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Originally Posted by Andrej
I had a conversation with a friend the other day, and he insisted that torpedo in modern US subs still have wires on them, so they can be hand guided if necessary.
Then it came to me why would someone want to have the unnecessary medium of like 5000 yards of cable when signals (waves) travel uderwater very quickly and you can still guide the torpedo with radiowaves or lasers.
So here's my question:
Do modern (or new if there are still any made) US subs equip with wire guided torpedos, and what's the reason for this?
Thanks!
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Most modern US subs have the capability to fire the ADCAP which is wire controlled. There is 9,700 yards of wire in the Torpedo Mounting Dispenser (TMD) and an additional 20,000 yards of wire in one of the fuel tanks.
Wire command will shut the torpedo down in the event of false target acquisition, ie the torpedo homes on ownship or it homes on another unintended target. The idea with the shutdown is to avoid killing the wrong people and to further avoid going to jail afterwards.
The reason why these submarine launched torpedoes continue to use wire guidance rather than another competing technology is obviously subject to speculative debate. But I think it is the shutdown command that keeps the wire in operational play.