Posted on 10/08/2001 4:56:04 PM PDT by Fighting Irish
Russia has developed new submarine-launched torpedos that travel at incredible speeds – perhaps as fast as the speed of sound underwater.
Scientific American reports in its May edition that these supersophisticated weapons have been linked to the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk last August, and even to the arrest and imprisonment of Edmond Pope.
Pope, an American businessman, was charged by Russian authorities with spying, specifically that he had sought to buy plans for the "ultrahigh-speed torpedo."
The magazine reports that "evidence does suggest that both incidents revolved around an amazing and little-reported technology that allows naval weapons and vessels to travel submerged at hundreds of miles per hour – in some cases, faster than the speed of sound in water. The swiftest traditional undersea technologies, in contrast, are limited to a maximum of about 80 mph."
The new technology that allows for these incredible speeds is "is based on the physical phenomenon of supercavitation."
According to Scientific American, the new generation of torpedos, some believed capabale of carrying nuclear warheads, are surrounded by a "renewable envelope of gas so that the liquid wets very little of the body's surface, thereby drastically reducing the viscous drag" on the torpedo.
The new technology "could mean a quantum leap in naval warfare that is analogous in some ways to the move from prop planes to jets or even to rockets and missiles."
In 1997 Russia announced that it had developed a high-speed unguided underwater torpedo, which has no equivalent in the West.
Code-named the Shkval or "Squall," the Russian torpedo reportedly travels so fast that no U.S. defense can stop it.
In late 2000, after the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk, new reports began circulating that the Chinese navy had bought the Shkval torpedo.
The modern Russian weapon in Chinese navy hands has sent alarm bells ringing through the halls of the Pentagon.
"China purchased the Shkval rocket torpedo," stated Richard Fisher, a defense analyst and senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation.
"The Shkval was designed to give Soviet subs with less capable sonar the ability to kill U.S. submarines before U.S. wire-guided anti-sub torpedoes could reach their target. The Chinese navy would certainly want to have this kind of advantage over U.S. subs in the future. At the speed that it travels, the Shkval could literally punch a hole in most U.S. ships, with little need for an explosive warhead."
"This torpedo travels at a speed of 200 knots, or five to six times the speed of a normal torpedo, and is especially suited for attacking large ships such as aircraft carriers," stated Fisher.
The report that China purchased some 40 Shkval torpedoes from Russia in 1998 has been confirmed by U.S. intelligence sources. Pentagon officials also confirmed that a Chinese naval officer was on board the ill-fated Russian submarine Kursk to observe firings of the Shkval.
The Shkval rocket first came to light in the Western press in April 2000 when Russian FSB security services charged American businessman Edward Pope with spying for the U.S. According to Russian intelligence sources, Pope obtained detailed information on the rocket-powered torpedo.
A FSB statement said it confiscated "technical drawings of various equipment, recordings of his conversations with Russian citizens relating to their work in the Russian defense industry, and receipts for American dollars received by them."
The 6,000-pound Shkval rocket torpedo has a range of about 7,500 yards and can fly through the water at more than 230 miles an hour. The solid-rocket-propelled "torpedo" achieves this high speed by producing a high-pressure stream of bubbles from its nose and skin, which coats the weapon in a thin layer of gas. The Shkval flies underwater inside a giant "envelope" of gas bubbles in a process called "supercavitation."
The Russian Pacific Fleet held the first tests of the Shkval torpedo in the spring of 1998. In early 1999, Russia began marketing a conventionally armed version of the Shkval high-speed underwater rocket at the IDEX 99 exhibition in Abu Dhabi.
The Shkval is so fast that it is guided by an autopilot rather than by a homing head as on most torpedoes. The original Shkval was designed to carry a tactical nuclear warhead detonated by a simple timer clock. However, the Russians recently began advertising a homing version, which runs out at very high speed, then slows to search for its target.
There are no evident countermeasures to the Shkval and, according to weapons experts, its deployment by Russian and Chinese naval forces has placed the U.S. Navy at a considerable disadvantage.
"We have no equivalent, its velocity would make evasive action exceedingly difficult, and it is likely that we have no defense against it," stated Jack Spencer, a defense analyst at the Heritage Foundation.
According to the Jamestown Foundation's Richard Fisher, China is acquiring a fleet of blue-water submarines armed with the deadly Shkval. In a recent defense report, Fisher noted the Chinese navy is arming itself with a deadly combination of silent submarines, supersonic nuclear tipped Stealth missiles and Shkval rocket torpedoes. Fisher warned that the new Chinese navy is capable of operating far from Asian shores.
"There are reports that the Chinese navy's current subs do not have tubes large enough to fire the Shkval. The Chinese navy has completed the acquisition of four Russian Kilo-class conventional submarines. The Kilo 636 is said to be nearly as quiet as the early version of the U.S. Los Angeles class nuclear submarine," noted Fisher.
