Electromagnetic waves cannot propagate effectively in water, so how do torpedoes find their targets?

Whether the bullet can hit the target accurately depends on the shooter's aiming skills, but how to aim if the target cannot even be seen?

This is actually not a big deal for modern technology. Take missiles for example. The reason why they can accurately hit the target is due to the modern guidance system. The missile guidance system consists of two parts: the guidance system and the control system. The guidance system will measure various parameters of the target, analyze the measured parameters, calculate the theoretical flight route, and then compare the actual flight route of the missile with the theoretical flight route, generate instructions and transmit them to the missile. After receiving the instructions, the missile will adjust its engine thrust and deflection angle to ensure that it can accurately hit the target in the end. The connection between the guidance system and the missile is achieved through electromagnetic waves.

At this point, you should have noticed a problem, that is, the missile's aiming method does not seem to be applicable to torpedoes, because electromagnetic waves cannot propagate effectively in water. So how does a torpedo find its target?

In fact, early torpedoes were aimed by eyes. Torpedoes are subject to great resistance when running in water, so from the day the torpedo was born, it has its own power system. Even so, it still can't run very far. Why? Because the earliest torpedo power system is a cold power engine that uses compressed air. Needless to say, it is known that this thing can't run very far. Although torpedoes soon hit the hot power engine, the sailing distance has not made a qualitative leap.

The thermal power engine of early torpedoes was basically an internal combustion engine, relying on the combustion of a mixture of fuel and air to generate power.

This thing should be quite powerful, so why can't it run very far? Because there is no air in the water, the fuel and air are provided by the torpedo itself, so the torpedo must be equipped with two storage chambers, one for air and one for fuel. Obviously, how far a torpedo can run depends on how much air and fuel it can carry, and to increase the amount of air and fuel carried, the size of the torpedo must be increased, so a new problem arises. If such a large torpedo is not powerful enough, it would be too uneconomical, so the amount of explosives carried must be increased. As a result, the size of the torpedo is out of control. Therefore, under the condition of ensuring a reasonable size of the torpedo, the early thermal-powered torpedo could only travel 3 kilometers at most.

Within a range of 3 kilometers, there is really no need for any high-tech guidance system. Just aim well and fire the torpedo in a straight line.

Torpedoes are so powerful in naval battles that humans have never stopped improving them. With the advancement of technology, the power system of torpedoes has been greatly improved and has begun to develop in two different directions. One is an electric torpedo, which, as the name implies, uses an electric motor to replace the traditional internal combustion engine. The other is an improvement on the traditional thermal torpedo, replacing the air carried in the torpedo with pure oxygen, which saves most of the space at once and increases the range of the torpedo. However, it is very risky to install a bunch of pure oxygen torpedoes on a ship, so only Japan did this during World War II. The US military did suffer a lot in the Pacific battlefield because of this. It can be seen that this improved thermal torpedo is still quite powerful.

The fish used now also use the above two methods, but no longer use pure oxygen, but a safer fuel.

The range of modern torpedoes is much different from that of the past. They can be fired dozens of kilometers at a time, so it is definitely not enough to rely on the eyes to aim. So what can be done? You must not think of it, that is to tie a wire to the torpedo. Yes, who would have thought that this kind of high-end sea missile is actually guided by wire. A torpedo is fired 20 kilometers away, and it is followed by a 20-kilometer wire. The guidance system on the ship transmits instructions to the torpedo and adjusts its direction through this wire.

Does a torpedo have to be tied to a wire? Can't it be made to track and guide automatically?

This is quite difficult. In fact, it has been tried before. Not only is the hit rate worrying, but also blunders often occur. Because the size of the torpedo is limited, the signal receiving device that can be carried on it is relatively small, so it is very susceptible to interference. Although long-distance automatic guidance is difficult to achieve, there is still room for development in short-distance automatic guidance. Some modern torpedoes use a combination of long-distance wire guidance and short-distance self-guidance. When the torpedo is first fired, it relies on the wire for guidance, and when it reaches a certain range of the target, it starts to guide automatically. There are two main types of technologies used for automatic guidance. One is to achieve self-guidance by sensing the sonar signals emitted by the enemy ship, and the other is to achieve self-guidance by sensing the wake of the enemy ship. It contains so much high technology, but in the end it is to perish together with the enemy ship. It is a pity to think about it.

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