Can one torpedo sink a battleship?
The answer is of course, that one torpedo can sink a ship regardless of her size. Let's turn to some historical examples where this happened. On November 13, 1941, Force H was returning to Gibraltar after relocating aircraft to Malta.
The introduction of the torpedo provided a weapon that could cripple or sink any battleship. The first boat designed to fire the self-propelled Whitehead torpedo was HMS Lightning, completed in 1877.
Maybe 5 torps is the magic number you just can't survive. I've had many ships with 4 TPS, and even a few with 3 TPS take 4 torpedoes and survive. I've never seen a ship take 5 and not sink. I've read that no WW2 Battleship ever returned to port with 3 or more torpedo hits either 18” or 21”.
Modern Torpedoes are far FAR more deadly than their WW2 counterparts. For anything short of a US Supercarrier, just one torpedo will do it. For a Carrier, One may Mission kill it, but it would still be afloat and in danger of sinking (given Damage Control efforts). Two or more would surely sink even it.
USS Sealion: the Only American Submarine to Sink an Enemy Battleship. In November 1944, the submarine Sealion did what no other American sub in World War II did: sink an enemy battleship.
The Soviet speed advantage can allow submarines literally to outrun U. S. torpedoes in certain scenarios. cantly deeper than current U. S. submarines can operate. This speed-depth combination provides Soviet submarines with the ability to make evasive maneuvers.
Three torpedoes hit, with one jamming 'Bismarck's' rudders over and condemning her to circle at no more than seven knots.
Weighing 72,800 tons and outfitted with nine 18.1-inch guns, the battleship Yamato was Japan's only hope of destroying the Allied fleet off the coast of Okinawa. But insufficient air cover and fuel cursed the endeavor as a suicide mission. Struck by 19 American aerial torpedoes, it was sunk, drowning 2,498 of its crew.
Poseidon is a large, nuclear-powered torpedo designed to attack enemy coastal targets from thousands of miles away. Poseidon is about 65 feet long and 6.5 feet wide, making it the largest torpedo ever deployed. It's so large that it's arguably an underwater drone.
On October 24, 1944, the USS Tang (SS-306) sank off the coast of China during WWII, trapping 29 sailors in 180 feet of water. The Balao-class submarine was destroyed when her own torpedo boomeranged back and slammed into the ship's port side during an attack on a Japanese convoy.
Can a torpedo sink a modern aircraft carrier?
No, a single torpedo could not do that because of the ship's design. I can't provide details because of classification, but a torpedo can't sink a modern US Aircraft Carrier.
Torpedos. The British Spearfish torpedo, designed to counter high-speed Russian submarines such as the Alfa class, is reputed to reach speeds in excess of 70 knots (130 km/h; 81 mph). The Russian VA-111 Shkval rocket-powered supercavitating torpedo is reportedly capable of speeds over 200 knots (370 km/h; 230 mph).
Torpedoes are faster than naval vessels. If a torpedo is launched close to a naval vessel, it will quickly catch up to a the naval vessel. However, if a torpedo is launched at a long distance from a naval vessel and detected early, a fast naval vessel may keep ahead of the torpedo until the torpedo runs out of fuel.
Most definitely. A destroyer is too small to have a good underwater protection system against even 2nd world war torpedoes designed to hit the side of the ship, one torpedo is enough to sink a destroyer.
Supercavitating Torpedoes: What We Know
Russia's VA-111 Shkval is a supercavitating torpedo reported by Russian press to achieve speed of 230 miles per hour, a speed more than four times speeds listed for most legacy torpedoes which travel anywhere from 28 to 48 Mph.
USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned ship in the United States Navy. Naval officers and crew still serve aboard the ship today. The USS Constitution is operated by the United States Navy, a partner to the National Parks of Boston.
Of the 900 men who went into the water, only 316 survived to be rescued. The Indianapolis disaster remains one of the worst—and most controversial—tragedies in US Navy history.
The USS Thresher (SSN-593), which sank 60 years ago this April, was the world's first nuclear-powered submarine to be lost at sea. Amid the public shock over the tragedy, the U.S. Navy grappled for an answer as to what went wrong. Even today, rival theories seek to explain the mystery.