"This very high speed torpedo would provide the PLA with the technology to build their own version, and this is a looming threat," stated Fisher.
"The next few years may also see China produce a new class of nuclear-powered submarine, the Type 093. Again benefiting from Russian technology."
The Chinese Type 093-class nuclear attack submarines are similar to Russian Victor III class first produced at the Leningrad yards in the 1970s. Each Chinese Type 093 weighs more than 5,000 tons and is over a football field in length. The Chinese type 093 submarines are armed with eight 21-inch torpedo tubes that are large enough to fire the super-fast Shkval.
"The Type 093 is projected by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence to have a performance similar to the Russian Victor-III nuclear attack submarine. By one estimate, four to six Type 093s should enter service by 2012," concluded Fisher.
Faster than the speed of sound? I don't think so, the speed of sound increases with density, the speed of sound in air at sea level is ~700mph, it's much faster in water.
As for the speed of sound in water:
Speed of Sound in Water
R. J. Wilkes, 11/5/97
The literature on sound speed in water (freshwater and seawater) is rather confusing. There are 6 primary references in the literature (refs. [1]-[6] below). Treating them in chronological order, their content can be summarized as follows:
Greenspan and Tschiegg (1959): Tables of c vs T for distilled water, 0 < T< 100 deg C; no pressure is given and it is presumably standard atmospheric P. Also given is a ploynomial fit with standard deviation 0.026 m/sec or 17 ppm.
Wilson (1960a): Tables of c for seawater, -3 < T < 30 deg C; 1.033 (=1 atm)< P < 1000 kg/cm2; 33 < S < 37 ppt. Note that P is absolute pressure. A polynomial fit is reported with standard deviation 0.22 m/sec.
Wilson (1960b): Tables of sound speed in distilled water, for 0 < T < 100 degC, 14.7 < P < 14,000 psia (ie, 1~1000 atm). The accuracy is 0.1 ppt.
Wilson (1960c): A brief note giving an updated fit equation covering a wider range of parameters (especially salinity): -4 < T < 30 deg C, 1.0 < P < 1000 kg/cm2, 0 < S < 37 ppt.
Del Grosso (1974): Provides a fit formula and tables of differences relative to results of previous formulas. Ranges are not given explicitly but tables in the paper cover 0 < T < 35 degC, 0 < S < 43 ppt, 0 < P < 1000 kg/cm2. Note that he uses gauge pressure, ie P=0 corresponds to 1 atm = 1.033 kg/cm2 absolute.
Chen and Millero (1977): Tables and fit for 0 < T < 40 deg C, 0 < P < 1000 bars, 5 < S < 40 ppt. Note pressure is gauge pressure (P=0 corresponds to 1 atm). Standard deviation of fit is 0.19 m/sec.
Attached is source code for Fortran-77 functions to compute the sound velocity for specified S,T,P using the fits described in refs. [1], [4] (which covers [2] and [3]), [5] and [6] within their valid ranges. The functions have been arranged for uniform input (T in degC, P in kg/cm2 absolute, S in ppt) and return c=-1 if input parameters are out of the range of validity for the fit coded. Naturally there is no warranty express or implied for the use of these functions!
Following the source code is a table of c vs T according to the various authors, for fresh water, and one point for seawater at T=1 degC, P=500 kg/cm2 abs, S=35 ppt.
References
[1] M. Greenspan and C. Tschiegg, (1959), JASA 31:75.
[2] W. Wilson, (1959), JASA 31:1067.
[3] W. Wilson, (1960a), JASA 32:641.
[4] W. Wilson, (1960b), JASA 32:1357.
[5] V. Del Grosso, (1974), JASA 56:1084.
[6] C. Chen and F. Millero, (1977), JASA 62:1129.
Fortran-77 functions to calculate sound speed in water
double precision function greensp(T,P,S)
implicit double precision (a-z)
c calculate c(m/sec) in fresh water at 1 atm given t(degC)
c according to m. greenspan and c. tschiegg, JASA 31:75 (1959)
if (s.gt.0.or.p.gt.1.033) then
greensp=-1.0
return
endif
c=1402.736
c=c + (5.03358)*t +(-0.0579506)*t**2
# + (3.31636e-04)*t**3 + (-1.45262e-06)*T**4
# + (3.0449e-09)*t**5
greensp=c
return
end
double precision function wilson(t,p,s)
c find c(m/sec) in water with (T(degC), P(kg/cm2 abs), S(ppt))
c according to wilson, JASA 1960
implicit double precision (a-z)
logical notok
c test for in-range
wilson=-1.0
notok=.false.
if ((t.lt.(-4.0)).or.(t.gt.30.0)) notok=.true.
if ((s.lt.0).or.(s.gt.37.0)) notok=.true.
