AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 7 – Panorama CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 302 of 332 The target was a Foxtrot Class Submarine (Photo 4). She was at periscope depth. (Photo5). Everything went as planned and the torpedo was fired. (Photo6). The torpedo dived under the surface to the set depth and headed towards the target. The ship’s sonar was listening and so was the submarine. The submarine which was stationed 3 kms away on starboard beam confirmed that the torpedo was heading in the right direction. After a couple of minutes she reported that the torpedo had changed direction and was running parallel to her. Suddenly one of the lookouts sighted this torpedo on surface parallel to the submarine moving through the water like a porpoise, alternately surfacing and submerging. We trainees and those on the ship’s bridge realized that there was a likely malfunction in the torpedo and waited for it to run out of steam and surface completely. The torpedo apparently had other thoughts when it did a smart turn to port. Initially it was amusement on its rogue behaviour. This turned to apprehension soon as it started heading for the ship on the surface at a good clip. The Commanding Officer decided that it was a heaven sent opportunity to put to test the then current Torpedo Counter Measure (TCM) doctrine into practice. The ship increased speed and manoeuvred accordingly and the torpedo crossed the ship’s wake like a playful spouting dolphin at about 100 metres distance. Could definitely have caused damage to the ship’s hull or the propeller if it had hit because of the momentum. This was a once in a life time happening where a torpedo was fired at a target and one got to put into practice TCM as it returned to the firing platform. It was like buy one and get one free offer! All of us buttonholed the TAS Officer and told him that he has made the torpedo behave like a boomerang. Carried out its homing duty and returned home to the ship. In 1985, the name TAS was changed to Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW). We who were called TASOs and then for a while after the name change, butt of lots of wardroom jokes.