LuftWolf and Amizaur's Realism Mod Poll #11: Adv. Torpedoes

[Amizaur]

Originally Posted by LuftWolf

I gave the wireguided torpedoes an all-aspect visual sensor that is capable of tracking everything within about 15nm.

When the torpedo is fired, it detects the launching platform immediately and a special doctrine is called which tracks the launching platform.

Brilliant idea ! Little complicated, but I'm afraid all the simple options are already used...

I'll try to answer some questions too tomorrow, about how it works and what do I know about torp wires and depth related slow-down. The 10nm of wire for ADCAP (20k yards) comes from various sources, 10nm in the torp and half of that on the spool like it was said already. I heard that before ADCAP, the Mk-48 had only in-torp wire (and less than 10nm) and launching subs were restricted in movement after torp launch because the wire would be broken if they went too fast or too far from launching point... the hundreds and thousands feets of wire in the water have to make very high drag if something tried to move (pull) it through the water, and would just break. So forget about summing up those two lengths. Wire in torpedo is for torpedo movement, wire on the spool is for sub movement in general, well at least at ranges greater than few hundreds yards. The wire can't be too thick and strong and as I said you just can't pull and drag a few thousands yards of wire through the water without breaking it... you can only move if you are losening free wire from a spool at your end of the wire. It's like walking few hundred meters on a field laying a thin wire or thread on the ground, and then trying to run without unrolling some more thread free - it would just break...

Have no idea what practical limitations are on launching platform to prevent wire breaking. I only heard that wire breaking was a major problem years ago (Mk-37 times for sure, maybe Mk-48 time?), but now it's resolved and chance of wire break is very small, even if launching sub is maneuvering... but... I think (or feel) that 180deg turn and all ahead flank could break a wire even today, with spool in the tube, and, well, exactly 180deg turn and run would cause the wire to get into screw I think...? There must be some forbidden maneuvers.

So I think that torpedo wire should break when torpedo runs more than 10nm from the launch point, or sub moves more than 5nm from the launch point, and personally I think that when sub is making some really extreme maneuvers too (high chance of breaking if turning close to 180deg or going flank or something like that). The last condition (ownship maneuvers) recquires that additional sensor and doctrine Luftwolf has made... I'll write more tomorrow, it's 1.42 AM here :-)

P.S. I liked very much the comment that combat between modern subs is like "knife fight" at close ranges , it's exactly what I thought and said many times after learning some about modern sub's noise levels, sensor limitations, real life tactics and scenarios. Yes, I know it's unplayable... but this is what happens when very modern subs can detect each other from as close as few hundreds yards, or few thousands at best... Then no wonder that 10nm of wire is more than enaugh, and that small range of many rest-of-the-world torpedos is usually enaugh too... Knife fight... usually doesn't matter than your knife is longer than mine ;-)