Word: tigerfish
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...helicopters have proved able to pick off surface vessels is said to have astonished some military experts, who had not foreseen such possibilities. None of them could have been quite as astonished as the captain of the General Belgrano, however, at the devastating power and accuracy of the British Tigerfish torpedo; or as the captain of the Sheffield when the Argentines let fly their Exocet missile from an aircraft he could not even see. Before the Falklands crisis these weapons were untried toys, and war was target practice. Now there is mixed amazement that they actually work. Some horror. Some...
...wire-guided torpedoes of the Tigerfish type, one of the many exotic modern weapons that have come into play in the Falklands dispute (see box), flashed toward the Belgrano. Both hit their target. About 40 minutes later the stricken Belgrano disappeared from British and Argentine radar screens, the biggest casualty of the war. Indeed, it was the largest warship sunk in a naval engagement since Admiral William Halsey's attacks on the Japanese Inland...
...Tigerfish MK 24 torpedo used by the British nuclear submarine H.M.S. Conqueror to sink the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano is typical of the new weapons. Built in Britain, the Tigerfish is 21 ft. long, weighs 3,400 Ibs. and has a range of approximately 20 miles. After launch, it speeds toward its target at about 58 m.p.h., playing out thin wires attached to the submarine's computer and changing direction as the computer dictates...
...final stages of the attack, when the submarine has determined that the torpedo is heading in the right direction, an automatic homing system takes over and guides the torpedo to its target. The superquiet Tigerfish is "one of the most deadly underwater weapons yet produced," says the Jane's expert. "It is virtually impossible for the target to know that the torpedo is approaching...
Defense against such weapons is, as the sinking of the Sheffield and General Belgrano attest, not easy. Modern torpedoes like the Tigerfish can be avoided only by throwing out decoys like big air bubbles, using acoustic countermeasures like sonar jamming or, better yet, sinking the attacking submarine. But deep-diving nuclear attack submarines and the noiseless Tigerfish are hard to detect until it is too late. Similarly, the Sea Skua and Exocet antiship missiles are almost impossible to evade. A would-be victim can use electronic countermeasures like radar jamming to confuse the attacking missile's guidance system...