PLAN Torpedos
- Thread starter TorpHistorian
- Start date
SinoSoldier
Colonel
Someone help me out on this - what's Yu-12 all about? We have a 21" otto-fuel HWT (Yu-6), a 21" electric HWT (Yu-10 - probably the model that the Vietnamese fishermen caught, based on the counter-rotating screws typical of modern battery-powered HWTs like DM2A4, BlackShark and F21), a Yu-7 LWT successor (Yu-11) - where does the Yu-12 fit in and is there a Yu-9?
SinoSoldier
Colonel
I suspect that the Yu-9/10/12 are simply variants of the Yu-6 family, much like the Mk.48 class. The Yu-6 base variant is Otto-fuel-powered while the Yu-9 is an electric powered torpedo. The Yu-10 is supposedly a high-speed fiber-optic-guided torpedo designed to sink high-performance ships and submarines. Nothing is known about the Yu-12 though.
Where did you get the notion that the Vietnamese fishermen captured a Yu-10 instead of the similar-looking Yu-6?
We do have a photo of the electric Yu-9 torpedo:
No hard info - an educated guess on my part. As I said, contra-rotating screws (Yu-6 has a pump jet, doesn't it?) like those on the stranded Chinese torpedo are typical of modern battery powered torps. Also, there is no visible exhaust for an otto-fuel engine (typically through the hollow propulsion shaft, as on the US Mk.48 and Russian UGST), instead the guidance wire seemed to be dangling from the prop hub. So chances are that, whatever the designation really is, it was an electric torpedo.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
Anyone else notice that the only picture with Chinese characters does not really match the other shots?
In all the long distance shots, the surface of the torpedo was pretty much prestine. But in the shot with the Chinese characters, much of the pain has been scored down to the base metal.
But there is not such scaring visible on any of the long distance shots.
While it is possible the area was on the underside of the torpedo, but that line of scoring hardly seems likely from being dragged a few metres on soft sand.