if ((p.lt.0).or.(p.gt.1000.0)) notok=.true.
if (notok) return
c ok
c0 = 1449.14
ct1= 4.5721e00
ct2=-4.4532e-02
ct3=-2.6045e-04
ct4= 7.9851e-06
cp1=1.60272e-01
cp2=1.0268e-05
cp3=3.5216e-09
cp4=-3.3603e-12
dcs=1.39799*(S - 35.0)+1.69202e-03*(S - 35.0)**2
cstp1=-1.1244e-02
cstp2=7.7711e-07
cstp3=7.7016e-05
cstp4=-1.2943e-07
cstp5=3.1580e-08
cstp6= 1.5790e-09
cstp7=-1.8607e-04
cstp8=7.4812e-06
cstp9=4.5283e-08
cstp10=-2.5294e-07
cstp11=1.8563e-09
cstp12=-1.9646e-10
dct=t*(ct1+t*(ct2+t*(ct3+t*ct4)))
dcp=p*(cp1+p*(cp2+p*(cp3+p*cp4)))
dcstp=(s-35.0)*(cstp1*t + cstp2*t**2 + cstp3*p
# + cstp4*p**2 + cstp5*p*t + cstp6*p*t**2)
# + p*(cstp7*t + cstp8*t**2 + cstp9*t**3)
# + p*p*(cstp10*t + cstp11*t**2)
# + p**3*cstp12*t
c=c0+dct+dcp+dcs+dcstp
wilson=c
return
end
double precision function delgros(t,pa,s)
implicit double precision (a-z)
logical notok
c returns c(m/s) in water with (T(deg C), P(kg/cm2 abs), S(ppt))
c according to V. Del Grosso, JASA 56:1084 (1974)
c convert kg/cm2 absolute to gauge pressure
P=Pa-1.033
c test for in-range
delgros=-1.0
notok=.false.
if ((t.lt.0).or.(t.gt.35.0)) notok=.true.
if ((s.lt.0).or.(s.gt.43.0)) notok=.true.
if ((p.lt.0).or.(p.gt.1000.0)) notok=.true.
if (notok) return
c ok
c0=1402.392
ct1= 0.501109398873E+01
ct2= -0.550946843172E-01
ct3=+0.221535969240E-03
cs1= 0.132952290781E+01
cs2= +0.128955756844e-03
cp1= 0.156059257041e00
cp2= +0.244998688441e-04
cp3= -0.883392332513e-08
c1= -0.127562783426e-01
c2= +0.635191613389e-02
c3= +0.265484716608e-07
c4= -0.159349479045e-05
c5= +0.522116437235e-09
c6= -0.438031096213e-06
c7= -0.161674495909e-08
c8= +0.968403156410e-04
c9= +0.485639620015e-05
c10= -0.340597039004e-03
dct=t*(ct1 +t*(ct2 + t*ct3))
dcs=s*(cs1 + s*cs2)
dcp=p*(cp1 + p*(cp2 + p*cp3))
dcstp=c1*t*s + c2*t*p + c3*(t*p)**2 + c4*t*p**2
# + c5*t*p**3 + c6*p*t**3 + c7*(s*p)**2
# + c8*s*t**2 + c9*t*p*s**2 +c10*t*s*p
c=c0+dct+dcs+dcp+dcstp
delgros=c
return
end
double precision chenmil(t,p0,s)
c * sound speed according to Chen and Millero (1977) JASA,62,1129
implicit none
double precision s,t,p0
double precision a,a0,a1,a2,a3,b,b0,b1
double c,c0,c1,c2,c3,p,sr,d,sv
c convert from absolute to bars
p = p0 - 1.033
c test for in-range
wilson=-1.0
notok=.false.
if ((t.lt.0.0).or.(t.gt.40.0)) notok=.true.
if ((s.lt.5.0).or.(s.gt.40.0)) notok=.true.
if ((p.lt.0).or.(p.gt.1000.0)) notok=.true.
