Mark 21 torpedo

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The designation Mark 21 torpedo was applied by the United States Navy to two designs of acoustic homing aerial torpedo, both developed from the widely-used Mark 13 torpedo, but controlled by two different developers and taking two different approaches:

United States Navy Naval warfare branch of the United States Armed Forces

The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most capable navy in the world and it has been estimated that in terms of tonnage of its active battle fleet alone, it is larger than the next 13 navies combined, which includes 11 U.S. allies or partner nations. with the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, and two new carriers under construction. With 319,421 personnel on active duty and 99,616 in the Ready Reserve, the Navy is the third largest of the service branches. It has 282 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of March 2018, making it the second-largest air force in the world, after the United States Air Force.

Acoustic homing

Acoustic homing is a system which uses the acoustic signature (sound) of a target to guide a moving object, such as a torpedo. Acoustic homing can be either Passive or Active in nature. Using Passive, the system is designed to move either toward or away from a sound, and may also be designed to move only toward certain types of sounds to the exclusion of others, while Active is a true Sonar. The system emits a sound pulse that reflects off objects and then back to the system, where the system processes the echos to determine the proper response.

Aerial torpedo naval torpedo designed to be launched by aircraft or helicopters

An aerial torpedo, airborne torpedo or air-dropped torpedo is a naval weapon, a torpedo, that an aircraft—fixed-wing aircraft or helicopter—drops in the water, after which the weapon propels itself to the target. First used in World War I, air-dropped torpedoes were used extensively in World War II, and remain in limited use. Aerial torpedoes are generally smaller and lighter than submarine- and surface-launched torpedoes.

The Mark 21 torpedo, designated Mark 21 Mod 0 was a passive acoustic homing torpedo designed in 1943 by Westinghouse Electric Corporation. The Mark 21 successfully passed launching tests in 1943, however, due to difficulties encountered by Westinghouse, the project was abandoned after a few development models had been built.

The Mark 21 Mod 2 torpedo, was a passive acoustic homing variant of the Mark 13 torpedo. It used the widely-used Mark 13 torpedo as a basis, with the addition of passive acoustic homing developed by Bell Labs.


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The Mark 24 Tigerfish was a heavyweight acoustic homing torpedo used by the Royal Navy (RN) during the 1980s and 90s. Conceptual development dates to the mid-1950s, and formally started in 1959 with a target introduction date in 1969. A lengthy development process led to a greatly reduced performance requirement, including the removal of anti-surface capabilities. The first prototype "Tiger Fish" examples were delivered in 1967.

Mark 48 torpedo American heavyweight submarine-launched torpedoes

The Mark 48 and its improved Advanced Capability (ADCAP) variant are American heavyweight submarine-launched torpedoes. They were designed to sink deep-diving nuclear-powered submarines and high-performance surface ships.

Mark 46 torpedo light-weight anti-submarine torpedo

The Mark 46 torpedo is the backbone of the United States Navy's lightweight anti-submarine warfare torpedo inventory and is the NATO standard. These aerial torpedoes are designed to attack high-performance submarines. In 1989, an improvement program for the Mod 5 to the Mod 5A and Mod 5A(S) increased its shallow-water performance. The Mark 46 was initially developed as REsearch TORpedo Concept I, one of several weapons recommended for implementation by Project Nobska, a 1956 summer study on submarine warfare.

SEAL Delivery Vehicle Manned wet submersible for deploying Navy SEALS

The SEAL Delivery Vehicle (SDV) is a manned submersible and a type of swimmer delivery vehicle used to deliver United States Navy SEALs and their equipment for special operations missions. It is also operated by the Royal Navy's Special Boat Service, which operates 3 SDV's.

Sting Ray (torpedo) torpedo

The Sting Ray torpedo is a current British acoustic homing light-weight torpedo (LWT) manufactured by GEC-Marconi, who were later bought out by BAE Systems. It entered service in 1983.

Mark 44 torpedo US light-weight anti-submarine torpedo

The Mark 44 torpedo is a now-obsolete air-launched and ship-launched lightweight torpedo manufactured in the United States, and under licence in Canada, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, with 10,500 being produced for U.S. service. It was superseded by the Mark 46 torpedo, beginning in the late 1960s. The Royal Australian Navy, however, continued to use it alongside its successor for a number of years, because the Mark 44 was thought to have superior performance in certain shallow-water conditions.

Mark 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes torpedo launching system designed for the United States Navy

The Mark 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes system is a torpedo launching system designed for the United States Navy. The Mark 32 has been the standard anti-submarine torpedo launching system aboard United States Navy surface vessels since its introduction in 1960, and is in use aboard the warships of several other navies.

