Has anyone heard anything about the "gas torpedo" that the ChiComs were supposedly developing? It would sure fit in with this story! The weapon was supposed to ride a cloud of bubbles, under water, at speeds around 200mph. The thrust of the report (maybe around 1998) was that a carrier group would be sitting ducks for such a weapon. I never heard another thing about it after the inital report.
Yes, cavitating torpedoes. The Pentagon has a substantial and active program working on them. But so do a number of other countries, Russia mainly. I remember those articles well . . . But you're right, we don't hear much anymore.
The technology you are referring to is known as super-cavitation. Basically, if an object travels within an encapsulated bubble of air, in water, it overcomes a lot of the inherent water resistance and thus allows it to achieve capabilities that would normally not be possible under the fluid dynamic conditions of water. In this case a torpedo is 'blanketed' with many small air bubbles, reducing drag, and allowing it to go at speeds far beyond what is 'normal.'
The Soviets (and thereafter the Russians) started this branch. They came up with a torpedo system called the Shkval (Squall), where the weapon could go in a straight line at speeds 5-6 times faster than the fastest we had. However the initial weapon had a fatal flaw ....it could only travel in a straight line. Hence, it was at best a weapon fired after a US sub had fired at the Ruskie sub. Hence, that would probably force the US sub to stop guidance, and hence save the Ruskie sub.
They were originally meant to be fitted with a nuclear warhead, hence going in a straight line was never the main issue ....speed was.I do know that the USN is also working on some super-cavitation weapons ....most of them directed towards 'shooting' underwater mines and incoming torpedos, and to some extent coming up with super-fast torpedoes of our own (although our doctrine is more toward stealth and quietness than torpedoes that think they are rockets).
Hope that answers your questions.
Its not worth a crap though. Might be fast but the range is extremely limited. We had this discussion long ago with someone who knows a lot more than me.
He was some engineer of weapons systems specifically for the navy I think.
His main point was "yeah they might haul ass but they can't go beyong XX range...we can just sit back more than that XX range and hit them every time...Kind of like boxing with someone with 5 feet long arms"