if (notok) return
c ok
sr = sqrt(s)
d = 1.727e-3 - 7.9836e-6 * p
b1 = 7.3637e-5 + 1.7945e-7 * t
b0 = -1.922e-2 - 4.42e-5 * t
b = b0 + b1 * p
a3 = (-3.389e-13 * t + 6.649e-12) * t + 1.100e-10
a2 = ((7.988e-12 * t - 1.6002e-10) * t
# + 9.1041e-9) * t - 3.9064e-7
a1 = (((-2.0122e-10 * t + 1.0507e-8) * t
# - 6.4885e-8) * t - 1.2580e-5) * t + 9.4742e-5
a0 = (((-3.21e-8 * t + 2.006e-6) * t
# + 7.164e-5) * t -1.262e-2) * t + 1.389
a = ((a3 * p + a2) * p + a1) * p + a0
c3 = (-2.3643e-12 * t + 3.8504e-10) * t - 9.7729e-9
c2 = (((1.0405e-12 * t -2.5335e-10) * t
# + 2.5974e-8) * t - 1.7107e-6) * t + 3.1260e-5
c1 = (((-6.1185e-10 * t + 1.3621e-7) * t
# - 8.1788e-6) * t + 6.8982e-4) * t
+ 0.153563
c0 = ((((3.1464e-9 * t - 1.47800e-6) * t
# + 3.3420e-4) * t - 5.80852e-2) * t
# + 5.03711) * t + 1402.388
c = ((c3 * p + c2) * p + c1) * p + c0
chenmil = c + (a + b * sr + d * s) * s
return
end
Sample output
Fresh water, surface
T,degC Greenspan Wilson DelGrosso
0 0.14027E+04 0.14024E+04 0.14024E+04
1 0.14077E+04 0.14074E+04 0.14073E+04
2 0.14126E+04 0.14122E+04 0.14122E+04
3 0.14173E+04 0.14169E+04 0.14169E+04
4 0.14220E+04 0.14216E+04 0.14216E+04
5 0.14265E+04 0.14261E+04 0.14261E+04
6 0.14309E+04 0.14306E+04 0.14305E+04
7 0.14352E+04 0.14350E+04 0.14348E+04
8 0.14395E+04 0.14392E+04 0.14391E+04
9 0.14436E+04 0.14434E+04 0.14432E+04
10 0.14476E+04 0.14475E+04 0.14472E+04
11 0.14515E+04 0.14514E+04 0.14511E+04
12 0.14553E+04 0.14553E+04 0.14550E+04
13 0.14591E+04 0.14591E+04 0.14587E+04
14 0.14627E+04 0.14628E+04 0.14624E+04
15 0.14662E+04 0.14664E+04 0.14659E+04
16 0.14697E+04 0.14699E+04 0.14694E+04
17 0.14731E+04 0.14734E+04 0.14727E+04
18 0.14764E+04 0.14767E+04 0.14760E+04
19 0.14795E+04 0.14800E+04 0.14792E+04
20 0.14827E+04 0.14831E+04 0.14823E+04
Seawater, p=500, s=35
T,degC Greenspan Wilson DelGrosso
1 -0.10000E+01 0.15364E+04 0.15358E+04
In other words, the speed of sound in water is roughly 1500 meters per second; that is 4920 feet per second or 3356 miles per hour. --Boris
It utilizes silver battery driven propellers to send it out from the submarine to a safe distance before a liquid fueled rocket engine kicks in to send the missile to the surface.
From there it flies under rocket power at supersonic speed until just above its target, where it ejects a lightweight-torpedo with a parachute and a 200 pound explosive warhead, that slowly drops into the water, which then homes in on the submarine.
It can be armed with a mini-nuclear warhead and can engage targets at depths of up to 500 meters."
We can thank Toshiba for this.
And many stupid Americans continue to buy their products!
FReegards,
Yes, that's about right. For an easier way to do it, see: http://www.npl.co.uk/npl/acoustics/techguides/soundseawater/content.html. It provides several alternative equations -- just press the "Interactive version" link next to your preferred one and punch in the parameters, it'll calculate the speed of sound for you.
I got 3,300 miles per hour using one equation.
So I'm very skeptical of the claims in the article. At the very least, it would take ENORMOUS forces to shove aside water fast enough to travel at 3000+ mph in the water. Not only is water quite heavy, by volume, but it's practically incomprehsible -- unlike air, you can't just "squeeze" it out of your way, you have to shove it aside, plus all the water that's all around it. That's why jumping off a bridge into a body of water is almost always fatal -- at high speeds, water is about as "hard" as concrete.
Cue the Nuclear Explosion image.
Amazing! This is getting scarier and scarier ... and uncanny. Breath of Fire is about to hit the street, and this (albeit and much improved model of the supercavitating weapon), it the lynch pin.
Should have to available for sale in the next 2-3 days.
Compared to the Mk-48 (with snapshot capability), no amount of luck will be enough, with one of these russki fish.
It simply won't matter...
BTW, nice screen name.
FReegards.
How long do y'all reckon it'll take our Counter-Intelligence to get the specs on this torpedo...oooops, I fergot, Clinton gutted our Counter-Intelligence capability seein' as there was no longer any threat to the U.S. and all!!
LOL & FReegards...MUD
We should be building this same technology.
We are way behind in development.
And if it's traveling faster than the speed of sound, who the fcuk cares how noisy it is??? (You're dead before you hear it.)
Clinton was not indifferent to this. He was delighted by it. He never got more of a thrill then he did when crapping on anything American.
Finally we've got some adults in the White House. Hopefully this will help speed our development.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.