G7a torpedo WWII German torpedo

The G7a(TI) was the standard issue Kriegsmarine torpedo during the early years of World War II. It was a steam-powered design, using a wet heater engine burning decaline, with a typical range of about 7,500 metres (24,600 ft) while running at 40 knots. It was replaced beginning in 1942 by the electrically powered G7e torpedo, which did not leave a trail of bubbles in the water and thus did not reveal the location of the submarine. G7a's remained in service in other roles, including suface ships, until the end of the war.

Mark 37 torpedo torpedo

The Mark 37 torpedo is a torpedo with electrical propulsion, developed for the US Navy after World War II. It entered service with the US Navy in the early 1950s, with over 3,300 produced. It was phased out of service with the US Navy during the 1970s, and the stockpiles were sold to foreign navies.

Mark 34 torpedo acoustic homing torpedo

The Mark 34 torpedo was a United States torpedo developed that entered service in 1948. It was an improved version of the Mark 24 FIDO passive acoustic homing torpedo developed during World War II for launch from fixed-wing aircraft. The principal differences from the Mark 24 were the use of two propulsion batteries, which could be used in parallel while the torpedo was searching for a target to provide greater endurance and in series to provide greater speed in attack mode.

Yu-5 (鱼-5) torpedo is the first wire-guided torpedo developed by China. It is an ASW torpedo designed for conventional diesel-electric submarines. It is often erroneously referred as the Chinese copy of Soviet TEST-71 torpedo, which is incorrect as the Soviet torpedo was developed in 1971 and its successor TEST-71MKE was developed in 1977, at the worst time of Sino-Soviet split. With Yu-5 entering Chinese service in 1989, it was simply impossible to acquire any technologies of Soviet TEST-71 torpedo, which was not purchased by China until 1993, four years after the Yu-5 torpedo had already entered service. However, like all modern Chinese military hardware, the Yu-5 is not a product of indigenous development, and is instead based largely upon previous Soviet and American designs, with much of the propulsion system being derived from the American Mark 46 lightweight torpedo.

Yu-6 (鱼-6) torpedo is the Chinese counterpart of the US Mark 48 torpedo, and it is the first domestic Chinese torpedo designed to counter both surface ships and submarines from the very start. Guidance can be by wire, active and passive homing, or wake homing. Domestic Chinese sources have claimed that the Yu-6 torpedo is in the same class as the Mk 48 Mod. 4 torpedo, and it is believed to have been cloned from a captured sample, but official information on the Yu-6 torpedo is limited.

The Yu-7 is a lightweight torpedo developed by the People's Republic of China. It entered service in the 1990s as the principle anti-submarine weapon of major People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships. The Yu-7 is a derivative of the Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei (WASS) A244/S torpedo.

Project Kingfisher

Project Kingfisher was a weapons-development program initiated by the United States Navy during the latter part of World War II. Intended to provide aircraft and surface ships with the ability to deliver torpedoes to targets from outside the range of defensive armament, six different missile concepts were developed; four were selected for full development programs, but only one reached operational service.

Mark 16 torpedo

The Mark 16 torpedo was a redesign of the United States Navy standard Mark 14 torpedo to incorporate war-tested improvements for use in unmodified United States fleet submarines. The torpedo was considered the United States standard anti-shipping torpedo for twenty years; although significant numbers of Mark 14 wartime production remained in inventory. This hydrogen peroxide propelled, 21 inch (53 cm) torpedo was 246 inches (6.25 m) long and weighed 2 tons (1800 kg). The Mod 0 warhead contained 1260 lb (572 kg) of TPX explosive and was the most powerful conventional submarine torpedo warhead ever used by any Navy. The United States used TPX explosive which was about 75% more powerful than the Type 97 explosive in the larger Japanese Type 93 Mod 3. The Mod 1 warhead contained 960 lb (435 kg) of TPX or HBX (7552 J/g.) explosive. The torpedo could be set for straight- or pattern-running.

There have been a number of 18-inch torpedoes in service with the United Kingdom.

There have been several British 21-inch (533 mm) diameter torpedoes used by the Royal Navy since their first development just before the First World War.

The Mark 10 torpedo was a torpedo put into use by the United States in 1915. It was derived from the Mark 9 aircraft torpedo converted to submarine use. It was used as the primary torpedo in the R- and S-class submarines. It used alcohol-water steam turbine propulsion. It was succeeded by the problematic Mark 14 torpedo, but remained in service in S-boats & fleet submarines through the Pacific War. The Mark 10 featured the largest warhead of any U.S. torpedo developed at that time. Stockpiles of Mark 10 Mod 3 torpedoes were used extensively during the first part of World War II due to short supply of the newer and longer (246 in Mark 14s, with some fleet submarines carrying a mixture of both types on patrol.