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Intro

The transition from regularly used torpedo missiles to torpedo missiles with nuclear warheads was a short one at best. There has only been one nuclear warhead torpedo in use for the United States. That torpedo was Mark 45. The Mark 45 was only in use for about one year in 1963 (USA Torpedoes). After the United States established superiority in nuclear warfare, they then focused on any other weaknesses they might have had. One being naval warfare. There was somewhat of a nuclear arms race of its own for the naval torpedo side. The Nuclear torpedo itself prompted several problems that will be discussed in this page.

Design and Function of Nuclear Torpedo

This section will be focusing on the design and physical qualities of torpedoes with nuclear warheads. Many of the actual designs for these torpedoes are classified, but some of the characteristics of them are available. Although many of the first nuclear torpedoes were created and used by the Soviet Union, this will focus more on the United States development and design of our own torpedoes. Starting with Mark 1, one of the first torpedoes used by the U.S.(not nuclear), it took them all the way until Mark 45, in 1956, to get to the very first torpedo with a nuclear warhead attached to it. The Mark 44 (torpedo right before the first nuclear torpedo), was in service around 1960. It weighed about 425 lbs and 100 inches in length. You will later see in this paper the major differences in this torpedo and the first nuclear torpedo. “It was developed as the payload for the ASROC and Ikara anti-submarine missiles” (USA Torpedoes). Its range was around 6000 yards and could reach speeds of 30 knots. The Mark 45 was actually, “Developed by the Applied Research Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash., and the Westinghouse Electric Corp., Baltimore, Md., the Mk 45 torpedo was produced by Westinghouse starting in 1959. This torpedo, which was restricted to U.S. Navy use only, was phased out of service when Torpedo Mk 48 became available.” (A Brief History). The Mark 45 was absolutely massive compared to the torpedoes prior to it. It was known as the anti-submarine torpedo. It came in at a whopping 2330 lbs. (A Brief History). While it’s predecessors averaged around 450 lbs. But as I had mentioned, all previous torpedoes were non-nuclear and therefore had much less of a payload. The Mark 45 was the first of its kind. There was actually 3 modules of the Mark 45. The first one, module 0, was a little heavier than the other modules and that may be because it was flooded for most of its life. Also, the 2nd and 3rd modules had more range when it came to enabling range (A Brief History). It was initially made for a specific purpose as to solve two problems the Naval Fleet was coming up against with the enemies submarines. “Two solutions to the high speed, deep diving submarine problem were implemented. The first was the nuclear warhead incorporated in the Mark 45” (USA Torpedoes). The nuclear warhead offered a bigger explosion that could affect the high speed submarines and the deep diving ones at the same time. One of the problems with this torpedo was its lack of homing ability. Although, because the explosion was so big it often didn’t need to be right on the target, it still caused some troubles. The actual guidance was by a gyro, depth gear, and a wire combination that used the enemies own sonar against them (USA Torpedoes). Because the Mark 45 was the first of its kind, there was many improvements to be made as we will discuss later with the Mark 48. One other troublesome part of the Mark 45 was its actual detonation. “The warhead was detonated only by a signal sent along the wire; there was no contact or influence exploder in the torpedo. The wire guidance and command detonation were not only important in getting the torpedo to the target, they also satisfied the requirement for positive control of the nuclear warhead.” (USA Torpedoes). With a nineteen inch diameter, a speed of over forty knots, and a maximum range of 15,000 yards, this was no easy torpedo to control. It had a propeller in the back to guide it somewhat in the direction it wanted to go. The propeller had a ring around it as to protect the wire systems from the actual propeller (Polmar). The propeller and torpedo itself were powered by a motor that was powered by a seawater activated battery. The motor was a 160 horse power motor (USA Torpedoes). Later in 1972, the Mark 48 was introduced as the universal submarine torpedo. Which actually replaced all Mark 45 torpedoes. Along with the Mark 45, the nuclear torpedo became extinct. There were several reasons, design wise, that the nuclear torpedo became obsolete. One of the main reasons was the size of the nuclear warhead. The size and weight of the nuclear warhead greatly interfered with the speed the torpedo could reach. “The non-nuclear approach to the high speed, deep diving submarine was a very fast, deep-diving torpedo with a high performance guidance system, that is, a much improved Mark 37 that would take full advantage of post-World War II technology.” (USA Torpedoes). The idea behind the nuclear warhead in a torpedo was simply just to create a much bigger and more explosive blast. But, it turned out that smaller, more accurate, and faster torpedoes were more of a necessity in naval wars. A short comparison: “Torpedo Mk 45 was a submarine-launched, antisubmarine, antisurface ship torpedo with wire guidance capabilities and a nuclear warhead. Using a seawater-activated battery as a power source, the torpedo was capable of high-speed, long-range, and deep-depth operation.” and “Torpedo Mk 48 is a long-range, high-speed, deep-depth, wire-guided, acoustic homing weapon used for detecting and attacking surface ships and fast, deep-diving submarines. The development of Torpedo Mk 48 Mod 0 grew out of the Navy's in-house Research Torpedo Configuration Program in 1963.” (A Brief History). As you can tell, The newer Mark 48 torpedo was bigger, better, faster, stronger. Torpedo, by Roger Branfill-Cook, also explains what happened as well, “The Mark 45 was replaced in service by the Mark 48, which is still the current USN submarine torpedo. The nuclear warheads were removed from the Mark 45’s and a conventional warhead fitted by Westinghouse.” (Branfill-Cook).

"A Brief History of U.S. Navy Torpedo Development - Part 2." A Brief History of U.S. Navy Torpedo Development - Part 2. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2016. "USA Torpedoes since World War II." USA Torpedoes since World War II. N.p., 28 Dec. 2013. Web. 07 Apr. 2016. Polmar, Norman, and Kenneth J. Moore. Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines. Washington, D.C.: Potomac, 2004. Print. Branfill-Cook, Roger. Torpedo: The Complete History of the World's Most Revolutionary Naval Weapon. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.