could be tricked by noisemakers etc as you can't wire guide a torp if you throw it off a plane.
 
The torpedoes the Chinese and NKs use aren't modern like the Mark-48 or Spearfish. The air-dropped torpedoes are copies of Soviet torpedoes from the 1950s: straight runners with impact fuses.
 

Riain

Banned
Even the best air dropped torpedos have to be launched from slow speed, low altitude, close range and on a straight bearing. Even the old Sea Cat SAM could easily shoot down the best torpedo bomber on its approach. But just as importantly modern ships aren't armoured like WW2 ships and even a 300lb Maverick warhead will do serious damage to your average warship let alone what something like a Popeye missile's 600lb SAP warhead will do.
 
Harpoon (AGM/RGM/BGM-84) has a 500-pound warhead. Throw in unburned missile fuel, and you'll have one big mess. Mavericks aren't generally used against large combatants-they usually go for frigate sized or smaller-even the AGM-65D IIR version with a 125-pound shaped charge warhead will do a number on a ship. Tomahawk ASM (no longer in the inventory) had a 300-mile range and a thousand-pound warhead. (they've all been recycled into land-attack versions, if they haven't already had that work done and been used)

Exocet, btw, has a 363-pound warhead. Contrast that with the AS-4 carried by the Backfire (still): 1100 pound warhead and plenty of missile fuel to spill and ignite.
 

sharlin

Banned
actually they don't, parachute one down and rely on acoustic sonar. If you're firing at a convoy they make enough noise to track but then again, modern merchies are a LOT faster than WW2 ones. In essence if a torp was dropped from long range to stay out of a SAM umbrella the convoy could turn away from it and go to full speed relying on speed and distance to negate the threat.
 
An air-launched derivative of the Soviet VA-111 would be a scary thought, 200 knots or so, and unable to be hit by CIWS. The modern ones apparently have a range of over 10km as well.
 
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Only the early versions (and those had ranges of only about 2 km), later ones apparently had some guidance.
 
They don't, it uses terminal guidance... okay, scratch what I said about these things being air-dropable.
 
They don't, it uses terminal guidance... okay, scratch what I said about these things being air-dropable.

Wasn't there some mention of these things having some sort of intertial guidance system as well? With that and the terminal guidance system, they could still be pretty scary.
 
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