Defense News reports on the progress, or lack of progress, on the European SeaSpider anti-torpedo torpedo.

I think my post “What Does It Take to Sink a Ship” may have been quoted,

“Torpedoes have historically been one of the main threats to surface vessels, with the weapon involved in more than half of sinkings of U.S. Navy ships during World War II, according to U.S. Coast Guard data cited by Dutch researchers at TNO, a government-linked research organization.”

My summary data on 92 sinkings of major US Navy surface warships during WWII was,

• 38 by torpedoes alone (41.3%)
• 16 by suicide planes (17.4%)
• 12 Bombs alone (13%)
• 11 by gunfire alone (12%)
• 6 by torpedoes and gunfire (6.5%)
• 5 by mines (5.4%)
• 4 by torpedoes and bombs (4.3%)
• 1 by bombs finished off by gunfire (1.1%)

As can be seen, torpedoes were involved in 48 of the 92 sinkings (52%).

With so little apparent progress on the European system I wonder if they are waiting to see if the Very Light Weight Torpedo, also called the Compact Rapid Attack Weapon (CRAW), will be successful as an anti-torpedo torpedo.

Unfortunately, I have not heard anything about the CRAW since early 2023 when Raytheon was awarded a contract to build 18 prototypes for use on submarines.