Mark 50 torpedo
system
platform
The Mark 50 torpedo is a U.S. Navy advanced lightweight torpedo for use against fast, deep-diving submarines. The Mk 50 can be launched from all anti-submarine aircraft and from torpedo tubes aboard surface combatant ships. The Mk 50 was intended to replace the Mk 46 as the fleet's lightweight torpedo.[1] Instead the Mark 46 will be replaced with the Mark 54 LHT.
The torpedo's stored chemical energy propulsion system uses a small tank of sulfur hexafluoride gas, which is sprayed over a block of solid lithium, which generates enormous quantities of heat, which generates steam. The steam propels the torpedo in a closed Rankine cycle,[5] supplying power to a pump-jet. This propulsion system offers the very important deep-water performance advantage in that the combustion products—sulfur and lithium fluoride—occupy less volume than the reactants, so the torpedo does not have to force these out against increasing water pressure as it approaches a deep-diving submarine.
General characteristics, Mk 50
- Primary function: air and ship-launched lightweight torpedo[1][3]
- Contractor: Alliant Techsystems, Westinghouse[3]
- Length: 9.5 ft (2.9 m)[3]
- Weight: approx. 800 lb (360 kg)[3]
- Diameter: 12.75 in (324 mm)[3]
- Speed: > 40 kn (74 km/h)[3]
- Power Plant: Stored Chemical Energy Propulsion System[1]
- Propulsion: Pump Jet
- Guidance system: Active/passive acoustic homing[1][3]
- Warhead: 100 lb (45 kg) high explosive [1][3]
Comparable weapons
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Thomas, Vincent C. The Almanac of Seapower 1987. Navy League of the United States (1987). ISBN 0-9610724-8-2. p. 190.
- ^ "Mark 50". Deagel, 2012. Accessed 5 Dec 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "U.S. Navy Fact File: Mk-50 Torpedo" Archived 2016-10-12 at the Wayback Machine. The U.S. Navy—Fact File. Department of the Navy, 27 Nov 2012. Accessed 4 Dec 2012.
- ^ "Ticonderoga Class Aegis Guided Missile Cruisers, United States of America." Naval-technology.com. Net Resources International, 2012. Accessed 5 Dec 2012.
- ^ Hughes, T.G.; Smith, R.B. & Kiely, D.H. (1983). "Stored Chemical Energy Propulsion System for Underwater Applications". Journal of Energy. 7 (2): 128–33. Bibcode:1983JEner...7..128H. doi:10.2514/3.62644.
References
- MK-50 Advanced Lightweight Torpedo via FAS
- USA Torpedoes since World War II - navweaps.com
- Issues Related to the Navy's Mark-50 Torpedo Propulsion System, General Accounting Office, January 1989 - has diagrams showing internal general arrangement, retrieved December 18, 2012
- v
- t
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- Howell Mark 1 torpedo
- Whitehead Mark 1 torpedo
- Whitehead Mark 1B torpedo
- Whitehead Mark 2 torpedo
- Whitehead Mark 2C torpedo
- Whitehead Mark 3 torpedo
- Bliss-Leavitt Mark 1 torpedo
- Bliss-Leavitt Mark 2 torpedo
- Bliss-Leavitt Mark 3 torpedo
- Bliss-Leavitt Mark 4 torpedo
- Whitehead Mark 5 torpedo
- Bliss-Leavitt Mark 6 torpedo
- Bliss-Leavitt Mark 7 torpedo
- Short Mark 7 torpedo
- Bliss–Leavitt Mark 8 torpedo
- Bliss-Leavitt Mark 9 torpedo
- Mark 10 torpedo
- Mark 11 torpedo
- Mark 12 torpedo
- Mark 13 torpedo
- Mark 14 torpedo
- Mark 15 torpedo
- Mark 16 torpedo
- Mark 17 torpedo
- Mark 18 torpedo
- Mark 19 torpedo
- Mark 20 torpedo
- Mark 21 Mod 0 torpedo
- Mark 21 Mod 2 torpedo
- Mark 22 torpedo
- Mark 23 torpedo
- Mark 24 mine
- Mark 25 torpedo
- Mark 26 torpedo
- Mark 27 torpedo
- Mark 28 torpedo
- Mark 29 torpedo
- Mark 30 torpedo mine
- Mark 31 torpedo