The Shkval: awesome new torpedo

Vaman · 12-09-2003, 01:50 AM

The Shkval

The Shkval (Squall) is the revolutionary new breed of torpedo in use by Russian Naval forces.

The Shkval is the first use of supercavitational technology in modern weapons and represents perhaps the largest leap forward in underwater warfare since the invention of the submarine itself.

Launched from Bars (Akula) and Antyey (Oscar) class submarines, Shkval torpedoes travel at over five times the speed of conventional torpedoes. Propelled forward by a rocket engine, there are no countermeasures or defenses which can stop the Shkval.

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Research on developing a self propelled supercavitational projectile began in the early 1960’s at the Ukrainian Institute of Hydromechanics. It took over a decade for the fundamental problems to be solved, during which time, the sound barrier is believed to have been first broken underwater. The research led to the construction of underwater supercavitating rifles for use by elite Russian Spetznaz troops, and in the mid 1970's to the creation of the world’s first supercavitating torpedo.

First appearing in 1977, the original VA-111 Shkval is some 26 ft (8 m) long and is thought to have a range of around 5 miles (8 kms). Believed by some to be unguided, sources differ on whether the torpedo is nuclear capable. The Shkval is propelled forward by a solid rocket motor. Traveling at over 300 mph (500km/h) the Shkval is so fast that (despite being equipped with one) it does not even require a warhead! Its sheer mass and velocity is enough to sink an opposing submarine.

Development of the Shkval has continued through the 1980’s and 1990’s to the present day. Very little information is available about the Shkval II, the existence of which was made public by the Russian government in 1998. Rumours state a top speed of possibly 450+ mph (720 kph/h) and a vastly improved range, believed by some to be in the region of 60+ miles (100 km). The fact that the Shkval II is guided renders it vastly superior to the original Shkval. The Shkval II is thought to be able to supercavitate, then if need be slow down and reacquire its target, before speeding up and homing in for the kill. Yet newer techniques developed by Ukrainian scientists are believed to offer the possibility for high speed supercav guidance and maneuvering.

The Russian Navy has always pursued a different approach to the United States ‘run silent, run deep’ philosophy on submarine warfare. Placing more emphasis on speed rather than silence, it appears the Russians may have backed the winning horse.

Picture this scenario... A Los Angeles class and a Russian Akula Class submarine hunt each other. The Los Angeles is first to fire, releasing a conventional Mark 48 torpedo into the water. Upon launch of the Mark 48 a retaliatory VA-111 Shkval is fired down the trajectory of the incoming torpedo, straight at the Los Angeles class, forcing it to maneuver and thus cut the guidance wire to its own fish! Furthermore, the close range of modern submarine engagements would in all likelihood result in the Los Angeles class being incapable of maneuvering out of the path of the Shvkal in the fleeting few seconds between launch and impact.

Because of this ability the Shkval has often been classed as a defensive weapon, used to protect against the Russians inability to run as silent as opposing submarines. Such ideas, however, have been put to rest with the creation of the Shkval II and further guided variants.

With their longer ranger, the Shkval II and newer variants could potentially be launched at a distance of over 60 miles, and home in on their target, with no countermeasures available. As such, a single nuclear equipped Shkval could take out a carrier battle group whilst sitting tens of miles away.

Little is known of current Russian Shkval projects, other than the amazing potential which supercavitational projectiles hold. The capacity to create a supercavitating torpedo/rocket which would race towards a target underwater and then become airborne once nearing a coastline would render any kind of anti ballistic missile shield useless.

The Russian Navy is the primary user of the Shkval.

A downgraded Shkval, the Shkval-E went to an international arms fairs in 1995, and both China, Iran and France have been known to have acquired limited numbers of Shkvals. The Russian press has claimed that the technology of the Shkval cannot be reverse-engineered and thus the Russian Navy is marketing the export variant aggressively.

