Do you use unconventional torpedoes?
 

I haven't seen it discussed before, or it may have been within a topic with another name but I always wondered: Does anyone actually use unconventional torpedoes?

I call the unconventional Torpedoes the Passive, wakehoming, and that super-cavitation rocket torpedo thing.

The rocket launched and active torpedoes are always used in games i've been in.

So, does anyone like to use wakehomers or passive torpedoes? And how often have you ever come across someone using either?

Sorry if asked before But I had to ask.

Lot's of guys I play against will fire a mix of passive and active at ya.
You can get busy evading the pingers, think you're clear, then BOOM, the passive got ya :)

The super cavitation torps, only if it is a knifefight.

No proper fight without at least ten torpedoes in one's immediate vicinity and some Shkvals zooming around. DW MP enables you to SCARE the enemy, which isn't half as fun in single player. :arrgh!: :rotfl:
Unconventional torpedoes are fun indeed, but I never did learn to use the Va-111 properly. With a wireguided torp, you can get pretty much the same effect as from the passive-and-active combination. You'll just let your foe believe it's a passive going to miss him, zooming by his rear, and when it's at a good distance, KASCHWAM you send an active torp slightly in front of him! He'll hopefully turn, and you will steer the WG torp towards him. Hopefully he has his eyes on the only active one, and you won't have to activate the WG sonar till you're a short distance from him.

When I drive Akula I use to load a shkval along with the "conventional" stuff. Should I find myself into a knifefight I can achieve to slower the enemy down or maybe break something vital, reducing his capability to evade and/or attack

Wakehomers are great if there is surface target to kill, especially 65cm wakehomer. In the mod it will be even better soon having 54nm of range at 40kts mode :up:

Shkval... well, the stock game implementation of it caused big trouble... it's something between conventional and nuclear torpedo, with impossible 200m proximity fuse and capable of inflicting heavy damage to target detonating 200m from it !!! To make this possible, the SCS made blast radius of detonations just enormously big !! Now we can't use proximity detonators, because one torpedo detonating close to ship sinks or damages all ships in convoy... so big blast radius is.

In real life Skhval was probably strictly nuclear weapon, just very fast. Launched at bearing and detonating on set range. We probably can modell this in game - 5nm or so blast radius and damage points enaugh to sink every ship in that area... but then every Akula would be nuclear capable.

Later probably conventional versions were developed, with export in mind. But it's still not clear how would it work - you don't have precise enaugh target solution (especially depth) to fire it at 5nm target for example and hit it directly or pass within magnetic fuse distance. Unless you use active to get exact solution. Rather close range weapon with need of using active sonar to get exact enemy position. With miss radius realistically similar like for a magnetic mine, so... 30m ? Currently in mod we reduced it from 200m to 100m (IIRC) to make it miss SOMETIMES but still it's much too large. Maybe we reduce it to proper value and then indeed it would be usefull only on short (few nm) distances at active sonar target, otherwise it would miss.

And the last part about Shkval. In real life it's probably an anti-ship weapon anyway !!!! It's very probable that it's near-surface launched and running weapon only (on one of military fairs in Moscow lately the run profile of Shkval was described). With nuclear warhead it was using initially, it didn't matter anyway. If it is run only shallow, it simply can't be used against submarines.

If the above is true, then maybe if set to run at depth, the water pressure could affect the air bubble around the weapon and maybe it would lost supercawitating effect, or maybe just would run slower and shorter.

But most probably it's anti-ship weapon currently - would be great to deliver nuclear warhead into middle of US carrier battlegroup... for Iran or China. Or to kill a ship (you can get exact position or at least bearing using periscope) without giving him chance to react or use countermeasures... To kill and not be killed in response.

Against a sub ? Even if it worked correctly at depth... Hmm... Does active sonar give 3D position, so bearing, range AND elevation data ? Target depth ?

Supposedly, (unless this was some "future developments" thing) it could stop, search, adjust, and then go on to find its target.

At the very least, it was supposed to be used as a counterfire weapon, to make the other sub (firing at the shkval-carrier) have to maneuver; possibly snapping guidance wires, possibly blinding them for a while.

Oh, and... I generally use all the tools in the toolbox. The akula doesn't have the capacity to have a sufficient number of every weapon though.

Not in original and even probably current versions. No homing head. The nose is specially shaped and has gas ehxausts. And IIRC original Shkval was using SOLID FUEL rocket engine (correct me if I'm wrong) then after starting it it couldn't be disabled untill burned out, and especially not lit again.

Yes, this could work. Launch it on bearing of enemy sub and he has to maneuver to evade (if he has enaugh time)... but on the other hand to what depth would you set it ? Maybe if you did an active ping before launching it, but this takes precious time and you are evading incoming torps after all... Or even set it to detonate on suspected enemy range to cause noise in the water and maybe damage his sonars... many possibilities of using such weapon... IF it could be run deep... Also nuclear Shkval was seen as ****erfire weapon - but only if range was long enaugh to not die from own warhead...

Yeah, the chance is significant that the Squal was basically just a low yield nuclear warhead on a supercav rocket, with no real proximity fuse at all, set to be fired along a specific incoming torpedo bearing and explode at the maximum range of its rocket propulsion.

In the mean time, I'm sure the firing platform is intended to set course 180 and run like hell as deep as possible.

As a conventional weapon, in my opinion, it is pretty much outside the realm of being a plausibly effective weapon in combat conditions, despite what the Iranians and their propagandists and weapons experts at CNN say.

In the context of LWAMI 3.xx I've never really found a use for it... but the reduced engagement ranges in LWAMI4 will probably make this a very handy weapon for ASW, allowing the Akulas some kind of charging ability, if the captain wants to close the distance rapidly in a given situation and engage at 3nm instead of 5-8nm.

Cheers,
David

hehehe, that maneouver could be called "fu&%$ng cracy Ivan" :doh:

When I play with the Kilo, wakehomers are my weapon of choice. They're easy to shoot. Fire them in salvos for maximum efficacy.

Passive torpedoes yes. It's good when you fire salvos of torpedoes to mix them up, because it's a good way to make it more difficult to employ countermeasures. Flip a coin for every torpedo you shoot. It'll make the bad guy's countermeasures load a lot less useful.

My main load out is 65cm and 53cm torpedos some ASROC missiles i dont load the skhval at all, but if i can then il always use torpedo over missile.

Kapitan the 53cm? I use to fill those tubes with ASROCS, ain't the 53cm little to short ranged? :hmm:

Yes they are shorter ranged but i find them A more reliable and B easier to use cause i dont have to come to 60 meters or less to fire wasting valuble time in doing so.