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After laying hands on the record-breaking 61.5 mph speedboat, built for a British sporting adventurer, the Iranian navy plans to arm it with the reputedly fastest torpedo in the world, the Russian-designed Shkval (Squall), which moves at speeds of 360 kph. debkafile's military sources report Tehran is aiming for a seaborne weapon able to sink a US carrier in the Persian Gulf.
Blogs tracking the international weapons trade and the Financial Times reported Monday, April 5, that after purchasing the Bladerunner 51 powerboat from a Florida boatyard in 2005, the British sailor Neil McGrigor smashed the Italian-held record for the fastest circumnavigation of Britain in 27 hours 10 minutes.
Advertised for sale next year, the British government blocked it its purchase by Iran, which finally managed to purchase it under cover through South African agents in the face of an international embargo.
In Jan 2009, US special forces stood ready to intercept the Iranian merchant vessel carrying it to the Revolutionary Guards headquarters in Bandar Abbas, but the operation was called off for some unknown reason.
The deputy commander of the IRGC, Gen. Ali Fadavi has boasted that no warship can escape from the Shkval torpedo whose speed makes it almost impossible for radar to pick up. This claim has not been tested, but the US Persian Gulf naval command is concerned that the Iranians are outfitting the former Bladerunner 51 to lead the Guards navy's fleet of fast boats in attacks on the big American warships and aircraft carriers deployed in these waters.
It is feared that big warships may prove vulnerable to "swarming tactics by small boats," a hypothesis never yet demonstrated in practice. US naval experts stress that in recent US naval exercises in the Persian Gulf, small boats, however fast, trying to attack large warships, were beaten down and destroyed by the helicopters mounted on the ships' decks. They stressed that the powerboats were no match for military helicopters.
At the same time, these experts admit that a surprise hit-and-run operation by an armed powerboat able to approach a warship undetected could be extremely damaging.
After laying hands on the record-breaking 61.5 mph speedboat,
Originally posted by JanusFIN
Idea is still interesting - size against mobility once again.
Shkval High-Speed Underwater Rocket
Original unguided production model.
Used a tactical nuclear warhead on a timer to destroy incoming torpedoes and/or the submarine that launched them. This model was deployed in 1977; it could only be fired in a straight line and had a range of about 10 miles (16.2 km).
Shkval-E
Export variant. This model requires the crew of a submarine or ship to define the target's parameters -- speed, distance and vector. The torpedo must also be fed data for the automatic pilot. This variant does not have a homing warhead and must follow a computer-generated program. Warhead weight is reported to be greater than 462.9 lb (210 kg).
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PERFORMANCE
Speed
Maximum 230 mph (360 kmh, 100 m/sec, 200 kts)
Some reports say in excess of 300 mph (483 kmh)
Exit from tube 50 kts (93 kmh)
Range 3.5 nm (4.0 mi, 6.4 km)
Shkval-E
range
launch 3.8 nm (4.4 mi, 7.0 km)
cruise 5.4 nm (6.2 mi, 10.0 km)
minimum 0.3 nm (0.3 mi, 0.5 km)
launch depth 100 ft (30 m)
cruise depth 20 ft ( 6 m)
after-launch turning angle
+/-20 deg
Originally posted by hatonam
Just keep an eye on it in port, if it moves toward open water it vanishes after a brillant eruption.
Originally posted by aegis80
I've often wondered about something like this. How much of a radar profile does a fibreglass hull have to track? I'd guess the largest return is off of the engines, but how practical is it to pick out a fast moving relatively small boat on radar?