The Shkval rocket torpedo represents the first step in the underwater revolution which is fast approaching. As funds pour into supercavitational research around the world it becomes more and more clear that control of supercavitation will soon equate to control of the seas.

And this from globalsecurity:

Quote:

BA-111 Shkval underwater rocket
In 1995 it was revealed that Russia had developed an exceptionally high-speed unguided underwater missile which has no equivalent in the West. Code-named the Shkval (Squall), the new weapon travels at a velocity that would give a targeted vessel very little chance to perform evasive action. The missile has been characterized as a "revenge" weapon, which would be fired along the bearing of an incoming enemy torpedo. The Shkval may be considered a follow-on to the Russian BGT class of evasion torpedoes, which are fired in the direction of an incoming torpedo to try to force an attacking to evade (and hopefully snap the torpedo's guidance wires). The weapon was deployed in the early 1990s, and had been in service for years when the fact of its existence was disclosed.

Development begain in the 1960s, when the Research Institute NII-24 (Chief Designer Mikhail Merkulov) involved in the artillery ammunition research was instructed to launch the development of underwater high-speed missile to fight nuclear-powered submarines. On 14 May 1969, pursuant to a government resolution, NII-24 and GSKB-47 merged into the Research Institute of Applied Hydromechanics (NII PGM), which formed the basis of the present day 'Region' Scientific Production Association. Advances in the development of jet engines and fuel technologies, as well as outstanding results in the research of body motion under cavitation made it possible to design a unique missile with a dived speed much greater than that of conventional torpedoes.

When the suction on the low-pressure side of the propeller blade dips below ambient pressure [atmospheric plus hydrostatic head] the propeller blade cavitates -- a vacuum cavity forms. There is water vapor in the cavity, and the pressure is not a true vacuum, but equal to the vapor pressure of the water. High-speed propellers are often designed to operate in a fully-cavitating (supercavitating) mode.

A high speed supercavitating projectile, while moving in the forward direction, rotates inside the cavity. This rotation leads to a series of impacts between the projectile tail and the cavity wall. The impacts affect the trajectory as well as the stability of motion of the projectile. The present paper discusses the in-flight dynamics of such a projectile. Despite the impacts with the cavity wall, the projectile nearly follows a straight line path. The frequency of the impacts between the projectile tail and cavity boundary increases initially, reaches a maximum, and then decreases gradually. The frequency of impacts decreases with the projectile's moment of inertia.

Apparently fired from standard 533mm torpedo tubes, Shkval has a range of about 7,500 yards. The weapon clears the tube at fifty knots, upon which its rocket fires, propelling the missile through the water at 360 kph [about 100 m/sec / 230 mph / 200-knots], three or four times as fast as conventional torpedoes. The solid-rocket propelled "torpedo" achieves high speeds by producing a high-pressure stream of bubbles from its nose and skin, which coats the torpedo in a thin layer of gas and forms a local "envelope" of supercavitating bubbles. Carrying a tactical nuclear warhead initiated by a timer, it would destroy the hostile submarine and the torpedo it fired. The Shkval high-speed underwater missile is guided by an auto-pilot rather than by a homing head as on most torpedoes.

There are no evident countermeasures to such a weapon, its employment could put adversary naval forces as a considerable disadvantage. One such scenario is a rapid attack situation wherein a sudden detection of a threat submarine is made, perhaps at relatively short range, requiring an immediate response to achieve weapon on target and to ensure survival. Apparently guidance is a problem, and the initial version of the Shkval was unguided However, the Russians have been advertising a homing version, which runs out at very high speed, then slows to search.

A prototype of the modernised "Shkval", which was exhibited at the 1995 international armaments show in Abu Dhabi, was discarded. An improved model was designed with a conventional (non-nuclear) warhead and a guided targeting system, which substantially enhances its combat effectiveness. The first tests of the modernised Shkval torpedo were held by the Russian Pacific Fleet in the spring of 1998.

