Remote Controlled Torpedoes?

[ScotchSea]

Hi all! this is my first post! not sure if its in the right place so i apologize! But anyway, is there some Mod out there that gives you remotely controlled torps? As in, fire them and you can steer them as they go on their way. Would be useful for those pesky merchants as they start defensive maneuvers!

Thanks All!!

[Gray Lensman]

Originally Posted by ScotchSea

Hi all! this is my first post! not sure if its in the right place so i apologize! But anyway, is there some Mod out there that gives you remotely controlled torps? As in, fire them and you can steer them as they go on their way. Would be useful for those pesky merchants as they start defensive maneuvers!

Thanks All!!

Not in WW2, Silent Hunter 4 is a WW2 Pacific Simulator. There might be some mod(s) out there simulating such control, but I suspect not. The only thing that Silent Hunter 4 has is the Cutie Torpedo which is actually a mine with a homing device attached that homes in on the screws' noise. It's short ranged and pretty slow, so it's mostly defensive in nature but even then hard to use if for instance an escort is moving fast. Against an escort, stopped and listening and up close it can be quite deadly.

edit> The Germans did have a wire-guided torpedo, so maybe the Add-on U-Boats in the Pacific allow for their use on their U-Boats towards the end of the war. Not sure because I only play the U.S. side. You have to have the Add-on to use the German U-Boats. You can help the site by purchasing the Add-On thru their link here!

Even if the German U-Boats don't have wire-guidance in game, the v1.5 update is built into the Add-On and most mods on the site require v1.5 of the game.

[ScotchSea]

Good point! Even though it would be historiclly inaccurate it would be fun to try. If anybody has a link to such a thing a link would be appreciated!!

[cdrsubron7]

Welcome to Subsim, ScotchSea. Happy to have you aboard.

[Aktungbby]

ScotchSea!Your concept is not without historic merit-

At the same time inventors were working on building a guided torpedo. Prototypes were built by John Ericsson, John Louis Lay, and Victor von Scheliha, but the first practical guided missile was patented by Louis Brennan, an emigre to Australia, in 1877.
<Klik 2 enlarge
The Brennan torpedo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brennan_torpedo was the first practical guided torpedo.


It was designed to run at a consistent depth of 12 feet (3.7 m), and was fitted with an indicator mast that just broke the surface of the water. At night the mast had a small light, only visible from the rear. Two steel drums were mounted one behind the other inside the torpedo, each carrying several thousands yards of high-tensile steel wire. The drums connected via a differential gear to twin contra-rotating propellers. If one drum was rotated faster than the other, then the rudder was activated. The other ends of the wires were connected to steam-powered winding engines, which were arranged so that speeds could be varied within fine limits, giving sensitive steering control for the torpedo..The torpedo attained a speed of 20 knots (23 mph) using a wire .04 inches (1.0 mm) in diameter but later this was changed to .07 inches (1.8 mm) to increase the speed to 27 knots (31 mph). The torpedo was fitted with elevators controlled by a depth-keeping mechanism, and the fore and aft rudders operated by the differential between the drums. Brennan travelled to Britain, where the Admiralty examined the torpedo and found it unsuitable for shipboard use. However, the War Office proved more amenable, and in early August 1881 a special Royal Engineer committee was instructed to inspect the torpedo at Chatham and report back directly to the Secretary of State for War, Hugh Childers. The report strongly recommended that an improved model be built at government expense. In 1883 an agreement was reached between the Brennan Torpedo Company and the government. The newly appointed Inspector-General of Fortifications in England, Sir Andrew Clarke, appreciated the value of the torpedo and in spring 1883 an experimental station was established at Garrison Point Fort, Sheerness on the River Medway and a workshop for Brennan was set up at the Chatham Barracks, the home of the Royal Engineers. Between 1883 and 1885 the Royal Engineers held trials and in 1886 the torpedo was recommended for adoption as a harbour defence torpedo. It was used throughout the British Empire for more than fifteen years..Around 1897, Nikola Tesla patented a remote controlled boat and later demonstrated the feasibility of radio-guided torpedoes to the United States military, only to be turned down.

I'm amazed, given their other hi-tech adventuring that the Germans didn't leap into this... then again, how is it that Ericsson and Brennan were Irish??!!

[ETR3(SS)]

To answer the OP's question the answer is no. All guidance methods are hardcoded. You can adjust the torpedoes characteristics (as in speed, range, etc), but your guidance choices are Fat, LuT and passive acoustic.

[kevinsue]

Hedy Lamarr....this amazing lady invented the concept of spread spectrum communications and frequency-hopping while working on a radio guidance system for torpedoes that would be difficult for the enemy to jam. After patents were applied for and granted in 1942, it was given to the US Navy free of charge, though the US Navy did not adopt the technology until the 1960s and was first seen on US ships about the time of the Cuban missile crisis. The principles of their work are now incorporated into modern GPS, Wi-Fi, CDMA and Bluetooth technology.

Lamarr was transfixed by the events of World War II and felt compelled to invent something to help the Allied cause. Focusing on torpedos, which were powerful but routinely inaccurate, Lamarr was inspired by a relatively new invention in her living room - the remote control on her radio.
A radio-guided torpedo would be far more accurate, she thought. But she also realised radio signals could be jammed.

Lamarr came up with the idea of making a radio signal that would jump more or less randomly from one frequency to another, making it harder to jam.

She shared her designs with avant-garde composer George Antheil at a dinner party one evening. Together, they worked on an idea that used a piano roll to randomly switch the signal sent between a control centre and the torpedo at short bursts within a range of 88 black and white keys. (A piano keyboard has 88 black and white keys).

And thus, the earliest form of spread spectrum communication - today found in most digital devices that communicate wirelessly – was born.