Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockstar
If super cavitation torpedos are so badass why doesnt the U.S. develope and deploy its own? Other than using it to scare the tax payers to fork over more cash for Navy R&D projects I dont see what use the Russian Skhval is.
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The French and Germans developed theirs. That's a testament to their lethality. Perhaps the U.S. has it in its arsenal in limited number and put the weapon deployment as classified.
A second more plausible reason is that the U.S. is very confident of their superior sonar suite and quietening technology that the relatively short-ranged or medium-ranged (around 5 nmi) super-cativation torpedoes aren't needed. That there are no subs expected to be capable to get within 5 nmi of a U.S. nuclear sub.
However, with the proliferation of AIP subs that might change. The thing is I think the U.S. might assume that no diesel-electric or AIP sub can match its nuclear attack subs in deployment speed thus the chance of encountering those subs in open seas is minimum. However, this might not hold true any longer when the opponent nation only needs to defend a limited sea area and the U.S. is required to go past its defenses. Then these small diesel-electric/AIP subs are likely to encounter U.S. nuclear subs and even challenge their super carriers deployed within the defended area. After all, a nation can always build far more smaller subs than costlier nuclear subs.
The U.S. might still be locked in their cold-war thinking. Although the Virginia is designed to operate in shallow waters, it never thought of more effective ways to counter super silent diesel-electric/AIP subs in those shallow/shallower waters.