Small Torpedo Being Prototyped by Raytheon to Arm the Navy’s Submarines
ARLINGTON, Va. — Raytheon is building prototypes of a small torpedo that is designed to attack hostile submarines and defend the U.S. Navy’s submarines from incoming torpedoes.
The Compact Rapid Attack Weapon (CRAW) is designed to be launched from a submarine’s decoy launcher rather than the submarine’s torpedo tubes, and thus will not require a separate launcher to be installed on a submarine, said Bill Guarini, Raytheon’s director of Requirements and Capabilities for Under Systems, in a Jan. 6 interview with Seapower.
Applied Physics Design in Action
Raytheon was awarded a Navy contract in September in a down-select decision to take a data package from Penn State’s Applied Physics Laboratory’s design of its nine-foot-long Very Lightweight Torpedo, updated with Technology Insertion 1 — that addresses obsolescence issues — and develop a prototype of the CRAW. Raytheon is to build 18 CRAW prototypes and 12 turn-around kits, the latter to be used to restore used CRAW prototypes to a re-usable condition. The prototypes will be delivered to the Navy with the Technology Insertion 2 data package.
Guarini sees the CRAW as a natural fit with Raytheon’s existing torpedo business. The company builds the Mk54 lightweight torpedo deployed in surface warships and anti-submarine aircraft.
The CRAW prototypes will be built at the company’s facility in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.