Recently, the Indian Navy, in collaboration with the Indian Ministry of Defense, conducted a land-based firefighting experiment, in which a supersonic missile carrying a torpedo was fired. The shooting attempt was carried out near the shores of Blasor.
The Indian project, known as SMART (Supersonic Missile Assisted Torpedo) is expected, according to the Indians, to allow the Indian Navy to fire torpedoes against long-range submarines, thus enabling the Navy to have better anti-submarine capabilities (as stated by the Indian Navy).
The Indian Navy plans to take action against submarines detected using active and passive sonar, which in good sea conditions can be detected at long range, and then the missile fired at them. The torpedo body will detach from the missile body at some point, dive into the water and sail towards its target.
For the avoidance of doubt, this is not an invention of the Indians. The Russians use missiles / torpedoes with a similar concept. These Club-S (91RE1) missiles, known as NATO SS-N-27, are powered by Russian submarines. torpedo.
The Americans also operate missiles / torpedoes with a similar concept from the 1960s, missiles installed on more than 200 vessels, including in the fleets of Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan, Greece and Pakistan. These missiles are called ASROC and are launched from a ship or submarine, and similarly carry the American Mk-46 or Mk-54 torpedo for a range of over 20 km, until the torpedo separates from the missile body.
The Chinese operate armament in a similar concept.
The Indian innovation is a missile carrying the torpedo, and perhaps even the range the missile will reach before the torpedo separates from it.
This development joins a series of developments and systems that the Indian Navy is equipping, against the ever-increasing array of Chinese submarines, operating in the Indian Ocean, also off the coast of India.