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An anti-submarine weapon is any one of a range of devices that are intended to act against a submarine, and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or to destroy or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. An anti-submarine weapon can be integrated with an Anti-submarine Warfare (ASW) Navy Tactical Data System ( NTDS ) that controls air, land and sea-based Weapon System threat detection and target acquisition. However, in its simplest sense it is a Projectile , Missile or Bomb that is optimised to destroy submarines. DEVELOPMENT World War I marked the first earnest conflict involving significant use of Submarine s and consequently marked the beginning of major efforts to counter that threat. In particular, the United Kingdom was desperate to defeat the German U-Boat threat against British Merchant Shipping . When the bombs that it employed were found to be ineffective it began equipping its Destroyer s with simple Depth Charge s that could be dropped into the water around a suspected submarine's location. During this period they found that setting the depth that the some charges exploded to be above, and below, the vessel was more efficient. Before the war ended, the need for forward-throwing weapons had been recognized and trials began. Hydrophone s had been developed and were becoming effective as detection devices. Also, aircraft and airships had flown with depth bombs (aerial depth charges), albeit quite small ones with poor explosives. In addition, the specialist hunter-killer submarine had appeared, HMS ''R-1''. By the time of World War II , anti-submarine weapons had been developed somewhat, but during that war, there was a renewal of all-out submarine warfare by Germany as well as widespread use of submarines by most of the other combatants. As a result, a host of new anti-submarine weapons were developed. Forward-throwing anti-submarine mortars were developed. They used small depth charges codenamed ''Hedgehog'' that either created entire patterns of explosions underwater around a potential enemy or only exploded on contact with the submarine. Additionally, new weapons were designed for use by Aircraft , rapidly increasing their importance in fighting submarines. Post-war developments The Cold War brought a new kind of conflict to submarine warfare. This war of development had both the United States and Soviet Union racing to develop better, stealthier and more potent submarines while consequently developing better and more accurate anti-submarine weapons. Attack submarines (SSKs and SSNs) were developed to include faster, longer range and more discriminating torpedoes. This, coupled with improvements to sonar systems, made ballistic missile submarines more vulnerable to attack submarines and also increased the Anti-surface Warfare (ASuW) capabilities of attack subs. SSBN s themselves as well as cruise-missile submarines (SSGNs) were fitted with increasingly more accurate and longer range missiles and received the greatest noise reduction technology. To counter this increasing threat Torpedo es were honed to target submarines more effectively and new Anti-submarine Missile s and rockets were developed to give ships a longer-range anti-submarine capability. Ships, submarines and Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) also received increasingly effective technology for locating submarines, e.g. Magnetic Anomaly Detector s (MAD) and improved sonar. TYPES Many concepts have been tried to come up with ways of attacking submarines, but the main effective methods are: Depth Charge The simplest of the anti-submarine weapons, the depth charge is a large canister or 'bomb' filled with explosives and set to explode at a determined depth. The concussive effects of the explosion could damage a submarine from a distance, although in reality it still must be very close to break the submarine's hull. Surface-launched depth charges are typically used in a Barrage manner in order to cause significant damage through continually battering the submarine with concussive blasts. Aerial-launched ones are dropped in twos and threes in precomputed patterns. In many cases destruction was not achieved, but the submarine was none-the-less forced to retire for repairs. Early depth charges were designed to be rolled into the water off of the stern of a fast ship. The ship had to be moving fast enough to avoid the concussion of the depth charge blast. Later designs allowed the depth charge to be hurled some distance from the ship, allowing slower ships to operate them and for larger areas to be covered. Depth charges can also be dropped by aircraft and even carried by missiles to their target areas. Anti-submarine Mortar With the discovery that depth charges rarely scored a kill by hitting a submarine, but instead were most effective in barrages, it was found that similar or better effects could be obtained by larger numbers of smaller explosions. The anti-submarine mortar is actually an array of Spigot Mortar s, designed to fire off a number of small explosives simultaneously and create an array of explosions around a submarine's position. These were often called '' Hedgehogs '' after the name given a World War II British design. Torpedo Not originally designed with submarines in mind, the torpedo was instead a weapon to target surface ships with. However, it was quickly determined that torpedoes could be improved to be able to target submarines, particularly once they were equipped with their own guidance systems, allowing them to track and home in on moving submarines. Torpedoes have become one of the main anti-submarine weapons. They can be launched by submarines, surface ships, or aircraft, and can also be delivered practically on top of the enemy submarine by an anti-submarine missile, like ASROC . Mine Similar to those designed to defeat surface ships, mines can be laid to wait for an enemy submarine to pass by and then explode to cause concussive damage to the submarine. Some are mobile and upon detection they can move towards the submarine until within lethal range. There has even been development of mines that have the ability to launch an encapsulated torpedo at a detected submarine. Mines can be laid by submarines, ships, or aircraft. Anti-submarine Rocket One of the latest anti-submarine weapons, Anti-Submarine ROCkets (ASROCs) differ from other types of missiles in that instead of having a warhead which the missiles delivers to the target directly and explodes, they carry another anti-submarine weapon to a point of the surface where that weapon is dropped in the water to complete the attack. The missile itself launches from its platform and travels to the designated delivery point. The major advantages of a missile are range and speed of attack. Torpedoes are not very fast compared to a missile, and are much easier for a submarine to detect. The missile allows the torpedo to enter the water practically on top of the submarine's position, minimizing the submarine's ability to detect and evade the attack. Missiles are also more rapid and accurate in many cases than helicopters or aircraft for dropping torpedoes and depth charges. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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