A fisherman in Vietnams Fuan Province suspected to have caught a Chinese torpedo in the sea .
When the fisherman hooked what appears to be a Chinese torpedo about four miles off the Vietnamese coast. I t’s most likely that chinese submarine fired torpedo in internationl waters then the torpeod drifted into neighboring Vietnam’s territory . The fisherman towed the torpedo to shore, where local government authorities took over and called in the Vietnamese Navy to inspect it.
Read More: Secret navy document reveal A Solar storm detonated many US sea mines during Vietnam War
China has laid claim over the vast majority of the South China Sea, it’s likely that the torpedo was launched during training exercises — particularly because it appears to be armed with a dummy warhead .
If we take a look on the american U.S. Navy Mk 48 Torpedo and Chinese YU-6 torpedo, both are similar in design.
-
U.S. Navy Mk 48 Torpedo
The torpedo is approximately 6.8 meters (22 feet) long. It’s black with a large orange band and has a pair of contra-rotating propeller blades on the rear. Behind the blades is a hole from a control-wire dispenser that the submarine uses to send commands to the torpedo. Chinese characters are visible on the torpedo’s flank.
Read More: Three Most Powerful Frigates In the World
Based on the evidence available, it seems likely that the torpedo was launched from a PLA-N submarine elsewhere in the South China Sea.
The orange band indicates this is a training torpedo, meaning it is probably fully functional but lacks a high-explosive, ship-cracking warhead. The use of an orange band confirms to the U.S. and NATO standard of marking training ordnance with orange. The contra-rotating torpedo blades are common to modern torpedoes because they increase stability when the weapon is moving underwate
Guidance wire emanating from the inside of the torpedo.
One defense journalist took to Twitter to offer a translation for the visible characters on the torpedo, which say “connect” and “disconnect,” in characters indicative of the People’s Liberation Army-Navy.
