Posted on 07/25/2008 6:25:19 PM PDT by naturalman1975
AN Australian submarine - HMAS Waller - has used a new super torpedo - the Mark 48 - to sink an American warship off Hawaii.
The HMAS Waller fired the heavyweight Mark 48 torpedo, which the US and Australian navies say is the world's deadliest, during war games this week.
Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said the torpedo had been jointly developed by Australia and the United States.
The firing occurred during the Rim of the Pacific 2008 (RIMPAC 08) exercise, involving multiple navies off the coast of Hawaii.
"This controlled exercise resulted in the planned sinking of a retired US warship," Mr Fitzgibbon said.
"This represents the first new heavyweight torpedo warshot to be fired by either Navy. Just as significant is the fact that the warshot torpedo was assembled in Australia," Mr Fitzgibbon said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
That’s an old Spruance class DD. Looks like it could be 969, USS Peterson, but she was sunk in a weapons test in 2004.
These Spruance class DDs never went to mothballs. They were stricken immediately. I sometimes wonder if it was a mistake to dispose of all these ships so precipitously. The Chinese are building a modern blue water Navy and the Russians are re-asserting themselves.
We modernized and converted many WW2 era ships to serve long into the 1960s after hard use during the war.
Today we have a goal of a 313 ship fleet. Seems tiny for a nation with vital interests in every ocean.
Even with the early WWII era contact torpedoes, there weren’t many survivors when a torpedo collided with a destroyer.
USS David R Ray (DD971.)
USS David R Ray (DD971.)
Found it.
USS Fletcher.
Nope - USS Fletcher.
It’s the Fletcher - finally found a source that named it.
You’re right. The David R Ray is also scheduled to be sunk during these exercises as well.
Yes - she has been. David R Ray was sunk by US and Japanese ships using Harpoons and naval artillery on the 11th July. Fletcher was sunk by HMAS Waller on 16th July.
Yea, try again.. that girl I’m sure served her tours well.. but she wasn’t a Battleship.
Yeah, basically almost all the insides, electronics, etc. of the CBASS are completely different and upgraded from the original Mk 48; it’s really a new torpedo in the old shell.
Thanks for the info.
Given that scrap iron is about $200/ton, wouldn’t it be economical to recycle a ship like that? Maybe not. It would be a bunch of work to cut it up.
The original Fletcher (DD-445?)? I thought she was made into razor blades long ago? ;-)
I was wrong. It was the Fletcher. The Ray was sunk by shell fire and Harpoons five days earlier.
That does it, Australia, THIS IS WAR!
She was, in 1972. This was DD-992.
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