The 'Region' Scientific Production Association has developed developed an export modification of the missile, 'Shkval-E'. Russia began marketing this conventionally armed version of the Shkval high-speed underwater rocket at the IDEX 99 exhibition in Abu Dhabi in early 1999. The concept of operations for this missile requires the crew of a submarine, ship or the coast guard define the target's parameters -- speed, distance and vector -- and feeds the data to the missile's automatic pilot. The missile is fired, achieves its optimum depth and switches on its engines. The missile does not have a homing warhead and follows a computer-generated program.

On 05 April 2000 the Russian Federal Security Service [FSB] in Moscow arrested an American businessman, Edmond Pope, and a Russian accomplice, on charges of stealing scientific secrets. A FSB statement said it confiscated "technical drawings of various equipment, recordings of his conversations with Russian citizens relating to their work in the Russian defense industry, and receipts for American dollars received by them." Pope, a retired US Navy captain who spent much of his career working in naval intelligence, was at the time of his arrest the head of a private security firm. On 20 April 2000 the FSB revealed that Pope had been seeking plans the Shkval underwater missile. Pope was detained during an informal contact with a Russian scientist who had participated in the Shkval's creation.

The arrest of Daniel Howard Kiely, deputy head of the Applied Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University, came almost simultaneously. The laboratory led by Mr. Kiely has for many years been developing torpedoes for US warships and submarines. Professor Kiely had joined Pope in Moscow to offer technical advice and determine the tasks for Pope's further activity. Kiely was interrogated as a witness. His testimony and objects confiscated during the search proved his involvement in Pope's activities. Later the 68-year-old professor was released and allowed to return to the United States.

The objective of the High-Speed Undersea Weaponry project at the US Office of Naval Research is to develop the vehicle guidance, control and maneuvering capabilities for the quick reaction weapons. High-speed weapons could offer an advantage for Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) "close encounter" scenarios. The overall system response of a high-speed weapon for breaking off engagements with enemy submarines would be measured in seconds, rather than minutes. The High-Speed Undersea Weapons project has three tasks; Vehicle Guidance, Vehicle Control, and Test Bed Development. Vehicle Guidance deals with homing sensors, signal processing, waveform design, and autopilot commands that are used to guide (either autonomously or with external interaction) the weapon to its target. Vehicle control deals with control and maneuvering of the high-speed weapon with emphasis on stabilizing the supercavitating bubble cavity, and optimizing the flow for low drag. Technical issues include instability due to vehicle planing and tail slap, interaction between cavity with propulsion exhaust, and propulsion system transients, including startup. Test Bed Development is an ongoing effort that develops a test platform to test and evaluate S&T candidate systems such as homing systems, vehicle control, and propulsion systems.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...sia/shkval.htm

Anon · 12-09-2003, 07:10 AM

The skvhal is not a new torpedo, and it is hardly revolutionary.

bigross86 · 12-09-2003, 09:18 AM

It still is a threat though, isn't it?

Vaman · 12-09-2003, 14:49 PM

why do say you that m21sniper?

atleast thats the first time I have heard of supercavitational tech put to a conventional use and that too with possible plans for wide deployment.

Are there other platforms that use a similar concept or technology?

Praxus · 12-09-2003, 16:35 PM

Quote:

The Shkval is the first use of supercavitational technology in modern weapons and represents perhaps the largest leap forward in underwater warfare since the invention of the submarine itself.

The US has developed them we just havn't widely deployed them and chances are we(as in the US or other NATO countries) developed long before Russia did.

Please tell me what countries could challange an American fleet let a lone a combined American/NATO/Japanese fleet. We are talking in excess of 600 Major Surface Ships(well over 80% of them are far beyond technology levels of Russia and China).

bigross86 · 12-09-2003, 16:57 PM

Dude, just a few Kilos or Romeos running silent with suicidal crews with these things could seriously cripple a CVBG.

