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Type 93 torpedo
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Type 93 torpedo
The Type 93 (酸素魚雷; designated for Imperial Japanese calendar year 2593) was a 610 mm (24 in)-diameter torpedo of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), launched from surface ships. It is commonly referred to as the Long Lance by most modern English-language naval historians, a nickname given to it after the war by Samuel Eliot Morison, the chief historian of the U.S. Navy, who spent much of the war in the Pacific Theater. In Japanese references, the term Sanso gyorai (酸素魚雷; lit. "oxygen torpedo") is also used, in reference to its propulsion system. It was the most advanced naval torpedo in the world at the time.
The Type 93's development (in parallel with a submarine-launched model, the Type 95) began in Japan in 1928, under the auspices of Rear Admiral Kaneji Kishimoto and Captain Toshihide Asakuma, as an evolution of the 610 mm (24 in)-diameter Type 90 pneumatic torpedo. The torpedo design was inspired by the British oxygen-enriched torpedoes used on the Nelson-class battleships: a naval officer believed them to be oxygen-fuelled and it led to restarting research at Kure.
At the time, the most powerful potential enemy of the Japanese Navy was the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet. The US Navy's doctrine, presuming an invasion by Japan of the Philippines (an American commonwealth at that time), called for the battle line to fight its way across the Pacific Ocean, relieve or recapture the Philippines, and destroy the Japanese fleet. Since the IJN had fewer battleships than the US Navy, it planned to use light forces (light cruisers, destroyers, and submarines) to whittle down the US fleet in a succession of minor battles, mostly at night. After the number of American warships was sufficiently reduced, the IJN would commit its own presumably fresh and undamaged battleships to finish off the US remnants in one huge climactic battle. A climactic battle was essentially what the US Navy's "War Plan Orange" expected as well, but in that case they would be on the offensive side.
To aid with this strategy of whittling down the US forces using smaller units, the Japanese Navy invested heavily in developing a large, heavy, and long-range torpedo, the Type 93. Torpedoes were the only weapon that gave small warships, such as destroyers, the potential to cripple or sink battleships. The IJN's torpedo research and development focused on using highly compressed oxygen instead of compressed air as the fuel oxidizer in the torpedo's propulsion system. These torpedoes used an otherwise normal wet-heater engine burning a fuel such as kerosene. Since air is only 21% oxygen (and 78% nitrogen), pure oxygen provides nearly five times as much oxidizer in the same tank volume, thereby increasing torpedo range. In addition, the absence of the inert nitrogen resulted in the emission of significantly less exhaust gas, comprising only carbon dioxide, which is significantly soluble in water, and water vapor, thus greatly reducing tell-tale bubble trails.
Compressed oxygen is dangerous to handle and required lengthy research and development, not to mention additional training for the warship's torpedomen, for safe operational use. Eventually, the IJN's weapons development engineers found that by starting the torpedo's engine with compressed air, and then gradually switching to pure oxygen, they were able to overcome the problem of explosions that had hampered it before. To conceal the use of pure oxygen from the ship's crew and any potential enemy, the oxygen tank was named the secondary air tank. The pure oxygen torpedo was first deployed by the IJN in 1935.
Some specification examples of ranges by speed:
However, the IJN announced officially the maximum performance of the Type 93 was 11 km (12,000 yd) at 78 km/h (42 kn).
The stated range of over 10 km (11,000 yd) was effective when the targeted warship steamed straight for more than a few minutes while the torpedo approached. This sometimes occurred when USN cruisers chased IJN destroyers breaking away from the scene of the battle at high speed during the night, or when American fleet carriers, engaged in flight operations, were targeted by IJN submarines in the South Pacific in 1942–43.
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Type 93 torpedo AI simulator
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Type 93 torpedo
The Type 93 (酸素魚雷; designated for Imperial Japanese calendar year 2593) was a 610 mm (24 in)-diameter torpedo of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), launched from surface ships. It is commonly referred to as the Long Lance by most modern English-language naval historians, a nickname given to it after the war by Samuel Eliot Morison, the chief historian of the U.S. Navy, who spent much of the war in the Pacific Theater. In Japanese references, the term Sanso gyorai (酸素魚雷; lit. "oxygen torpedo") is also used, in reference to its propulsion system. It was the most advanced naval torpedo in the world at the time.
The Type 93's development (in parallel with a submarine-launched model, the Type 95) began in Japan in 1928, under the auspices of Rear Admiral Kaneji Kishimoto and Captain Toshihide Asakuma, as an evolution of the 610 mm (24 in)-diameter Type 90 pneumatic torpedo. The torpedo design was inspired by the British oxygen-enriched torpedoes used on the Nelson-class battleships: a naval officer believed them to be oxygen-fuelled and it led to restarting research at Kure.
At the time, the most powerful potential enemy of the Japanese Navy was the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet. The US Navy's doctrine, presuming an invasion by Japan of the Philippines (an American commonwealth at that time), called for the battle line to fight its way across the Pacific Ocean, relieve or recapture the Philippines, and destroy the Japanese fleet. Since the IJN had fewer battleships than the US Navy, it planned to use light forces (light cruisers, destroyers, and submarines) to whittle down the US fleet in a succession of minor battles, mostly at night. After the number of American warships was sufficiently reduced, the IJN would commit its own presumably fresh and undamaged battleships to finish off the US remnants in one huge climactic battle. A climactic battle was essentially what the US Navy's "War Plan Orange" expected as well, but in that case they would be on the offensive side.
To aid with this strategy of whittling down the US forces using smaller units, the Japanese Navy invested heavily in developing a large, heavy, and long-range torpedo, the Type 93. Torpedoes were the only weapon that gave small warships, such as destroyers, the potential to cripple or sink battleships. The IJN's torpedo research and development focused on using highly compressed oxygen instead of compressed air as the fuel oxidizer in the torpedo's propulsion system. These torpedoes used an otherwise normal wet-heater engine burning a fuel such as kerosene. Since air is only 21% oxygen (and 78% nitrogen), pure oxygen provides nearly five times as much oxidizer in the same tank volume, thereby increasing torpedo range. In addition, the absence of the inert nitrogen resulted in the emission of significantly less exhaust gas, comprising only carbon dioxide, which is significantly soluble in water, and water vapor, thus greatly reducing tell-tale bubble trails.
Compressed oxygen is dangerous to handle and required lengthy research and development, not to mention additional training for the warship's torpedomen, for safe operational use. Eventually, the IJN's weapons development engineers found that by starting the torpedo's engine with compressed air, and then gradually switching to pure oxygen, they were able to overcome the problem of explosions that had hampered it before. To conceal the use of pure oxygen from the ship's crew and any potential enemy, the oxygen tank was named the secondary air tank. The pure oxygen torpedo was first deployed by the IJN in 1935.
Some specification examples of ranges by speed:
However, the IJN announced officially the maximum performance of the Type 93 was 11 km (12,000 yd) at 78 km/h (42 kn).
The stated range of over 10 km (11,000 yd) was effective when the targeted warship steamed straight for more than a few minutes while the torpedo approached. This sometimes occurred when USN cruisers chased IJN destroyers breaking away from the scene of the battle at high speed during the night, or when American fleet carriers, engaged in flight operations, were targeted by IJN submarines in the South Pacific in 1942–43.
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