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The Navy is looking at developing future submarine-launched torpedoes than can hit targets at ranges of 100 miles, becoming “underwater Tomahawks,” according to the service’s submarine force boss.
Speaking May 14 to an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, VADM Michael J. Connor, commander, Submarine Forces, called such a weapon the “golden bullet,” envisioning it as an over-the-horizon torpedo that could be redirected to a different target much in the way that a Tactical Tomahawk cruise missile can be redirected in flight to a different target by commands over a data link.
The Mk48 Advanced Capability heavyweight torpedoes used in the Navy’s submarines have a range of approximately 10 miles, Connor said. In addition to developing the “golden bullet,” he envisions a “silver bullet” in fleet use that would be able to strike over the horizon using targeting by a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). He said the “silver bullet” concept already has been demonstrated.
A “golden bullet” torpedo could range to waters other than open water, Connor said, and could linger in a region awaiting targeting instructions.
Long-range torpedoes would complicate an adversary’s anti-access/area denial strategy by greatly increasing the area from which a submarine could launch a strike against a ship.
Targeting a torpedo over the horizon presents a challenge in any scenario. Connor would like to make a small submarine-launched UAV an extension of the submarine’s combat system rather than a separate program.
Connor also sees the need for a multimission submarine-launched missile to replace the Tomahawk and be able to strike targets on land or at sea. Such missiles would force enemy ships to maintain an anti-air warfare posture 1,000 miles from the submarine. Radiating air-defense radars to detect the missiles and operating data links between ships provides opportunities for targeting and disruption in the electromagnetic spectrum.
The Navy has requested a restart in the fiscal 2016 budget of production of the Mk48, which is built by Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. Connor envisions an innovation effort in which the torpedoes would be periodically upgraded and refreshed, much as submarines are today, with a new technology insertion one year and a software upgrade the next in a two-year cycle.
SEAPOWER Magazine Online
Speaking May 14 to an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, VADM Michael J. Connor, commander, Submarine Forces, called such a weapon the “golden bullet,” envisioning it as an over-the-horizon torpedo that could be redirected to a different target much in the way that a Tactical Tomahawk cruise missile can be redirected in flight to a different target by commands over a data link.
The Mk48 Advanced Capability heavyweight torpedoes used in the Navy’s submarines have a range of approximately 10 miles, Connor said. In addition to developing the “golden bullet,” he envisions a “silver bullet” in fleet use that would be able to strike over the horizon using targeting by a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). He said the “silver bullet” concept already has been demonstrated.
A “golden bullet” torpedo could range to waters other than open water, Connor said, and could linger in a region awaiting targeting instructions.
Long-range torpedoes would complicate an adversary’s anti-access/area denial strategy by greatly increasing the area from which a submarine could launch a strike against a ship.
Targeting a torpedo over the horizon presents a challenge in any scenario. Connor would like to make a small submarine-launched UAV an extension of the submarine’s combat system rather than a separate program.
Connor also sees the need for a multimission submarine-launched missile to replace the Tomahawk and be able to strike targets on land or at sea. Such missiles would force enemy ships to maintain an anti-air warfare posture 1,000 miles from the submarine. Radiating air-defense radars to detect the missiles and operating data links between ships provides opportunities for targeting and disruption in the electromagnetic spectrum.
The Navy has requested a restart in the fiscal 2016 budget of production of the Mk48, which is built by Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. Connor envisions an innovation effort in which the torpedoes would be periodically upgraded and refreshed, much as submarines are today, with a new technology insertion one year and a software upgrade the next in a two-year cycle.
SEAPOWER Magazine Online