It is at a higher pressure than outside so the air and pressure would rush out. A submarine is much thicker and a bullet is much less likely to penetrate. It is at a much lower pressure than outside so the water would rush in.
When a submersible is deep in the ocean it experiences the force on its surface due to water pressure. When this force becomes larger than the force hull can withstand, the vessel implodes violently.
Can you hear a torpedo underwater?
Torpedoes used by underwater submarines produce more than just an explosive sound upon detonation. After an initial firing, the sound of the outer hatch can be heard closing. The torpedo can then be heard moving through the water to the target. The length of this sound is dependant upon the distance of the target.
The death of the Bismarck crew dealt a massive blow to German morale and validated Hitler's fear of open-sea warfare against the British navy. Hitler said of his own experiences, “On land I am a hero, at sea I am a coward.”
Less than a week later, on 27 May, Lindemann and most of his crew died in Bismarck's last battle. He was posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes), at the time the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany.
Out of a crew of over 2,200 men, only 114 survived.
Although accounts vary about how many crewmen were on Yamato, the most definitive appears to be that 3,055 of 3,332 crewmen were lost. According to Morison, there were only 23 officers and 246 enlisted sailors who survived, which doesn't exactly match, but is close.
The largest and most powerful battleships ever built, Japan's Yamato and Musashi, were constructed secretly. These behemoths carried nine 18-inch/45 guns, the largest caliber guns ever mounted on a battleship, and their broadside weight was more than twice that of the Bismarck's guns.
| History | |
|---|---|
| Empire of Japan | |
| Draft | 11 m (36 ft 1 in) |
| Installed power | 12 Kampon boilers 150,000 shp (110,000 kW) |
| Propulsion | 4 shafts; 4 steam turbines |
The only nuclear warhead torpedo used by the United States was the Mark 45 torpedo. The Soviet Union widely deployed T5 nuclear torpedoes in 1958 and the U.S. deployed its Mark 45 torpedo in 1963. In 2015, there were rumors that Russia was developing a new nuclear torpedo, the Status-6.
In summary, at the beginning of the war, the MK 14 torpedo ran ten to eleven feet deeper than set, had a tendency to premature, and frequently failed to explode even after striking the target.
torpedo, cigar-shaped, self-propelled underwater missile, launched from a submarine, surface vessel, or airplane and designed for exploding upon contact with the hulls of surface vessels and submarines.
Has a military submarine ever imploded?
STEVE WALSH, BYLINE: In April 1963, one of the Navy's first nuclear submarines imploded off the New England coast, killing 129 people. Something caused the sub to sink beyond its rated depth until it was crushed under the pressure, says James Bryant, a retired submarine captain.
At the end of October 1968, the Navy's oceanographic research ship Mizar located sections of the hull of Scorpion on the seabed, about 400 nmi (740 km) southwest of the Azores under more than 9,800 ft (3,000 m) of water.
The aircraft carrier is able to float on water because the bottom of the ship, the hull, is designed to displace a large amount of water.
Actually sinking an aircraft carrier is next to impossible. Your best bet would probably be a nuclear warhead.
By far the most effective way to sink ships is using a torpedo. A hit from just a single torpedo such as the Spearfish will almost certainly be fatal for all but the strongest and largest ships.
Those present believed that the noise level to be greater than 100 decibels. On a subsequent trial in 1970 at full power, K-222 reached 44.7 knots (82.8 km/h; 51.4 mph), the fastest speed attained underwater by a manned object and making K-222 the world's fastest submarine.
Crush depth
Sometimes referred to as the "collapse depth" in the United States, this is the submerged depth at which the submarine implodes due to water pressure.
Although the actual top speed of American naval vessels is a secret, modern submarines travel faster than 30 knots underwater. Submarines are carefully designed to enhance their speed.
Because the close encounters were anything but inevitable. Very few battleships found themselves in close range actions, and when they did it's doubtful that torpedoes would have helped.
The modern destroyer carries one or more torpedo tube mounts, each mount consisting of five tubes. Thus in battle a single destroyer can fire five or more torpedoes simultaneously or in rapid succession at an enemy ship.
Can a plane drop a torpedo?
