Weight: 1,900 kg
Length: 7.5 m
Diameter: 533 mm (21 in)
Maximum range: 55 km at low speed
24 km at high speed
Warheads:
Penetrator/initiator charge: 50kg gold-lined HE shaped-charge
Main charge: 300kg YJ-05, ethylene oxide, energetic nanoparticularised-and-floridated aluminium
Total warhead weight: 350 kg (770 lb)
Detonation mechanism: Proximity, contact or magnetic anomaly detonation
Engine: LY870 gas-turbine with pump-jet
Propellant: Otto fuel II with HAP oxidiser
Speed: 80 knots (150 km/h)
Guidance system: Wire-guided, integral active and passive sonar, magnetic anomaly detector
Background and Abstract
The LY5755 ‘Charybdis’ Heavy Torpedo was designed for use with the Scylla-class Ballistic Missile Submarine. While not normally thought of as the primary weapon of an SSBN, the ‘Charybdis’ was determined to be important for precisely that reason… if a Scylla-class ever had cause to fire a torpedo in anger, the torpedo had better be exceptionally capable, or the SSBN would be in serious difficulty.
As such, which the Scylla-class was in the developmental stages, the Protectorate Naval Research and Development Commission also undertook design of a high-lethality torpedo system, designed to first supplement, then replace, existing Lyran stocks of heavy torpedoes.
The Charybdis (formally LY5755), brainchild of that effort is a heavy torpedo, designed to acquire engage and sink high-speed, deep-diving, high agility and well protected targets, which has become standard aboard Lyran submarines, and is gaining increasing use in Lyran-aligned maritime forces.
As such, which the Scylla-class was in the developmental stages, the Protectorate Naval Research and Development Commission also undertook design of a high-lethality torpedo system, designed to first supplement, then replace, existing Lyran stocks of heavy torpedoes.
The Charybdis (formally LY5755), brainchild of that effort is a heavy torpedo, designed to acquire engage and sink high-speed, deep-diving, high agility and well protected targets, which has become standard aboard Lyran submarines, and is gaining increasing use in Lyran-aligned maritime forces.
Networking, sensory and targeting
Charybdis can be guided either by wire, or by the torpedo’s integral sonar suite, which features both active and passive sonar. Charybdis also includes a magnetic anomaly detector, which is utilised to sense a ship’s hull, by acquisition of its metallic mass.
The weapon’s powerful and robust Indium Gallium Arsenide microprocessor, coupled with an autonomous decision-making package derived from the world-benchmark suite of the LY589 Hellion, provides the ability to make remarkably complex tactical decisions during the attack. These can include, but are not limited to, varying sprint and drift speeds, usage of the thermocline for evasion, off-vector attacks to camouflage the location of the platform, hiding in a target’s baffles or using nearby vessels (or their wake) to mask its approach, and integral counter-sonar acoustic attack. In shallow water, Charybdis torpedoes have been known to snake through reefs, hug the bottom, and use rips or underwater currents to close the distance. During development, one particularly canny weapon trailed half a kilometer behind a pod of dolphins, using the noise of their calls to remain undetected until less than 60m from the target vessel.
Generally speaking, the weapon is capable of ascertaining whether or not it has been detected by non-friendly forces, due to a combination of the guidance system being aware of its own radiated noise, by evaluation of incoming acoustic energy (for detection of active sonar) and also by evaluation of the behavioural patterns of known contacts. When undetected, the Charybdis may choose to operate at considerably lower speeds, and most probably with its primary active sonar array set to passive, enabling the weapon to evade detection for far longer than most munitions, and get closer to targets before they are made aware that they have been fired upon.
Upon determination that the weapon has been detected, or when within what it estimates to be an optimal position, Charybdis will normally engage its own active sonar, and accelerate to its 80knot attack speed, rapidly closing the distance to the target.
Charybdis-class torpedoes can be quickly and easily configured, by means of the correct command inputs, for training roles, by simply turning off the ‘detonate warhead’ behavioral subroutine, and turning on a ‘slow to full stop, run props at full for ten seconds while contra-rotating, then shut down main engines and surface for pick-up’ subroutine. The sound of a non-moving but cavitating Charybdis has become, in this regard, synonymous with ‘you’re dead’ in Lyran naval exercises.
