HMS Somerset, a Type 23 Frigate, has launched a practice Sting Ray torpedo as part of training.
The vessel is currently sailing in Scottish waters.
In preparation for Anti-submarine operations #HMSSomerset fired practice Sting Ray torpedoes.#F82 #StingRay #ASW #MTLS pic.twitter.com/bulXgXuro0
— HMS Somerset (@HMSSomerset) September 9, 2024
The torpedo is powered by a pump jet that runs on an electric motor, using a magnesium/silver-chloride seawater battery. This system allows for fast speeds, deep diving, great agility, and minimal noise. Before launch, the weapon gets information about the target and surroundings from the launching platform.
Once it’s released, it works on its own, using its onboard software and sonar to find and lock onto the target without needing more help. The software is also designed to handle any countermeasures the target might use.
HMS Somerset recently arrived at Faslane in Scotland. As the designated Towed Array Patrol Ship (TAPS) vessel, HMS Somerset will be tasked with conducting vital anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations, safeguarding the waters surrounding Faslane, home to the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
In addition to her TAPS duties, HMS Somerset is also showcasing the Royal Navy’s latest anti-ship and land-attack capability, having been the first British warship to receive the Naval Strike Missile (NSM)—the replacement for the ageing Harpoon missile system.
While en route to Faslane, HMS Somerset conducted Replenishment At Sea (RAS) activities with RFA Tidesurge, demonstrating her new missile system in tandem with ongoing fleet support operations.
The NSM, developed by the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, brings cutting-edge technology to the Royal Navy, enhancing its precision strike capabilities against enemy ships and land targets.
According to Kongsberg, the Naval Strike Missile is a long-range precision weapon, capable of engaging targets over 100 nautical miles away while evading enemy radar and defense systems with advanced sea-skimming and evasive manoeuvres. The missile carries a 500-pound warhead, equipped with a programmable fuse for increased targeting accuracy.
The Royal Navy plans to outfit eleven Type 23 frigates and Type 45 destroyers with the NSM in collaboration with the Norwegian government.
Now, a question for our eagle-eyed readers: how long until this article appears elsewhere in certain other defence news outlets, just slightly reworded?
Great to finally see NSM on a T23, I’m also glad the RN had finally seen sense and begun to order a rocket launched torpedo as getting close enough to a modern submarine to use a deck launched torpedo seems suicidal.
With the strains on what’s left of the US ship building industry and the emerging cluster f**k that is the constellation class we really need the UK and European NATO to step into the emerging gap of ASW escorts that china is rapidly building.
I partly agree with you – UK ASW is, as it was in the Cold War, our key contribution to NATO.
As such T26 is coming on stream just as it is needed.
One of the issues with T23 is the awful accommodation standards. Better ships will help in this regard.
Hopefully we also make some T26 for Norway. So we can march mark Russian subs together. USN will appreciate that as a real contribution while they are trying to build their way out of a wet paper bag.
In this regard UK is showing the way to NATO with a proper high spec ASW asset system. Don’t forget the P8 investments that have been made by UK and others.
The main thing is that we do have the P8’s and T26’s.
I do get really fed up with people banging on about T31 and its lack of ASW. It was a choice of a Gucci frigate that would never get ordered or a large upgradable frigate that could fill specific roles. As it is we have five big, desperately needed, frigates on order.
Maybe a rocket launched torpedo is a good idea – I’m not so sure but let’s see what happens. The ability to send out patterns of sonar buoys with the cab on deck is probably more vital. Then launch the cab when contact and bearing are established to prosecute. Reduces flying hours on the cab.
I served on T42, T22s, T23s, LPD .
T23 are OK for Accom nothing more than that.
They are better than T42 …not as good as T22 and to be fair about the same as a LPD without the extra space.
I am ambivalent on ASROC.
It depends on what you have as the wet end.
If it is a Mk54 forget it, waste of money.
Mk54 performance is why the RAF is now paying a lot to integrate Sting Ray back onto fixed wing ASW again with the P8s. Sting Ray was integrated on Nimrod.
If you want a Sting Ray on ASROC then you need to pay millions and wait years to integrate it.
Look elsewhere for a system.
I think my point re accom was more that T23 isn’t up to modern expected standards.
This affects the real people who serve onboard.
The days of, ‘you are wearing a blue suit suck it up’ are thankfully long gone.
Furniture on RN ships is for the large part modular . Same bunks and storage across the board.
