MOSCOW. April 17 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian military plants have stopped producing 650-mm torpedoes, a spokesman for the Russian Navy Staff told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday.
The decision was taken in accordance with the directive of Russian Navy Commander Vladimir Kuroyedov on discharging torpedoes of this type from carriers in the wake of the wreck of the Kursk submarine.
The spokesman stressed that the torpedoes were not to be scrapped; they would be put into long storage before the reasons of the Kursk disaster were identified.
The governmental commission on investigating the Kursk wreck analyzed three versions of the disaster providing for a 650-mm torpedo blast.
The spokesman added that the principal problem facing military experts now is to find an alternative filler for this type of torpedoes. Torpedoes of this diameter are not available at the Russian Navy now. They exist on paper, but not in real life, the high-ranking officer said.
The Russian Navy is to use 533-mm torpedoes from now on. All launching units will be designed for torpedoes of this caliber.
The upgraded Shkval unit used for launching M-5 torpedoes designated as the VA-111 entered inventory of the Russian Navy in 1977.
The length of the 533.4-mm torpedo weighing 2,700 kilograms is 8,200 millimeters; the yield of the warhead mounts up to at least 210 kilograms. The operational range is seven kilometers, cruise velocity is some 100 meters per second. The torpedo is stabilized under water via four stabilizers unfolding after the launch of the torpedo.
The Kit 65-76 650-mm torpedo that is no longer used by the Russian Navy was a long-range steam-gas torpedo. The operational range was 27 miles (50 kilometers), its velocity mounting up to 50 knots (90 kilometers).