Adding stealth torpedo to Assassin's Mace list
I am adding "stealth torpedo" to the list of Chinese Assassin's Mace asymmetric weapons. An American Virginia-class submarine is not stealthy when the sound-absorbing hull-coating falls off (see citation below).
The idea here is to do the opposite. Let's put sound-absorbing coating on a torpedo to defeat (or at least deteriorate the effectiveness of) sonar.
A submarine commander can't deploy countermeasures if he doesn't know that a stealth torpedo is homing in on his submarine.
Show, don’t tell: Circumspection over Virginia Class MIP/SHT woes
"Show, don’t tell: Circumspection over Virginia Class MIP/SHT woes
by CRAIG HOOPER on JANUARY 21, 2011
...
A problem with a rubber-like exterior coating sloughing off Virginia-class submarines at sea was noticeable on the North Carolina, but was not as bad as the loss on the Texas, which was tied up on the opposite side of the pier.
The Texas returned to Pearl Harbor on Aug. 23 from a three-month deployment to the eastern Pacific with its urethane coating, used to reduce sound, in tatters."
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Over the years, we've all heard about China's Assassin's Mace asymmetric weaponry. They are designed to neutralize America's superiority in conventional military power. Here is my guess for the list of Assassin's Mace Chinese weaponry.
1.
16.5 Megaton EMP warhead based on Chinese five-megaton thermonuclear warhead intentionally altered to emit gamma rays. A megaton-class EMP will fuse all of the electrical wiring and electronics of any equipment not protected under a mountain.
2.
ASBM will be used for a limited attack on a specific naval capital ship.
3.
Conventional-powered EMP may provide a more targeted capability against a small area (e.g. naval carrier group).
4.
Shenlong space plane to drop a megaton-class EMP anywhere in the world on short notice. The EMP will blind all above-ground radar stations, fuse communication equipment, and knock-out unprotected enemy aircraft.
5.
Stealth cruise missile. This is an obvious and simpler weapon based on the stealth technology from the manned stealth fighter program.
6.
Supersonic stealth UCAV. A subsonic stealth UCAV has limited capability. Flying slowly leaves it vulnerable to detection and shootdown by a supercruising manned stealth fighter. Therefore, it is reasonable for China to work on a supercruising unmanned stealth fighter. It will shock your opponent and allow the unmanned stealth fighter to pull some incredible Gs.
7.
Thermonuclear-armed torpedo. This is an obvious extension of China's vast array of thermonuclear weaponry. Instead of worrying about the exact location of an enemy sub and its countermeasures (e.g. decoys), a Chinese sub commander only needs to know the approximate location of an enemy and blow it to hell with a thermonuclear-armed torpedo or mine.
8.
Hypersonic missile. The Chinese CM-400AKG air-to-ground missile has a terminal speed in excess of Mach 4. China will keep pushing its technology and their missiles should keep increasing in speed into the hypersonic range.
9.
Thermonuclear-armed SAM. A Chinese HQ-9 SAM (ie. surface-to-air missile) armed with a 20-kiloton tactical warhead can easily knock out an F-22. When Hiroshima explodes next to an F-22 pilot, he's out of the war.
10.
Stealth Torpedo. A Chinese Yu-6 torpedo with a rubberized sound-absorbing coating would be much harder to detect with sonar. Torpedoes don't move very fast and the sound from cavitation shouldn't be a problem. Also, the torpedo shields the rear-located propeller-acoustic waves from the target.