The Mark 27 'Cutie' was a rather buggy torpedo in the beginning and probably suffered from a rushed development. Derived from the aircraft dropped 'Fido' homing torpedo, the Cutie was 19" in diameter, and had a 10 knot speed. Rather than be pushed out by air like all other torpedoes, Cutie "swam out" under its own power. With a maximum depth for arming set at 80 feet, submarines fired it underneath attacking escorts (from 100 feet or more down) and it sought out the propeller noise and ran into it. A weak spot on any vessel, it worked well enough to save several submarines. Of the 106 launched, the Mk 27 achieved a 31% hit rate sinking 24 ships and damaging an additional 9.
Another minus was the name. Sounds like a Disney character.
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--Mobilis in Mobili--
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