The Mark 16 torpedo was a redesign of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

's standard Mark 14 torpedo in use during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It incorporated war-tested improvements into a weapon designed to be used in unmodified United States

fleet submarine A fleet submarine is a submarine with the speed, range, and endurance to operate as part of a navy's battle fleet. Examples of fleet submarines are the British First World War era K class and the American World War II era ''Gato'' class. The ...

s. Due to high unit cost and the Mark 14's unreliability issues being solved by mid-1943, they were never put into mass production. Following WWII, limited numbers of the weapon were produced. The weapon was considered the United States' standard anti-shipping torpedo for twenty years;Kurak, September 1966, p.144 despite significant numbers of Mark 14 torpedoes left over from wartime production. This

hydrogen peroxide Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscosity, viscous than Properties of water, water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usua ...

propelled, torpedo was long and weighed . The Mod 0 warhead contained of

Torpex Torpex ("Torpedo explosive") is a secondary explosive, 50% more powerful than TNT by mass. Torpex comprises 42% RDX, 40% TNT and 18% powdered aluminium. It was used in the Second World War from late 1942, at which time some used the names Torp ...

(TPX) explosive and at the time was the most powerful conventional submarine torpedo warhead in the world. The TPX explosive in use by the US Navy during WWII was about 75% more powerful by weight (7,405 J/g) than the Japanese Type 95 and Type 97 torpedo explosives (4,370 J/g). As a result, it was even more powerful than the late war "Mod.3" variant of the Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedo; which used 780 kg of the Type 97 explosive, despite the warhead weighing 210 kg (28%) less. The Mod 1 Variant of the Mk 16 only contained of TPX explosive but could run around 4,500 yards longer as a result. The torpedo could be set for both straight or patterned running. After World War II, the Mod 0 and Mod 1 variants were developed into a common torpedo. Designed to keep the longer range from Mod 1 and larger warhead of Mod 0, this upgrade was called the Mark 16 Mod 8 and incorporated a 1,260 pound HBX (7,552 J/g) warhead in the place of the TPX. This weapon was used as the US Navy's main anti-ship torpedo until it was phased out in 1972, at which point both the Mark 16 and Mark 37 ASW torpedoes had been fully replaced by the dual-purpose Mark 48 in 1975.

Notes

References

*Naval Weapons web site: http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WTUS_WWII.htm *"Naval Weapons of World War Two" by John Campbell *"Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War" by Eric Lacroix and Linton Wells II * {{US Navy torpedoes Torpedoes of the United States Cold War anti-submarine weapons of the United States World War II weapons of the United States

See also

Notes

References