...and Torpedo Catchers
WiredRussia and Iran's allegedly are developing a stockpile of lightning-quick torpedoes -- at 200 knots, as much as five times faster than what's in the American arsenal. As noted above, Darpa already has one super-cavitation project, called Underwater Express, aimed at developing a submarine, This new research effort is about defending against other countries' super-cavitating weapons. Darpa's budget document, available as a PDF here, describes the project this way: The Very High Speed Torpedo Defense program will develope concepts for U.S. ship defense systems to defeat very high speed rocket-powered super-cavitating torpedoes currently under development by other nations. Queued by a ship's sonar system, the torpedo can be identified and localized using a large search volume laser-radar tracking system that can be used to compute a firing solution. The torpedo will then be engaged using specially designed high speed projectiles fired from the ship to neutralize the incoming threat.
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