Air dropped (heavyweight) torpedoes - obsolete for FW against all surface targets?

[Brewster Buffalo]

Originally Posted by WE Branch Fanatic

SLXOwft

I think that using air delivered warships against warships has been considered suicidal since the loss of the US Navy torpedo bomber squadrons at Midway. To deliver a torpedo would mean flying low and slow.............

As illustrated by this calculation produced by the RAF in 1942 on the percentage chance of survival after one and two tours
Heavy & Medium 1 Tour 44% 2 tours 19.5%
Torpedo Bomber 1 Tour 17.5% 2 Tours 3%

[SLXOwft]

As tdracer says the torpedoes at used by the USN at the time, early Mk 13s, were pretty useless with the problems he mentioned plus not running at the set depth (I believe the TBD losses were 80%+ with no hits). Various mods meant they were pretty effective from 1944 and could be dropped from 2000ft+ and at speeds of upto 410 kts. The IJNs one major success at Midway was sinking the Yorktown. She was crippled by air dropped torpedoes and sunk by submarine launched ones. I believe the mods to the Mark 13 included lessons learned from Japanese designs.

The Mk 13 was a 22.5" torpedo, the RN favoured 18" for air drop. The RN still had stocks of the Mark 8 Mod 4 22" 'dumb' sub-launched torpedo in the early 1990s. Developing a new air droppable heavyweight 'dumb' or homing torp is feasible but not financially or operationally justified.

WEBF

To deliver a torpedo would mean flying low and slow.

Low I agree but I suppose it depends what you mean by slow, as I said above the USN had a 22 1/2" torpedo that could be air dropped at 410 kts in 1944.

This was prompted by reading about Pucara AX-04. Hence I was thinking of a San Carlos / Falkland Sound situation with much improved ship self-defence and air cover & escort. Ships would be at anchor or have limited manoeuvring room. Like the Falklands, the defenders interceptors would be excluded from the SAM engagement zone. Both sides would have limited time for guided weapons to acquire a target. So it would be very low level, point, short run in S&L (releasing countermeasures), drop and bug out. In such a situation a 'dumb' weapon might possibly have the edge over one that could be decoyed. Complete fantasy I know but I have enjoyed the reponses to the thread.

[Bing]

Originally Posted by WE Branch Fanatic

Additionally heavyweight torpedos are wire guided - firing unguided weapons over anything other than a short range

Wake homing air dropped torpedoes were a thing in WW2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_24_mine

[WE Branch Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Bing

Wake homing air dropped torpedoes were a thing in WW2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_24_mine

They were ASW weapons. That link gives the range as 4000 Yards, but a modern heavyweight torpedo has a range of something like 30 miles.