Praxus · 12-09-2003, 17:13 PM

They would probley do less damage then normal torpedos!

Explosives is replaced with propellant and on top of that it doesn't explode under the keal. So it doesn't snap the ship in half. Also take into account it has a range 43km shorter then the Seawolf and 33km less then Torpedo from LA class.

What I'm saying is it only goes 7.5 kilometers, on top of this fact it doesn't even have homing it has an autopilot(whatever the hell that means). This Torpedo is meant to be anti-submarine at close ranges not to take out ships, which you need a large warhead. The kinetic energy and the small amount of explosives is not enough to sink a Destroyer or Cruiser. Maybe an Op kill but thats about it.

Trooth · 12-09-2003, 18:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Praxus
it has an autopilot(whatever the hell that means).

Autopilots generally hold a vehicle to a course ("bearing 234"), but are not intellgient in knowing if that course needs to change ("target has moved").

Praxus · 12-09-2003, 18:30 PM

Thats definatly not good when it comes to torpedos.

Trooth · 12-09-2003, 18:47 PM

Does seem to be a limitation. I guess the speed of this thing is designed to overcome it. As you point out, if they are gonna be noisy they ain't gonna get in range.

Anon · 12-11-2003, 18:06 PM

It's not new, the Skhval has been around for over a decade.

It is not revolutionary in that it cannot guide itself. It is like a WWII torpedo.........drives in a straight line.

It is designed to be used with a nuclear warhead making a near miss more than enough. But of course, it will never be used with a nuclear torpedo......Russia has no desire to be anhillated by the US response.

Therefore, what we have is a conventional warhead that is undersized mated to a torpedo with extremely short range and no guidance system.

Oh joy....real revolutionary.

It's fast, but there's more to a weapon than how fast it runs.

So far, the only ship sunk by a Skhval is the Kursk...

lurker · 12-13-2003, 09:46 AM

Nah, Shkval designed to be used only with a nuclear warhead. It is a "last chance" weapon that was supposed to be fired on attacking Sub's or torpedoes as soon as they are detected.

Since USN and Russian navy removed nukes from the ships long time ago (1991?), - there is no live Shkval's deployed in the fleet.

So it couldn't sink Kursk or anything else.

p.s. with the speeds about 500 kmh homing doesn't really matter, because target have only about 1.5 minutes to take evasive maneuvers before hit (8 miles distance).

Anon · 12-13-2003, 17:54 PM

Considering that 8 miles is about double the range of the Skvhal, that is some pretty worthless data lurker.

The Skvhal DOES have a conventional variant, and one DID malfunction and sink the Kursk.

It was all over the web.....do you read anything but Pravda dude?

Praxus · 12-13-2003, 18:15 PM

In the 45 seconds it would take the torpedo to reach a sumbarine, at 25 knots the sub would have moved 13 meters. That may not be much but it would greatly decrease hit probibility.

Anon · 12-13-2003, 19:12 PM

The main drawback to the Skvhal is it's super short range.

The odds of getting that close to a US warship or Sub on wartime footing are EXTREMELY small.

12-09-2003, 09:18 AM	#3 (permalink)
bigross86 Ass Pain Extraordinare *Military Professional* Join Date: 08-07-03 Location: Ra'anana, Israel Posts: 3,325	It still is a threat though, isn't it? __________________ The Fundamentalists voted for a holy war and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt and a Draft notice

12-09-2003, 14:49 PM	#4 (permalink)
Vaman Banished Join Date: 11-06-03 Posts: 1,043	why do say you that m21sniper? atleast thats the first time I have heard of supercavitational tech put to a conventional use and that too with possible plans for wide deployment. Are there other platforms that use a similar concept or technology? Last edited by Vaman; 12-09-2003 at 14:51 PM..

