The Royal Navy’s frigate HMS Westminster staged a submarine hunt east of the Suez Canal, where she is wrapping up her anti-piracy deployment in anticipation of the arrival of her sister HMS Somerset, which will take over in early February.
The tests included firing of a red-tipped dummy torpedo Sting Ray into the ocean targeting a simulated submarine contact after the sonar operators in the operations room had located their ‘target’.
The frigate’s sonar arrays should ideally detect such threats before they get within range to launch a torpedo of their own. But should a boat manage to deceive the sonars, it is when Magazine-Launched Torpedo System steps in as a counter-measure.
Sting Ray is a current British acoustic homing light-weight torpedo (LWT) manufactured by GEC-Marconi, who were later bought out by BAE Systems.
It is seven times smaller than the Spearfish torpedoes carried by submarines. Racing through the water at more than 50mph at targets half a dozen miles away, the torpedo delivers a 100lb explosive charge powerful enough to punch through the double hulls of modern submarines.
Once Sting Ray is fired it uses the information provided initially by the helicopter and gathers fresh intelligence on its target using its sonar and onboard software.
After the completion of the exercise, the dummy weapon was recovered from the ocean.
[mappress] Naval Today Staff, February 4, 2014; Image: Royal Navy