Watch A Russian Navy Submarine Absolutely Soak Onlookers With A Mock Torpedo Launch

Updated Dec 16, 2020 5:55 PM EST

A Russian Navy submarine, firing a wall of water from one of its bow torpedo tubes, gave a handful of onlookers a serious shower in a video that seems to have been taken at a Baltic Fleet base. What we see in the dramatic sequence, which has been slowed down, is what’s known as a “water slug,” when a submarine rapidly empties the water contained within an otherwise unloaded torpedo tube.

The process of loading and then firing a torpedo from a submarine is a surprisingly complex one and is something that The War Zone has looked at in detail in the past. Suffice to say, it’s a balancing act between the weight of the torpedo, the water that fills the tube around it, and the pressurized air that’s used to force the weapon out of the tube and then move more water back in. All this is carefully managed with a system of valves, using reserves of water and air that are already on the submarine, to ensure that the boat’s own center of gravity is preserved throughout the firing sequence and that water pressure is the same inside the tube as it is outside the hull.

The aftermath of the “water slug,” with a deluge of water pouring back off the harborside., VIA TWITTER

It is a convoluted process and it means that, when a submarine and its crew are on exercise or otherwise training, a torpedo often won’t actually be loaded into the tube at all. That appears to be the case for this Russian Navy submarine in the video, seen below, which looks to be one of the Baltic Fleet’s Kilo class diesel-electric boats, although this is hard to confirm. However, in the background is the Russia Navy’s Steregushchiy class corvette Soobrazitelny , also assigned to the Baltic Fleet, which is readily identifiable by its hull number.

If the Tweet below does not appear, you can find the video here .

With a submarine’s torpedo tubes in an unarmed state, when the call comes for a launch, the water filling the flooded tube will be forced out the muzzle instead. This is the ‘water slug’ and blasting it out fairly well represents an actual torpedo launch, providing training for the crew, as well as for any sonars or acoustic equipment that may be listening in, even though no weapon is actually fired.

Since no torpedo is fired from the submarine during a water slug “launch,” this means it’s quite possible to execute with a submarine moored up in the harbor. Provided there’s enough clearance, the worst that should happen is that anyone standing too close is likely to get drenched. It looks as if this is exactly what happened here. Fortunately, the four individuals on the receiving end of the mock torpedo attack seem to have been well prepared, while a passing dog seems to have escaped unscathed entirely.

It just goes to show that in this kind of mock dockside standoff between human and submarine, there is only likely to be one winner.

Contact the author: thomas@thedrive.com

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更新于美国东部时间2020年12月16日下午5:55。

一段视频显示，一艘俄罗斯海军潜艇从其艇艏鱼雷发射管喷射出一道水柱，让几名旁观者淋了个透湿。这段视频似乎拍摄于波罗的海舰队的一个基地。视频经过慢放处理，展现了所谓的“水柱喷射”过程，即潜艇快速排出原本空载的鱼雷发射管内的积水。

从潜艇上装填并发射鱼雷的过程极其复杂，《战区》栏目此前曾对此进行过详细报道。简而言之，这需要平衡鱼雷的重量、鱼雷管内的水压以及将鱼雷推出管口并重新注入水所需的压缩空气。所有这些都由一套阀门系统精心控制，利用潜艇上已有的水和空气储备，以确保潜艇在整个发射过程中保持重心稳定，并且管口内外的水压保持一致。

“水蛞蝓”过后，大量海水从港口倾泻而下。（图片来自推特）

这是一个复杂的过程，这意味着当潜艇及其艇员进行演习或其他训练时，鱼雷通常根本不会装入发射管。视频中这艘俄罗斯海军潜艇的情况似乎就是如此（如下图所示），它看起来像是波罗的海舰队的基洛级柴电潜艇，尽管这一点很难确认。然而，在视频背景中可以看到俄罗斯海军的守护级轻型护卫舰“索布拉齐捷利尼”号，该舰也隶属于波罗的海舰队，其舷号很容易辨认。

如果下面的推文没有显示，您可以在这里找到视频。

当潜艇的鱼雷发射管处于未装弹状态时，一旦接到发射指令，注入管内的水就会被从炮口喷出。这被称为“水弹喷射”，将其喷出模拟鱼雷发射，可以为艇员提供训练，也能让监听的声呐或其他声学设备进行监听，尽管实际上并没有发射任何鱼雷。

由于水弹“发射”过程中潜艇不会发射鱼雷，这意味着即使潜艇停泊在港口内，也完全可以进行这项演习。只要有足够的空间，最糟糕的情况也就是有人站在太近的地方会被水淋湿。看起来这里的情况正是如此。幸运的是，四名接受模拟鱼雷攻击的人似乎都做好了充分的准备，而一只路过的狗似乎毫发无损。

这正好说明，在这种模拟的人类与潜艇在码头对峙的场景中，最终可能只会有一个赢家。

联系作者：thomas@thedrive.com

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