The sophisticated and adaptive AI of the system also means that Charybdis torpedoes can come to better understand a target’s evasion techniques, pick up its own repertoire of successful attack methods, learn to better recognise friendlies and avoid countermeasures. Such is the potency of the AI suite, that LY5755s themselves will benefit from training, not simply the crews they train with, or against.
Some individual torpedoes, in the process of this learning and developing, actually seem to pick up quirks and preferences for differing engagement scenarios. The same is true when the weapons are launched in ‘packs’, where they will move autonomously but in a co-ordinated fashion, engaging their targets with a precision and a success rate that a single weapon can rarely hope to match. On this point, a Lyran submarine commander once stated ‘Having a quartet of Charybdis torpedoes trying to sink you feels exactly what I imagine being stalked by a pack of wolves would feel like.’
It is recommended that crews be aware of the individual strengths and points of expertise of the Charybdis torpedoes they are carrying, and utilise ‘trained’ torpedoes in such as manner as to best utilise their available skillsets. In this regard, it has become common practice within the Lyran Maritime Forces to give individual Charybdis torpedoes names, in order that the crew can quickly load an appropriate weapon, as directed by command. Care should be taken that crews do not become too attached to individual weapons in this manner, and then fail to load them in combat for fear of losing them.
The weapon is triggered by either contact detonation (against a submarine hull) or an acoustic and/or magnetic proximity fuse (for under-keel detonation against ships).
The weapon’s powerful and robust Indium Gallium Arsenide microprocessor, coupled with an autonomous decision-making package derived from the world-benchmark suite of the LY589 Hellion, provides the ability to make remarkably complex tactical decisions during the attack. These can include, but are not limited to, varying sprint and drift speeds, usage of the thermocline for evasion, off-vector attacks to camouflage the location of the platform, hiding in a target’s baffles or using nearby vessels (or their wake) to mask its approach, and integral counter-sonar acoustic attack. In shallow water, Charybdis torpedoes have been known to snake through reefs, hug the bottom, and use rips or underwater currents to close the distance. During development, one particularly canny weapon trailed half a kilometer behind a pod of dolphins, using the noise of their calls to remain undetected until less than 60m from the target vessel.
Generally speaking, the weapon is capable of ascertaining whether or not it has been detected by non-friendly forces, due to a combination of the guidance system being aware of its own radiated noise, by evaluation of incoming acoustic energy (for detection of active sonar) and also by evaluation of the behavioural patterns of known contacts. When undetected, the Charybdis may choose to operate at considerably lower speeds, and most probably with its primary active sonar array set to passive, enabling the weapon to evade detection for far longer than most munitions, and get closer to targets before they are made aware that they have been fired upon.
Upon determination that the weapon has been detected, or when within what it estimates to be an optimal position, Charybdis will normally engage its own active sonar, and accelerate to its 80knot attack speed, rapidly closing the distance to the target.
Charybdis-class torpedoes can be quickly and easily configured, by means of the correct command inputs, for training roles, by simply turning off the ‘detonate warhead’ behavioral subroutine, and turning on a ‘slow to full stop, run props at full for ten seconds while contra-rotating, then shut down main engines and surface for pick-up’ subroutine. The sound of a non-moving but cavitating Charybdis has become, in this regard, synonymous with ‘you’re dead’ in Lyran naval exercises.
The sophisticated and adaptive AI of the system also means that Charybdis torpedoes can come to better understand a target’s evasion techniques, pick up its own repertoire of successful attack methods, learn to better recognise friendlies and avoid countermeasures. Such is the potency of the AI suite, that LY5755s themselves will benefit from training, not simply the crews they train with, or against.
Some individual torpedoes, in the process of this learning and developing, actually seem to pick up quirks and preferences for differing engagement scenarios. The same is true when the weapons are launched in ‘packs’, where they will move autonomously but in a co-ordinated fashion, engaging their targets with a precision and a success rate that a single weapon can rarely hope to match. On this point, a Lyran submarine commander once stated ‘Having a quartet of Charybdis torpedoes trying to sink you feels exactly what I imagine being stalked by a pack of wolves would feel like.’
