Mk37 sluggish?

The Bandit · 06-08-17, 10:05 AM

Not specifically but it was eventually replaced by the Mk 48 as well. For the most part all of the acoustic homing torpedoes developed after the war were for ASW, although they did briefly have a Mk 28 which was basically a homing version of the electric Mk 18 from WW2, retired in 1952 and the Mk 35 which was an electric homing ASW torpedo and predecessor to the Mk 37 (I want to say this one was either active only or passive only but I may be wrong).

The only other thing that you could rate as an anti-ship homing torpedo in that time was the cutie Mk 27 mod 4 and Mk 39 (same but with wire-guidance), which was used until 1960. About the only thing I can think of for the Mk 16 is that it might be nice to have pattern-running options for it (I think they could run in a snake pattern, not sure about circling).

All this kind of does put things into perspective for the Mk 48 though, it was seen as nearly the one-size-fits-all solution for submarine weapons. Its warhead was big enough to replace the old non-guided WW2 torps for anti-ship use, and it was faster, could dive deeper, and had better electronics than the Mk 37s then in use, and meant that the Mk 45 ASTOR nuclear torpedo could be retired as well.

ikalugin · 06-08-17, 10:26 AM

I was just wondering why USN did not deploy a guided anti-ship torpedo like the Soviets did.

The advent of multirole heavyweight torpedoes (mk48 later USET80 and others) is understandable, but I dont yet get why USN did not deploy a dedicated anti ship torpedo to suppliment the mk37.

06-08-17, 10:05 AM	#1
The Bandit Sonar Guy Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Canada Posts: 395 Downloads: 39 Uploads: 1	Not specifically but it was eventually replaced by the Mk 48 as well. For the most part all of the acoustic homing torpedoes developed after the war were for ASW, although they did briefly have a Mk 28 which was basically a homing version of the electric Mk 18 from WW2, retired in 1952 and the Mk 35 which was an electric homing ASW torpedo and predecessor to the Mk 37 (I want to say this one was either active only or passive only but I may be wrong). The only other thing that you could rate as an anti-ship homing torpedo in that time was the cutie Mk 27 mod 4 and Mk 39 (same but with wire-guidance), which was used until 1960. About the only thing I can think of for the Mk 16 is that it might be nice to have pattern-running options for it (I think they could run in a snake pattern, not sure about circling). All this kind of does put things into perspective for the Mk 48 though, it was seen as nearly the one-size-fits-all solution for submarine weapons. Its warhead was big enough to replace the old non-guided WW2 torps for anti-ship use, and it was faster, could dive deeper, and had better electronics than the Mk 37s then in use, and meant that the Mk 45 ASTOR nuclear torpedo could be retired as well. __________________

06-08-17, 10:26 AM	#2
ikalugin Ocean Warrior Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: Moscow, Russia Posts: 3,212 Downloads: 8 Uploads: 0	I was just wondering why USN did not deploy a guided anti-ship torpedo like the Soviets did. The advent of multirole heavyweight torpedoes (mk48 later USET80 and others) is understandable, but I dont yet get why USN did not deploy a dedicated anti ship torpedo to suppliment the mk37. __________________ Grumpy as always.