Cabins on a T23 where not lined with wipe clean panels…they had either painted steel or navy board covered bulkheads. Deckheads where again not lined but full of pipes and cable trays.
Mess accom areas where fine and pretty much the same as other vessels.
OK no usb port at your bed to begin with but later upgrades on T23 increased 240v supplies to cabins and that let you supply that kind of thing.
My 4 berth cabin as a CPO was OK. My 2 berth as a Warrant was OK as well…especially after we fitted a TV in there connected to the PO Mess ( Other side of the bulkhead) distribution box and the BFBS sat box.
Life is what you make it!
Indeed life is what you make of it.
But the younger generations who expect all answers to come out of their phone or be delivered by Deliveroo or Amazon get a bit of a shock when improvisation is required.
Ok they is a joy to a bit of improvisation to solve a problem and a satisfying ‘we can do that/solve that ourselves’ which is a good learning experience.
Ah mobile phones…the bane of any Div Officers life.
On this very ship when we deployed south to the Falklands in 99/00 mobiles where just becoming a thing.
Spent the Millenium in Cape Town…At 3500 ft up Table Top mountain in a tee shirt and shorts to watch the new millennium sunrise was not the best idea we had on our run ashore cabal( It was freezing!)…but that’s another dit…
Every evening when sailing back and doing the ” Really Bad Runs Ashore Tour of West Africa” people would be on the upper deck searching for signal to call home. Got a signal and they dialled away.
One of mine got a bill for 1500 quid (Roaming charges what are they?) His monthly pay was around 1000, and he had a missus and kid at home! Next thing phone cut off, threatening letters, debt collection at home and me as his DO asking his phone company for some understanding whilst he was deployed.
Basically, restricted his cheque cashing facilities. Had him ” voluntarily” give me his bank card. It took him 6 months to sort out and got a bad credit score as a result.
Hi GB, I’m always slightly bemused when the everyone forgets that the Western Navy with the largest surface ASW capability is Japan. Spookily they have gone their own way and gravitated towards improving on US offerings whilst still being able to use the MK41 VLS.
If UK is serious about wanting an off board ASW system I’d ask them about their Type 7, it’s modern and more than double the range of ASROC and they don’t use the US lightweights either.
Japan is spreading its wings, are proving to be excellent partners and don’t try to extract your fillings when negotiating.
‘our key contribution to NATO’.
Blinken is in London today to see Starmer and Lammy. Joint news conference at noon.
To hammer home to them that more cuts would gain a terrible response from USA and particularly if it becomes Trumpistan?
I think it will be more along the lines of ‘what more can you give Ukraine?’; ‘please don’t gap the LPDs’ ; ‘any chance you could build more T26 and T31’? and ‘do you think we should fire SS into Russia?’
While I understand the arguments against a rocket launched torpedo, especially in peacetime, I always look at it with an eye on actual conflict.
If you are alone at sea and your helo goes u/s even one or two rounds could be the difference between making it home or not.
There is no point in spending money on fig leaf systems.
Until such time as there is a serious system that can successfully prosecute a sub outside of its engagement range it is a waste of money.
ASW is a team game.
Yes, it’s Awfully Slow Warfare but you don’t do it on your own. Son of SOSUS giving you a heads up grid square, Friendly subs in their own hunting areas, ASW screen of FF/DD in their areas, dippers, pony’s and even the RAF with fixed wing assets (Tuesday -Thursday only with a sports make n mend on Wed afternoon). They all turn up to play.
I have said many times, Helos are pretty reliable. Keep up with the maintenance and inspections and you are ok. We never missed a planned sortie due to a helo being U/S.
The one time we did lose our helo we had a second one onboard anyway to take the load. The “defect” was catastrophic with 75% of the tail boom rivets shearing and the whole tail boom pivoting and dropping onto the deck. Luckily the crew shut it down PDQ, it stayed attached so no loss of the tail rotor. If it had fully broken off, we would probably all have been toast. Flight crew of 2, Flight deck crew 7, weapon resupply part 4 and the FDO. The report found that undersized rivets had been used by Fleetlands in error. Nobody knew . Nobody could have known.
Wartime flight safety is different from peacetime flight safety. A small spot of surface corrosion on an intermediate tail rotor gear box would ground a helo in peace time but not in wartime. You would fly
Is there any mileage in just rocket launching sonabuoys? Say the frigate just had a Wildcat.
Kingfisher BAe – is a concept to launch them from the 5” gun.
The issue is using up loads of VLS slots to have a useful number of shots.
Although you would probably want it in a CAMM style package.
