Atlas Trail
Running Silent: Torpedoes from the Whitehead to the Varunastra
A torpedo is a ship-killer that travels under its own power beneath the surface, and these ten weapons trace how it grew from a compressed-air curiosity into a guided, homing and sometimes supercavitating machine. The path follows each weapon's recorded introduction year, from the first self-propelled design of 1866 through the oxygen, electric and acoustic torpedoes of the two world wars and the Cold War to the lightweight and heavyweight weapons that navies fielded in the twenty-first century.
Stop 1 of 10.
Weapons Systems
The first self-propelled torpedo, perfected in 1866 by Robert Whitehead from an earlier design by Giovanni Luppis. A three-cylinder compressed-air engine drove it, and it was used in combat from the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 to 1878 until its last recorded use at the Battle of Drobak Sound in April 1940.
Stop 2 of 10.
Weapons Systems
The United States Navy standard submarine torpedo of the Second World War, designed in 1931 and built in roughly 13,000 units. Its magnetic and contact exploders were badly flawed until corrected by late 1943, after which it helped sink heavy tonnage of Japanese shipping and stayed in service for nearly 40 years.
Stop 3 of 10.
Weapons Systems
The Japanese oxygen-propelled Type 93, in service from 1933, reached up to 40,400 meters at reduced speed. That range let Japanese warships strike from distances the Allies assumed no torpedo could cover, and Samuel Eliot Morison gave it the postwar nickname Long Lance.
Stop 4 of 10.
Weapons Systems
The standard electric torpedo of the German U-boat fleet, entering service in 1936 with lead-acid batteries. Early failures known as the Torpedokrise were fixed in the G7e(TIII), and later acoustic-homing variants such as the Falke and Zaunkonig brought the family to twenty versions.
Stop 5 of 10.
Weapons Systems
An American acoustic anti-submarine torpedo that entered service in 1956 and was fired by submarines at other submarines. It steered by gyroscope, then passive sonar, then active Doppler sonar for the final approach, and was later sold to navies including Israel and the Netherlands.
Stop 6 of 10.
Weapons Systems
The lightweight anti-submarine torpedo whose Mod 0 entered service in 1963 and Mod 5 in 1979. Launched from aircraft, ships and anti-submarine rockets, it became the NATO standard and was supplied to more than 35 nations.
Stop 7 of 10.
Weapons Systems
A Soviet supercavitating torpedo in service since 1977, answering the problem of torpedoes fired by undetected submarines. It wraps itself in a gas bubble to cut drag and exceeds 200 knots, far beyond any conventional torpedo.
Stop 8 of 10.
Weapons Systems
In service since 2004, this American lightweight torpedo joins the homing section of the Mark 50 to the warhead and propulsion of the Mark 46. It was built because the Mark 50 cost too much for routine threats while the Mark 46 performed poorly in shallow coastal waters.
Stop 9 of 10.
Weapons Systems
China entered service with this heavyweight in 2005. It is the Chinese counterpart of the American Mark 48 and the first domestic Chinese torpedo designed to attack both surface ships and submarines, combining passive and active acoustic homing, wake homing and wire guidance.
Stop 10 of 10.
Weapons Systems
An Indian heavyweight anti-submarine torpedo developed by the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory of the DRDO and inducted into the Indian Navy in 2016. Its name comes from a legendary weapon of the god Varuna, though the torpedo is an engineered weapon and not the mythological object.
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