Influence of Battlefield Currents on Operational Effectiveness of Tube-Launched Torpedo Anti-Submarine

Abstract

The existence of ocean currents has a certain impact on the sonar state, torpedoes, and targets during anti-submarine operation. In severe cases, it may even affect the result of the operation. The anti-submarine operation of a surface ship was taken as an example, and a full-process simulation of the anti-submarine combat under various scenarios was carried out to study the influence of ocean currents on the operational effectiveness of anti-submarine. By constructing mathematical models of ocean current, sonar error, torpedo motion, and homing detection error, setting up various scenarios, and employing simulation software, the operation effectiveness of tube-launched anti-submarine torpedoes under different ocean current directions was analyzed. The simulation results show that the current direction during anti-submarine operation in different attack positions has different degrees of influence on the hit probability of the torpedo. When the main heading angle between the current and the torpedo is set between 0° and 90°, the hit probability of the torpedo is greatly improved compared with that in the case of no current. However, when the angle between the current and the torpedo heading is between −180° and 0°, the hit probability of the torpedo is lower than that in the case of no current. Obtaining the current intensity and direction in the operation area can provide support for finely predicting the operation capability of the tube-launched anti-submarine torpedo and optimizing the tube-launched anti-submarine shooting parameters.

Keywords

• anti-submarine operation
• torpedo
• ocean current
• operational efficiency