How Do Submarines Sink Enemy Ships? |
How Do Submarines Sink Enemy Ships?
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Submarines will spend hours or days tracking enemy vessels before carefully lining up a torpedo shot.
Earlier this month, a US Navy submarine sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena off the coast of Sri Lanka using a Mark 48 torpedo. Two days after the sinking, the Pentagon confirmed that the submarine involved in the incident was the USS Charlotte, a Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarine—making it the first US submarine to sink an enemy ship since the end of World War II.
How a Naval Torpedo Strike Works
Sinking a ship with a torpedo may seem like a sudden and dramatic act. In reality, such a strike comes only after hours, even days, of preparation and tracking effort. Submarines rarely rush their attacks; instead, given their stealth advantage, they take time to gather information about the target vessel, calculating the most effective way to carry out a strike.
The strike process begins with detection. The primary method is passive sonar, in which........