You can drop buoys out of the side door. However, you need the processing gear to analyse the received signals. T22 HMS Beaver on Ocean wave in 1997 was full of sneaky stuff above and beyond the regular load out of sneeky stuff , had it fitted for a while. We had submariner CTs and some WAFU back cabin dipper operators embarked as extra crew to operate the stuff and there was a lot of stuff…
Interesting. Thx.
Errr…It hasn’t ordered a rocket launched torp. Its investigating options.
The current ASROC has a MK54 which is the warhead and backend propulsion from a 1960s era Mk46. Its pretty much useless against modern subs in the big blue briny. It’s also not that long ranged at around 20Km. Thats well inside a sub launched torpedo’s range.
A Sting Ray has an approx 10min run time. At the speed it goes at that’s a good fraction of ASROCs range anyway.
Ideally you are acquiring a sub on Sonar 2087 or Sonar 2150 at well outside of the Subs own weapon range. You then send a helo to Vectac it death with a couple of Sting Rays 50km away.
A heli is the main means of prosecuting a Sub, Jim.
A ships not closing on a contact with the intention of using it’s deck mounted Stingray!
What rocket launched Torpedo? ASROC?
By our reading here over the years it seems that again is sub optimal compared to a helicopter.
A heli is the preferred option I agree, however if you are caught with your pants down and can’t afford to wait 10 minutes for the heli to set off and reach the sub, then all of a sudden a VLS torpedo is very useful.
I’m personally in favour of the Japenese offering, the Type 07, but with a stingray of the front of it.
Yes, I suppose there is that uncertainty in war.
I noted Rodneys comment above on the 07, was not aware of it.
I’m all for as close as possible ties to Japan though, and happy to buy their kit if it’s reciprocated.
It’ll be down to the treasury again. Why do you want that? You have this already?
The RNs future maritime force concept has Drones in it to assist Merlin in ASW roles too.
To be honest they may be better working up kingfisher as a pants down option, after all dumping a load of dept bombs on top of a sub will have it evading.
MTLS is ideal for ASW in Fjords.
Enviromental’s are awful and passive isn’t really an option.
Its active time with obvious limits on range due to the huffing big mountainsides coming out of the sea all around you!
MTLS snap shoots are ideal.
Is it going on the T26?
And is it an upgrade to STWS?
I think they are looking at a 2 tube PODS type fit. Reload will be from the ships existing TAS&AW Mag stock. Simple way of doing it and if you are not tasked for ASW swap it out for something else more fitting to the task at hand (Boats, Drones, Humanitarian, Boarding etc)
Thanks.
Which rocket launched torpedo are they ordering?
“ Now, a question for our eagle-eyed readers: how long until this article appears elsewhere in certain other defence news outlets, just slightly reworded?”
I thought they had ordered new keyboards?
On their old one the Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V keys had worn out?
At the moment the changes you are referring to are due to free retyping…:)
So why won’t T26 have ASW torpedoes?
The T26’s job is to find enemy u-boats. It’s the Merlin and P8’s job to kill it. If an enemy u-boat is near enough to the T26 that it needs its own torpedoes then it’s probably already dead.
The T26 job is identical to the T23 job. If a submarine happens within the striking range of a Stingray it’s most likely to be because it’s trying to break through the task force outer defence to attack the ships in the main body. It will have avoided detection up to that point. It’s not targeting the T26. And too late to launch the Merlin by then. You want a ship born quick reaction weapon that will force the submarine to break off its attack and give the main ships a chance to escape
Not my rules but the Royal Navy seems happy about it otherwise there would be torpedo tubes. I guess the intel they can gather and the fact there isn’t the number of potential enemy threats due to costs gives them that confidence. And if the T26 is part of a CSG or other type of task force, in wartime, you can be sure an astute or 2 will be tagging along. And there’ll be plenty of Merlin’s to operate 24/7. The Royal Navy seem happy with it so let’s hope we never find out if there right or wrong.
Avoided detection?
It will be very lucky if it did.
S2087, S2150, Dippers, Fixed wing ASW thats a lot of luck to avoid.
All the assets will have helos armed at short notice if not already in the air.
It takes less than 5 mins to get a Wildcat up for a Vectac.
If the doctrine says the Merlin is to kill the sub why the T26 have only 1 ?
Makes no sense. And it is one more thing that do not make sense in RN.
Because ASW is a team sport.
You will have other assets available in a shooting war.
Fixed wing ASW of several types.