An aerial torpedo (also known as an airborne torpedo or air-dropped torpedo) is a torpedo launched from a torpedo bomber aircraft into the water, after which the weapon propels itself to the target.
Modern torpedoes have capability to sink aircraft carriers. They are designed to break the hull beyond on site reparation. Effectively, the torpedo will implode causing the ship to crack in half in most circ*mstances. So yes, it would only require a single torpedo to sink a modern cruise ship.
Yes. Modern heavyweight torpedoes are designed to crack the keel of the target by exploding underneath it and breaking its back. Large ships like battleships or aircraft carriers are not immune to this, in fact their immense size can actually work against them.
And 100 knots to mph: 115.
On the Allied side, the US Navy developed the Mark 24 mine, which was actually an aircraft-launched, anti-submarine passive acoustic homing torpedo. The first production Mk. 24s were delivered to the U.S. Navy in March 1943, and it scored its first verified combat kills in May 1943.
Supercavitating Torpedoes: What We Know
Russia's VA-111 Shkval is a supercavitating torpedo reported by Russian press to achieve speed of 230 miles per hour, a speed more than four times speeds listed for most legacy torpedoes which travel anywhere from 28 to 48 Mph.
Sealion was the only US and Allied submarine responsible for the sinking of an enemy battleship during the Second World War. Her keel was laid down on 25 February 1943 by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 31 October 1943 sponsored by Mrs. Emory S.
However with just a 30lb warhead, against anything bigger than a frigate it has limited use. By far the most effective way to sink ships is using a torpedo. A hit from just a single torpedo such as the Spearfish will almost certainly be fatal for all but the strongest and largest ships.
Eli Reich had accomplished something no other submariner in the U.S. Navy had done. He and his crew sank a battleship. And Reich received his third Navy Cross, “for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the USS Sealion (SS-315) on the third war patrol of that submarine . . .”
USS Archerfish (SS/AGSS-311) was a Balao-class submarine. She was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the archerfish. Archerfish is best known for sinking the Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano in November 1944, the largest warship ever sunk by a submarine.
Could a battleship sink an aircraft carrier?
A battleship or even a large cruiser could very easily sink an aircraft carrier if she could close the range sufficiently to bring the carrier under fire. How such a ship can close the range from 200 to 20 miles in the face of a hostile air group and against a ship which is as fast or faster is something of a mystery.
The only battleship sunk in a fleet action by either torpedo boats or destroyers was the obsolescent German pre-dreadnought SMS Pommern. She was sunk by destroyers during the night phase of the Battle of Jutland.
Torpedos. The British Spearfish torpedo, designed to counter high-speed Russian submarines such as the Alfa class, is reputed to reach speeds in excess of 70 knots (130 km/h; 81 mph). The Russian VA-111 Shkval rocket-powered supercavitating torpedo is reportedly capable of speeds over 200 knots (370 km/h; 230 mph).
Most definitely. A destroyer is too small to have a good underwater protection system against even 2nd world war torpedoes designed to hit the side of the ship, one torpedo is enough to sink a destroyer.
The average density of a boat — the combination of the steel and the air — is very light compared to the average density of water. So very little of the boat actually has to submerge into the water before it has displaced the weight of the boat.
A ship which has a large weight displace a large volume (thus large weight) of water. Hence the buoyancy force acting on the ship is much greater than the weight of the ship itself, making it to float on water. Thus ship do not sink in water.
The Q-ship, a warship disguised as a merchantman, was used to attack surfaced U-boats, while the R1 was the first ASW submarine. 211 of the 360 U-boats were sunk during the war, from a variety of ASW methods: Mines 58.
It took four and a half days to sink the U.S.S. Nevada. The 575-foot-long battleship, painted bright orange from its earlier role as a nuclear test target, was towed out of Pearl Harbor to sea, where a classified explosive was detonated in its hull.
According to an assessment by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, “A large ship, about a mile away from the explosion, would escape sinking, but the crew would be killed by the deadly burst of radiations from the bomb, and only a ghost ship would remain, floating unattended in the vast waters of the ocean.”
There is no such thing as an unsinkable ship. Ships are divided into watertight compartments so that flooding due to any damage to the hull is restricted to only the damaged compartments.