12-09-2003, 17:13 PM	#7 (permalink)
Praxus *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 08-26-03 Posts: 3,237	They would probley do less damage then normal torpedos! Explosives is replaced with propellant and on top of that it doesn't explode under the keal. So it doesn't snap the ship in half. Also take into account it has a range 43km shorter then the Seawolf and 33km less then Torpedo from LA class. What I'm saying is it only goes 7.5 kilometers, on top of this fact it doesn't even have homing it has an autopilot(whatever the hell that means). This Torpedo is meant to be anti-submarine at close ranges not to take out ships, which you need a large warhead. The kinetic energy and the small amount of explosives is not enough to sink a Destroyer or Cruiser. Maybe an Op kill but thats about it. Last edited by Praxus; 12-09-2003 at 17:30 PM..

12-13-2003, 09:46 AM	#12 (permalink)
lurker *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 08-12-03 Posts: 776	Nah, Shkval designed to be used only with a nuclear warhead. It is a "last chance" weapon that was supposed to be fired on attacking Sub's or torpedoes as soon as they are detected. Since USN and Russian navy removed nukes from the ships long time ago (1991?), - there is no live Shkval's deployed in the fleet. So it couldn't sink Kursk or anything else. p.s. with the speeds about 500 kmh homing doesn't really matter, because target have only about 1.5 minutes to take evasive maneuvers before hit (8 miles distance). Last edited by lurker; 12-13-2003 at 17:50 PM..

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12-09-2003, 07:10 AM	#2 (permalink)
Anon New Member Join Date: 08-03-03 Posts: 0	The skvhal is not a new torpedo, and it is hardly revolutionary.

12-09-2003, 16:57 PM	#6 (permalink)
bigross86 Ass Pain Extraordinare *Military Professional* Join Date: 08-07-03 Location: Ra'anana, Israel Posts: 3,325	Dude, just a few Kilos or Romeos running silent with suicidal crews with these things could seriously cripple a CVBG.

12-09-2003, 18:30 PM	#9 (permalink)
Praxus *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 08-26-03 Posts: 3,237	Thats definatly not good when it comes to torpedos.

12-09-2003, 18:47 PM	#10 (permalink)
Trooth *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 11-23-03 Posts: 2,110 Country:	Does seem to be a limitation. I guess the speed of this thing is designed to overcome it. As you point out, if they are gonna be noisy they ain't gonna get in range.

12-11-2003, 18:06 PM	#11 (permalink)
Anon New Member Join Date: 08-03-03 Posts: 0	It's not new, the Skhval has been around for over a decade. It is not revolutionary in that it cannot guide itself. It is like a WWII torpedo.........drives in a straight line. It is designed to be used with a nuclear warhead making a near miss more than enough. But of course, it will never be used with a nuclear torpedo......Russia has no desire to be anhillated by the US response. Therefore, what we have is a conventional warhead that is undersized mated to a torpedo with extremely short range and no guidance system. Oh joy....real revolutionary. It's fast, but there's more to a weapon than how fast it runs. So far, the only ship sunk by a Skhval is the Kursk...

12-13-2003, 17:54 PM	#13 (permalink)
Anon New Member Join Date: 08-03-03 Posts: 0	Considering that 8 miles is about double the range of the Skvhal, that is some pretty worthless data lurker. The Skvhal DOES have a conventional variant, and one DID malfunction and sink the Kursk. It was all over the web.....do you read anything but Pravda dude?

12-13-2003, 18:15 PM	#14 (permalink)
Praxus *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 08-26-03 Posts: 3,237	In the 45 seconds it would take the torpedo to reach a sumbarine, at 25 knots the sub would have moved 13 meters. That may not be much but it would greatly decrease hit probibility.

12-13-2003, 19:12 PM	#15 (permalink)
Anon New Member Join Date: 08-03-03 Posts: 0	The main drawback to the Skvhal is it's super short range. The odds of getting that close to a US warship or Sub on wartime footing are EXTREMELY small.

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