Changes focus on littoral warfare: Navy To Upgrade Mark 48 Torpedoes With Advanced Capabilities

Since 09-20-06

By Chris Johnson, Inside the Navy, 18 Sep 06

The Navy plans to upgrade Mark 48 Mod 6 torpedoes with advanced capabilities tailored for littoral warfare, according to Navy spokesman Lt. Tommy Crosby.

The resources and requirements review board, a panel led by Vice Adm. Lewis Crenshaw, decided earlier this summer to approve the upgrades by revising the program’s operational requirements document.

Crosby told Inside the Navy the service will begin upgrading the Mod 6 torpedoes in the fourth quarter of 2007.

“The new capabilities provide the Mod 6 torpedo with improved target detection and false target rejection, improved performance against bottomed and near-bottom targets, a more flexible interface for the establishment of safety barriers, and functions that allow the torpedo to avoid bottom features and reduce the risk of target counter-fires down the bearing of incoming torpedoes,” he said.

Crosby said the torpedo was originally intended for deep-water Cold War threats. These days, however, the Navy has a need for torpedoes that can operate in the littorals and weapons that can handle smaller, quieter enemy diesel submarines, he said. As a result, the Navy developed the Mark 48 Mod 7 common broadband advanced sonar system (CBASS) to address these issues.

Despite the Navy’s plan to create a new kind of weapon, the Mod 7 torpedo is not expected to be in significant inventory numbers until 2010 and Mod 6 torpedoes are expected to be in the fleet inventory until around 2016, Crosby said. Consequently, the Navy decided to incorporate portions of the CBASS search functions into the guidance and control components of the existing weapons, he said.