Air dropped torps and Shallow waters

[MaHuJa]

Originally Posted by NastyHyena

Back to the subject of air-dropped toys. If the water is too shallow for effective torpedo deployment, could one not use air-dropped mines? Kind of a poor-man's depth bomb with a proxy fuse?

You need to get it within 150m or 100m depending on the mine. (Depends on what they are set to in the database) That's a very small distance, especially when you consider the inaccuracy of buoy bearing lines etc, and the fact that you have to measure a second ahead for the pipper which tells you where the weapon should land. (And I say should, because it seems to be inaccurate beyond that one second from firing to actual release.)

At least the 2000lb will be the death of any neutrals within a few miles, too. And if you miss, well... it would just be a matter of time before some ship ran into it... (Unless, like modern land mines does now, they use time fuses too... say, a year for a sea mine) - or it would create additional problems for a later torpedo drop. (At least while they work as CMs - did LWAMI change this?)

And it has to be shallow - since an akula, at least, can go deeper than its deep setting + sensor range. I've had an akula pass right beneath a 2000lb mine without it detonating. The vertical line would slice the sub in a left and a right side...