Thursday, August 9, 2018

Torpedo Defense Systems


Torpedo defence includes evasive maneuvers, passive defense like torpedo belts, torpedo nets, torpedo bulges and active defenses, like anti-torpedo torpedoes similar in idea to missile defense systems.

Torpedo nets were a passive ship defensive device against torpedoes. They were in common use from the 1890s until WW2. They were superseded by the anti-torpedo bulge and torpedo belts.

The anti-torpedo bulge (also known as an anti-torpedo blister) is a form of defence against naval torpedoes occasionally employed in warship construction in the period between WW1 and WW2. It involved fitting (or retrofitting) partially water-filled compartmentalized sponsons on either side of a ship's hull, intended to detonate torpedoes, absorb their explosions, and contain flooding to damaged areas within the bulges.

The torpedo belt was part of the armouring scheme in some warships between the 1920s and 1940s. It consisted of a series of lightly armoured compartments, extending laterally along a narrow belt that intersected the ship's waterline. In theory this belt would absorb the explosions from torpedoes, or any naval artillery shells that struck below the waterline, and thus minimize internal damage to the ship itself.

Torpedo belts are also known as Side Protection Systems or SPS, or Torpedo Defense System or TDS.

Torpedo Defense Systems of WW2 .


Wednesday, August 8, 2018

USN vs PLAN ASMs

2021 USN Supercarriers vs Chinese AntiShip Missiles - Defense >skip ad > .

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

V1 Flying Bombs

44-6-13 First V-1 'doodlebug' flying bomb - HiPo > .

On 13 June 1944 the first German attack on Britain using the V-1 flying bomb, otherwise known as the ‘doodlebug’, took place.

The V-1 was powered by the Argus As 014 pulsejet engine, the first mass-produced engine of its type. The noisy operation of the engine led to the bomb earning its nickname as a ‘buzz bomb’ or ‘doodlebug’.

The pulsejet engine was simple and cheap to build and, combined with a simple fuselage of welded steel sheets and wings made of plywood, the V-1 could be produced and operated at a fraction of the cost of other bombing methods.

The bomb was specifically designed for terror bombing civilians, since its launch and autopilot system was able to identify a general target area but not hit a specific point. The very first V-1 exploded near a railway bridge in Mile End, London, killing eight civilians.

Each launch site on the French and Dutch coasts could launch up to eighteen V-1s a day, but that figure was rarely met. Furthermore due to mechanical problems, guidance system failures, and an effective system of air defences, only an estimated 25% of all V-1s hit their intended target. Within just two months of the first launch more than half of all V-1s were being intercepted. However, the V-1 was still a highly effective weapon that caused significant damage to Britain and intimidated the civilian population.

The successful Allied advance after D-Day succeeded in disabling all the launch sites on the French coast by September. This removed the threat of further attacks on Allied civilians and contributed greatly to improved morale.

The V1 Flying Bomb, also known as a 'buzz bomb' or 'doodlebug', was one of the most fear-inducing terror weapons of the Second World War. In the face of relentless Allied bombing of German cities, Hitler created its 'revenge weapons' (Vergeltungswaffen) in an attempt to terrorise British civilians and undermine morale. Nazi propaganda hailed the V1 as a 'wonder weapon' (Wunderwaffe) that might turn the tide of the war.
 
But alongside the civilians killed and wounded by the V-1 are the forgotten victims of the vengeance weapons, the people who made them. Inside the Harz mountains in Germany, tens of thousands of slave labourers from Mittelbau-Dora and its many sub-camps lost their lives across the V weapons production process. The V-1 is not only a symbol of Nazi attempts to fight the Second World War in innovative ways but of their greatest crime - the Holocaust.

The connection between the V-1 as a weapon of war and as a part of the Holocaust is a key theme of IWM’s new Second World War and Holocaust Galleries opening at IWM London on the 20th of October 2021. The project will see IWM London become the first museum in the world to house dedicated Second World War and Holocaust Galleries under the same roof. Our V-1 flying bomb will be suspended between the two galleries, presenting a striking symbol of how the Holocaust and the Second World War are interconnected.

sī vīs pācem, parā bellum

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum    therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war sī vīs pācem, parā bellum if you wan...