The U.S. Navy's maximum commonly used torpedo — the Mark 48 — is getting a makeover to be able to make it stealthier, deadlier and extra a long way-attaining than ever earlier than, according to information sources.
The upgrade will assist the submarine-launched heavyweight torpedo — that's a self-propelled underwater missile — demolish enemy ships, submarines and small boats in both shallow and deep waters, in line with Warrior Maven, an armed-forces-focused news website.
But the new torpedo isn't always prepared for high time simply yet. In reality, it has yet to be built; the Navy issued those specs, and others, in a current solicitation to the enterprise, Warrior Maven suggested. [Weird Weapons: Strange Artifacts in the US Navy's Archives]
Once completed, the high-tech torpedo will help the Navy hit its targets more efficiently and from farther distances, supporting it compete with other international locations which are ramping up their navies, inclusive of Russia and China, Warrior Maven stated.
For instance, the upgraded weapon's guidance and control structures may have a higher communications shape that replaces its copper wire with fiber-optic twine, allowing the submarine to send extra statistics to the torpedo and vice versa, in impact giving the deadly device a better reaction time, Shephard Media reported.
"The Mk forty eight ADCAP (superior capability) torpedo is a heavyweight acoustic-homing torpedo with state-of-the-art sonar, all-virtual steering and manipulate systems, virtual fusing systems and propulsion improvements," William Couch, Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman, advised Warrior Maven.
Submariners and Military Sealift Command civilian mariners secure an MK-48 torpedo to a crane as they onload to the USATopeka on June 7.
Submariners and Military Sealift Command civilian mariners comfortable an MK-forty eight torpedo to a crane as they onload to the united statesTopeka on June 7.
Credit: U.S. Navy
All lessons of U.S. Navy submarines use the MK 48 heavyweight torpedo as an anti-submarine and anti-floor war weapon, along with the Virginia elegance and but-to-be-made Columbia magnificence subs, Couch stated. (The first Columbia magnificence submarines are predicted to be operational in 2031, the U.S. Department of Defense suggested.)
The modern-day MK forty eight is almost 2 ft (zero.5 meters) in diameter and weighs a whopping 3,520 lbs. (nearly 1,600 kilograms). It can spoil targets 5 miles (8 kilometers) away at speeds more than 28 knots (32 mph or fifty two km/h), and even maneuver at depths deeper than 1,2 hundred ft (365 m), statistics from the Navy and Lockheed Martin (which makes the torpedo) showed, in step with Warrior Maven.
In addition, the MK 48 can shoot a 650-lb. (295 kg) excessive explosive warhead underwater.
The upgraded torpedo is anticipated to be operational in 2024, Warrior Maven mentioned. The Navy has used the version this is being updated — the Mod 7 — in view that 2006.
"The ultra-modern model of the Mk 48 ADCAP is the mod 7 Common Broadband Advanced Sonar System [CBASS]," Couch advised Warrior Maven. CBASS allows electronics to move in the torpedo's nose, as well as its guidance machine.
Lockheed Martin Sippican is already running on the torpedo's new guidance and manage structures, and Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) has a contract for the weapon's afterbody (its tail cease) and propulsion segment, Couch said. On June 20, Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. Become awarded a agreement to use its engineering and preservation offerings at the MK forty eight, the Department of Defense said.
The United States isn't the handiest us of a to apply the MK forty eight torpedo; Australia, Canada, Brazil and the Netherlands use it, too, Warrior Maven mentioned.
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