It is recommended that crews be aware of the individual strengths and points of expertise of the Charybdis torpedoes they are carrying, and utilise ‘trained’ torpedoes in such as manner as to best utilise their available skillsets. In this regard, it has become common practice within the Lyran Maritime Forces to give individual Charybdis torpedoes names, in order that the crew can quickly load an appropriate weapon, as directed by command. Care should be taken that crews do not become too attached to individual weapons in this manner, and then fail to load them in combat for fear of losing them.
The weapon is triggered by either contact detonation (against a submarine hull) or an acoustic and/or magnetic proximity fuse (for under-keel detonation against ships).
Warhead
The torpedo has a duel-tandem warhead, featuring a gold-lined penetrator as a hull-breacher and initiator charge, followed up by a 300kg main charge. Initial investigations into the use of octanitrocubane (C8(NO2)8) failed due to experimental production methods failing to generate the expected amounts, and the conventional methods being woefully inadequate in their attempts to keep up with demand. Thus, an existing, although still rather unconventional, explosive was utilised, based on Lyran developmental experience of the LY1002 and derivatives.
The main charge is, on this vein, composed of a YJ-05 filler, which drives ethylene oxide, and energetic nanoparticularised-and-floridated aluminium, which is dispersed and rapidly ignites/combusts/detonates. The resultant sustained high pressure wave is particularly lethal against submarines, whose pierced hulls are then subjected to tremendous overpressure from a position interior to their pressure hulls, cracking open their outer hulls while simultaneously buckling interior bulkheads. Against surface ships, the YJ-05 explosive itself accounts for the damage, with nearly three times the peak pressure, and 50% greater pressure impulse than an equivalent weight of Composition B, a combination which makes the Charybdis particularly effective.
The main charge is, on this vein, composed of a YJ-05 filler, which drives ethylene oxide, and energetic nanoparticularised-and-floridated aluminium, which is dispersed and rapidly ignites/combusts/detonates. The resultant sustained high pressure wave is particularly lethal against submarines, whose pierced hulls are then subjected to tremendous overpressure from a position interior to their pressure hulls, cracking open their outer hulls while simultaneously buckling interior bulkheads. Against surface ships, the YJ-05 explosive itself accounts for the damage, with nearly three times the peak pressure, and 50% greater pressure impulse than an equivalent weight of Composition B, a combination which makes the Charybdis particularly effective.
Propulsion
Charybdis is propelled by a pump-jet, driven by a Port Tal LY870 gas turbine engine, running on Otto fuel II. Otto Fuel II consists of propellant propylene glycol dinitrate (PGDN), a nitrated ester explosive, to which a desensitizer (dibutyl sebacate) and a stabiliser (2-nitrodiphenylamine) have been added. PGDN is the major component, and accounts for approximately 75% of the mixture, while dibutyl sebacate and 2-nitrodiphenylamine account for approximately 23% and 2%, respectively. An oily, red-orange liquid, this fuel’s energy density is considerably greater than the capacity of an electric battery, a factor which maximises range.
Hydroxyl ammonium perchlorate is used as the oxidiser for the fuel mixture, though it is not strictly required for the weapon’s operation.
Charybdis can operate at speeds of up to 80knots (150km), although is under no intrinsic requirement to move at full speed, and is more than capable of running at slower, less detectable velocities, whether to optimise stealth, or to improve range.
Hydroxyl ammonium perchlorate is used as the oxidiser for the fuel mixture, though it is not strictly required for the weapon’s operation.
Charybdis can operate at speeds of up to 80knots (150km), although is under no intrinsic requirement to move at full speed, and is more than capable of running at slower, less detectable velocities, whether to optimise stealth, or to improve range.
Export
Production of the LY5755 is carried out at Port Tal, Osmouth and Port Finch, and the weapon is available for export. The total number produced has not been disclosed.
Each LY5755 Charybdis is available from Lyran Arms, at a cost per unit of NS$3m.
To states so authorised, DPRs to the LY5755 are available at NS$30bn.
States signatory to the Bredubar Covenant are entitled to a 50% discount to all charges.
All queries and purchases can be lodged through Lyran Arms
