Mk 27 (Cutie) explosive power
 

Hello skippers,

my question today is about the Mk 27 (aka cutie) torpedo, how does the explosive power compares to the other torpedo types, is it similar to the standar Mk 14?

The torpedo as a whole is way smaller than the Mk 14/18/23 but how about the warhead?

TIA

95 lbs. (43 kg) Torpex warhead for the Cutie.

643 lbs. (292 kg) Torpex wearhead for the Mark 14.

Here's a site that compares the stats of all US torpedoes of WW2. Air launched/ship/sub.

http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WTUS_WWII.htm

Only 95 lbs. (43 kg) and the same explosive type :down: Then this is barely more powerful than a firecracker.

So let's see:

-This is almost useless against merchants, underpowered

-Self defensive weapon against escorts they say, but for this you have to stay quite close to the surface waiting for the destroyers (1, 2, 3 of them maybe) so you can launch the fish; then you can fire and go deep, but the mk 27 is slow like a turtle on the shore so it's very easy to miss the target, true you can make noise with your engines so the cutie will come back to you, and with it a couple destroyers; if you are lucky one of them might get hit by the firecraker, but wait there will be plenty of firecracker for you too, the canned ones that go down.

I don't know, the price of these mk 27 is too high for the performance obtained.

I think I will go deep down as soon as I can, disappear in the dark and stay as silent as a ghost and leave the firecrackers for the welcome home party.

Well, they do have their uses.

They like noise, which makes them tend to hit the aft section of a destroyer or smaller escort, and in a few cases I've seen, they blow off a propeller, or damage the engines or propeller shafts of the escort ship, leaving it crippled and in some cases helpless.

After firing a few cuties at each oncoming escort I dive and run silent to escape, after awile you can surface and usually find a nice disabled destroyer that you can use your larger torpedoes on :D

I like them personally, but it takes some time to know when to use them, and how to use them in a way that suites your play style.

I accidentally fired one at an old european merchant and after destroying the prop and rudder, it eventually sank stern first.

The idea of the cutie was to disable/sink an escort by popping the engine shaft seals. This is where the propeller shaft comes out of the hull. If you destroy the screw or rudder, its as good as a kill for everything but the tonnage. Its no longer a danger to you.

Even today in ASW warfare, a "stern" shot is best. Hitting a target and popping the shaft seals will kill a sub, whereas some of the larger subs (typhoon for instance) are so large that a hit elsewhere will most likely allow the sub to survive.

All subs require 1 torpedo to be sunk. Typhoons are no exception.

Of 106 Mark 27s fired in combat, 33 hit (24 ships sunk and 9 damaged).

At 12 kts it's not a very maneuverable device. A lot of skippers probably said a Hail Mary and just blindly popped one out the rear while evading.

I tend to agree with you , but how would one know? I have never heard of a Typhoon being hit with a torpedo!:lol:

"but how would one know? I have never heard of a Typhoon being hit with a torpedo!:lol:"

Good response. We only know they can be easily sunk by their own internal torpedoes.
-Pv-

Three out of four successes with cutie torpedoes...
 

...I like them. Even on 12-15 kt DDs. I launch from stern tubes usually about 4 or 5 ship lengths in front of bow of DD, then begin evade at flank speed and deep. Usually it took about 1 hr for the DD to finally sink stern down. Dainty but deadly in my sub. TMO with 1.5 and some minor mods on 2.4Ghz Piv with overclocked Nvidia 7600 works fine for me if I run 2 Gb ram and use Enditall to remove all memory resident progams before SHIV.

I'm not too impressed with the Mk. 27. It's like firing Helen Keller out of a torpedo tube. It could be that the real acoustic listening device was as bad as it's portrayed in the game. The real life statistics seem to point that way.

Yep and the USS Torsk used a 'Cutie' to sink the last vessel of the war!

the mk27 was original designed as an air-dropable device to be used against submarines and was later adapted to be fired from a submarine.