ARLINGTON, Va. — The first of a new-production batch of heavy-weight torpedoes (HWTs) is slated for delivery to the U.S. Navy fleet beginning in fiscal 2022, the Navy’s submarine resource sponsor said.
Rear Adm. Doug Perry, director of Undersea Warfare Programs speaking Nov. 18 at the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium in Arlington, said the Mark 48 HWT was last delivered in 1996, but that it has been incrementally upgraded ever since to the Advanced Capability (ADCAP) standard. However, new production was needed to build up the Navy’s inventory to meet potential warfighting needs.
“The heavy-weight torpedo will remain the weapon of choice for the submarine for the foreseeable future, primarily due to its intended stealth, its destructive effectiveness in the battlespace, and [is] pretty difficult to defend against.”
Perry also noted that the HWT sustains the stealth of the launch platform, the submarine.
The Navy restarted the ADCAP production in 2016, with the program bearing fruit this year.
Perry said the Navy is focusing on capacity in parallel with improvements for the torpedoes, including in sensor capability and in defeating countermeasures.
The modernization upgrades over the last two decades primarily have been focused on software algorithms and processing, he said.
“We’re past time about introducing some game-changing capability into this mainstay weapon,” Perry said. “We’re introducing significant range increase through the re-introduction of a proven engine that can give us longer legs, much longer than the average ADCAP.
With the combination of some longer legs, some better sonar and processing and a digital backbone vice analog, it will enable us to have a one-shot, one-kill ADCAP into the next decade against those key platforms that the submarine force will be responsible to ‘service’.”
