This is a strange one for me. Implementing a form of homing/acoustic torpedo that can be used in both an ASW and Surface Warfare situation. It is a rocket assisted projectile, and that is one of my contentious issues. How far should the RAP section work for?
The problems I have to solve are the ASDIC/SONAR detection distance in 1945. Reading on ASDIC detection distance gives me a confident detection distance of about 1500 yards in 1945. Which has to reduce to about 200-250 yards for Hedgehog or 275 yards for Squid to be effective. At 10-15 knots that is a long time between detection and firing.
If on detection at 1200-1500 yards the RAP Torpedo is fired, then my question is how far should the torpedo be airborne for before it enters the water and goes active? The torpedo can be set for various speeds and ranges, which would depend on the target. It will have to be able to operate at variable depths if it is to chase U-Boats to 600-700 foot depths, or hit a ship with a draught of 10-30 feet.
The HMS Dragon above has 4x4.5", 4x40mm STAAG, 3x40mm Boffin, 1 x triple Squid, 3 x Triple 21" RAP launchers, 1 fixed, 2 swivel mountings.
Any questions / comments that can help me work out how to make this work would be appreciated.
Any questions about ahead thrown torpedoes have to have the following answers.
a. Do the British have the right kind of rocket motors? You cannot gunpowder launch an electric torpedo of the era. You will wreck the battery cells and set off the warhead (inertia hammer, hit to kill fusing). In other words you blow yourself up.
The United States found that out the hard way. The RAT had a nasty tendency to explode in the launch rack.
b. Do the British have the right kind of torpedo? The FIDO was slow, with a 6000 meter run endurance and it was designed for PARACHUTE air drop. CUTIE which was its submarine torpedo tube launched counterpart was designed to home in on a charging Japanese destroyer too dumb to turn and run.
c. Given A and B and an era limited 2500 meters active detection range for sonars, how about a British copy of the German G7e designed to home in on the propeller noise of the German U-boat using the FIDO's circular descent hunting logic and its shadow noise acoustic seeker? A heavyweight torpedo so designed would make sense as it would have the 10,000 meter run of the German weapon and it would have an ASW restricted acoustic seeker (prevent own sinking by putting a surface ceiling in the search logic). It would of course be tube launched by compressed air from a torpedo tube... safely. It would get to the target just as fast as RAT and it would not need to address issues A and B at all?