Dippers and pony’s available from the vessels doing the ASW screen.
Dippers can localise a sub and drop on it if needed or call in ponys with weapons to Vectac onto it whilst the dipper keeps contact.
Merlin is a big beast. You can only fit one in the hangar. Smaller helos like Wildcat you can squeeze in 2. Support ships like tankers etc will also carry dippers.
FF/DD can keep other helos in the game via HIFR or land on to RRRF or rearm. Although we only carried one type of helo we practised weapon preps for other types of RN helo. Each helo has differences in the length of arming wires etc for the FIAM so you need to practise setting those up.
I don’t reaaly know. The thinking could be to do with the range of a ship launched ASW Torp. Will a sub get within 10 miles of a ASW frigate, possible but risky, I would think that an enemy sub would try to take out the ASW platforms from long range. So the thinking could be that if a sub is not likely to get within 10 miles of the ASW platform then why bother with the extra wieght and cost.
One of the reason that I do not like the Type XX designations for RN ships, Type 1x, 2x are ASW platforms, Type 4x AAW platforms and Type 8x multi role platforms. By saying what they are mainly used for means the enemy can work out ways to combat them. I also really wish that all RN surface combat ships have dedicated Towed array VDS, as that is not possible then I would like to see the RN have several sets of containerised CAPTAS 2 or 4 so an enemy will not know which ships have a tail and which don’t. At the moment you take out the Type 2x at range then close to take out the Type 4x with torps.
The days of secrecy through misleading names are dead I’m afraid. The internet and satellites have made the world too transparant for such simple tricks.
T4X carry torpedo’s.
Just because it isnt a dedicated ASW platform doesn’t mean it cannot prep torpedo’s and load them onto its helo for VEXTAC.
S2087 can and does detect way past the range of sub launched torps. S2050/S2150 can detect way past a subs weapon range as well.
George bit of clarification for you.
It’s a TVT, Training Variant Torpedo. Completely inert with no warhead or propulsion system. It has lead weights in it to simulate an all-up weight warshot for flying serials. You take the weights out before a helo drop or MTLS shoot, or it doesn’t float and you cannot recover it! You know it’s a TVT by the orange nose and tail.
An EVT, Exercise Variant Torpedo, has a propulsion system and sonar that is exactly the same as a warshot but there is no warhead. EVTs are usually converted from Warshots that are picked out of the warshot pool of weapons. It has a telemetry section instead of a warhead and a gas inflatable flotation device. Its recoverable and after a run it is base refurbished back to warshot configuration.
Warshots are exactly what they say they are. Same as EVTs but with the warhead fitted.
Stingray is described as having a battery that uses seawater. Does this mean it couldn’t run through a river’s outflow?
I realise that’s a rather niche requirement, just being curious really
The battery doesn’t activate until it becomes wet.
River estuaries are really bad environmental’s for subs and ASW ships alike. Noisy, changes in salinity, shallow water depth, sea bed types … You would struggle to find something let alone attack it.
I don’t understand. Why are they farting about with torpedo tests intead of testing NSM? Haven’t we been told that the T45s and other T23s are waiting on Somerset’s NSM testing before it’s installed elsewhere? Nothing is waiting on the torpedo tests that couldn’t wait a couple of years longer.
It was a mandated TVT shoot to test the MTLS system ( Not the torpedo) . As she is currently TAPS then ASW is her thing, not surface warfare.
If the Stringray light weight torpedo has a range of 11 km, and heavy weight torpedoes on subs, such as the Russian Futlyar, have a range of around 50 km, then why bother with them on a frigate?
A sub will most likely pick up a frigate on its sonar and fire off a salvo before the frigate even knows it is under attack.
This is thinking of most here I believe.
For my money, the Kingfisher round would seem to offer a great virtually instant deterrent effect for very little money. Have a few (how many? ) in the gun magazine for the odd occasion rather than filling up mk41 holes with asroc or whatever.
AA
In the big blue briny you can look to pick up and track a sub on S2087/S2150 beyond the 50km range of its weapons, so you use a helo against it (Sting Ray has a longer range than 11km launched from a tube, ASROC has a 20km range and the torp it carries has a 7 min run time if you are lucky). Against a T23 now and a T26 in future the advantage will not be with the sub for an acoustic tracking solution. T23 is unbelievably quiet in the ultra quiet state doing asw. T26 will be even better.
Now do ASW in a Fjord where ranges are measured in single digit Km.
MTLS is needed there.
Because of limited number of tubes in a submarine.