Quote:
Originally Posted by PL_Harpoon
Well, that just poses a question how quiet it is compared to other torpedoes. Perhaps that would mean that Russian torpedoes are even more quiet.
You can't get around the issue of it using piston engine and water jet propulsion as opposed to electric motors.
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Actually, i think he's referring to the later ADCAP as those got a lot of sound isolation improvements so the original MK48 maybe much louder but I can actually answer that without security clearance. My company used to work for Gould Inc that build the Mk48 and since I was already deep into modern military stuff back then. I did raise that question in the early 80s and the answer (no actual noise level was ever mentioned and the answer are in very general terms) I got is that it's slightly quieter or about the same as that Soviet torp in that era depending on which model but given that Soviet sonar equipment was generally inferior to their US equivalent at the time, they believe that we'll always pickup their torps before they pickup ours.
Another point that was raise is that in general, it's much easier to pickup launch transients before you pickup the torp's self noise so if you're able to masking that (firing from the other side of the layer), the chance of them getting a bearing to shoot back is much less.