Mark 44 torpedo: Difference between revisions

| caption = A Japanese built Mk44 torpedo at the [[Kanoya museumAir Base Museum]], Japan

| type = [[Antisubmarine warfare|Antisubmarine]] [[torpedo]]<ref name="joliehist">{{cite web | last= Jolie | first = E.W. | title = A Brief History of US Navy Torpedo Development: Torpedo Mk44 | date = 15 September 1978 | url= http://www.maritime.org/doc/jolie/part2.htm | accessdateaccess-date = 24 June 2013}}</ref>

It has been deployed by many navies and air forces including the USN, [[Royal Navy]], [[Royal Australian Navy]] and the [[Royal Air Force]] from various launch vehicles. These include [[maritime patrol|long-range maritime patrol aircraft]], e.g. [[P-3 Orion]], RAF [[Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod|Nimrod]], [[Canadair Argus]], [[Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System|LAMPS]] and other [[Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System|embarked naval helicopters]], [[ASROC|ASROC missiles]], [[Ikara (missile)|Ikara missiles]].

The Mark 44 is a modular design, consisting of four main sections. The blunt nose contains the active sonar seeker with the 75-pound (34&nbsp;kg) high-explosive warhead immediately behind it. The second section contains the guidance and gyroscopes. The third contains the 24 kilowatt [[magnesium battery|seawater battery]] which uses [[silver chloride]] and [[magnesium]] electrodes with seawater acting as the electrolyte. Finally is the propulsion section which houses the electric motor, four rectangular control fins and two contra-rotating propellers.

The vacuum tube-based guidance system is more sophisticated than earlier torpedoes, using pre-launch settings enabling an initial search depth of {{convert|50|, |150|, |250|, |450|, |650 |or |900 feet|ft|m}} as well as a search floor at {{convert|150|, |250|, |450|, |650 |or |900 feet|ft|m}} as well as a maximum dive/climb angle of 4.5, 6 or 7 degrees. On impacting the water the torpedo either runs out for {{convert|1,000 yards|yd|m}} or performs a dive at a 30-degree angle to the search depth. After completing this it may perform a flat turn and begins a helical search pattern proceeding up or down until it hits either the minimum depth of {{convert|50 yards|yd|m}} or the search floor. When it hits either top or bottom, it performs a flat turn and begins to execute the search in reverse. It continues executing this search until it either finds a target or exhausts its six-minute endurance.

*{{flag|Indonesia}} <ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.indomiliter.com/jadi-koleksi-naval-museum-lantamal-vi-inilah-kemampuan-torpedo-ringan-general-electric-mk44/ |title=MK44 light torpedo become a collection in naval museum|date=21 June 2019}}</ref>