Appendix 3: US MHD Torpedo
The study of this torpedo started in the early 1970s. It became operational in 1980. At that time, its speed was 1000 knots. Today, it must be around 1500 to 1800 knots. The principle is very simple.
In water, skin drag is 1000 times higher than in a gas like air. This limits the speed of conventional propeller torpedoes to about 65 knots. During the 1960s, advanced navies developed rocket-propelled torpedoes. In addition, a generator injected hot gas at the stagnation point, immediately transforming water into vapor. The torpedo could then move inside this sort of gas bubble. The corresponding US torpedo, named "Supercav," can reach a speed of 300 knots. Similar performance was achieved by the Russians with their equivalent torpedo of the time, called "Sdqwal." However, an MHD torpedo can go much faster. The electric power is produced by a wall generator, coupled to the nozzle of a solid propellant rocket. This electric power feeds an MHD wall accelerator covering the entire surface of this one-meter-wide machine and efficiently sucking in water. Russia and the United States are the only countries in the world to possess MHD torpedoes, giving them a major strategic advantage. The Chinese would like to have such a weapon. They tried to buy it from Russia. A demonstration was planned, using the Russian submarine "Kursk," where a Chinese general, carried aboard by a helicopter, was to be present. The Americans, warned by their intelligence services, sank the "Kursk" using a British submarine that had approached very closely and fired a special timed weapon. Two minutes later, the "Kursk" lay at the bottom, 107 meters deep. The nuclear-powered ship "Pierre le Grand" sent an ultrasonic message to the "Kursk," ordering it to close all its hatches, so that all the crew were locked inside.
Indeed, it is very surprising that none of the crew members tried to escape individually using their standard equipment. Next, the standard European equipment, produced by a British company:
This equipment is very complete. A rubber boat is placed in a bag fixed on the left leg of the man. Once inflated, it allows the individual to sit inside and stand easily in the cold.
The fact that no one used this equipment, from such a moderate depth, confirms that the Russian submarine "Kursk" was indeed locked inside. A small submarine tried to retrieve the Chinese general and the captain of the Russian submarine, but a mutiny broke out, causing many deaths. The evacuation of the Chinese VIP was abandoned. The flagship "Pierre the Great" warned all ships in the area that anyone attempting to approach the "Kursk" would be immediately sunk. Putin let the hundred men die.
Later, the Russians towed the submarine to a port. The torpedo compartment was cut and destroyed to hide the large size of the MHD torpedo tubes (one meter wide). All sophisticated equipment, including anti-torpedo systems, was removed, as well as, of course, the famous Granit missiles:
Appendix 1 (MHD)
Appendix 2 (other weapons)