General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
RE: modern torpedoes and a modern tonnage war
Posted by:
J.T. McDaniel
()
Date: August 16, 2001 12:38AM
<HTML>A concern that was raised in the 1970s was that the bulk of the torpedoes carried on an attack sub were designed for killing submarines and not surface ships, so the warheads were actually considerably smaller than the WWII warshots. To sink a surface ship requires punching a great big hole in it and letting in a lot of water. Sinking a submarine several hundred feet below the surface doesn\'t need much more than punching a very small hole in the pressure hull and letting the water pressure take care of the rest. (If the pressure hull ruptures at 800 feet, you don\'t have to worry about drowning; the sudden increase in internal air pressure will incinerate you before the water gets to you.)
Despite being much bigger than their WWII counterparts, you should still be able to sink a modern freighter. The nature of any cargo vessel means that most of it is going to be empty space. The current generation of influence detonators also means you can usually get the warhead to explode under the keel, where it will do the most damage. New tankers are double hulled, but there are still older ones at sea, and, of course, oil still burns, petrol burns even better, and LNG carriers stand a fair change of not only blowing up, but of taking a good portion of the convoy with them.
Warships, which are much more highly compartmented, are harder to sink. They always were. But a modern sub wouldn\'t generally be attacking warships with torpedoes -- they\'d stand off, well over the horizon, and use cruise missiles.
J.T. McDaniel
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Despite being much bigger than their WWII counterparts, you should still be able to sink a modern freighter. The nature of any cargo vessel means that most of it is going to be empty space. The current generation of influence detonators also means you can usually get the warhead to explode under the keel, where it will do the most damage. New tankers are double hulled, but there are still older ones at sea, and, of course, oil still burns, petrol burns even better, and LNG carriers stand a fair change of not only blowing up, but of taking a good portion of the convoy with them.
Warships, which are much more highly compartmented, are harder to sink. They always were. But a modern sub wouldn\'t generally be attacking warships with torpedoes -- they\'d stand off, well over the horizon, and use cruise missiles.
J.T. McDaniel
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