The attacking escort was limited early on by the noise generated by the escort, and the water forces on the transducer. Higher speed produced turbulence from hull, cavitation bubbles, and mechanical noise.

Water forces on the dipped transducer led to hull mounted arrays, like the chin mount on the bow, which then made noise on the surface of the transducer (hull), or trailing wire transducers.

So far I've described some WWI and WWII, and early cold war issues. Modern nukes move much faster, so the escort has to move faster, or the weapon has to move faster thus high speed torpedos, subrocs, and cruise missiles.

All the speed in the world is of little value if you cannot see or hear your target. Then of course the higher the speed, the shorter the time to release, and the larger the error radius.


Dan