Annex 3 : MHD US torpedo
The study of this torpedo started at the begining of the seventies. It became operational in 1980. Then its velocity was 1000 knots. Now it must be close to 1500-1800 knots. The principle is very simple.
In water the skin drag is 1000 times higher than in a gas like air. This limits the velocity of torpedos using classical propellers to 65 knots. During the sixties advanced marines developped rocket propelled torpedos. In addition a generator injected hot gas at the stagnation point. This transformed immediatly water into vapour. Then the torpedo could move inside this sort of gazeous bubble. The corresponding US torpedon, named "Supercav", is able to reach 300 knots. Similar performance for the equivalent torpedo built at the same epoch by Russian, called "Sdqwal". But a MHD torpedo can go much faster. The electric power is produced by a wall generator, coupled to the nozzle of a solid propellant rocket. This electric power feeds a MHD wall accelerator which covers all the surface of this one meter large machine and sucks water very efficiently. Russia and America are the only countries in the world to own MHD torpedos, which gives them a great strategic advantage. Chinese would like to own such weapon. They tried to buy it to Russia. A demonstration was planned, using the russian submarine "Koursk"', where a chinese general, carried abord by an helicopter took place. American, warned by their secret services, sunk the Koursk, using a british submarine which went to close contact and fired a special temporized weapon. Two minues after the Koursk lied on the ground 107 meters deep. The admiral nuclear ship "Pierre the Great" sent an ultrasonic message to the Koursk, closing all its doors so that all the crew members wer locked in.
In effect it is very surprising that none of the crew members tried to escape by himself, using his individual standard equipment. Next, the standard European equipement, produced by a british company :
This equipment is very complete. A rubber boat is located in a bag fixed on the left leg of the man. After inflation the man can take place in and easily stand cold.
If nobody used such equipement, from such moderate depth, it confirms that the russian submarine Koursk was locked. A small submarine tried to pick the Chinese general and the captain from the russian submarine. But a mutiny occured, which caused many deaths. The evacuation of the Chinese VIP was abandonned. The admiral ship Pierre the Great warned all ships present in the zone that nyone which would like to get close to the Koursk would be immediatly sunk. Poutine let the hundred guys die.
Later the Russian took the submarine back to a harbour. Its torpedo room was cut and destroyed in order to hide the large size of the MHD torpedo tubes (one meter large). They removed all sophisticated equipments like anto-torpedos systems and, obviously the famous Granit missiles :
