You don't think a 500lb conventional warhead making a hole at the waterline or below it won't gravely wound a warship? The vaunted Harpoon missile carries a warhead of similar weight. Lets not forget what speedboat loaded with TNT will do to a USN Destroyer named the USS Cole.
As for the Nixie and other countermeasures, at 200 some knots you've got a lot less time to make them work. I guess it'll depend on the actual guidance mechanism for the torpedo which is still classified and grey. At 200 kts, depending on your range and target speed it could be a bit more of a point and shoot exercise.
You're right though, the enemy skipper would still have to get inside the perimeter, although I'm sure it happens once in a while, and would be easier in a littoral low level combat siutation like the Gulf right now. Better hope old Bin doesn't get his hands on these.
Some interesting scuttlebutt on this torpedo though...
"On April 5, 2000, an American businessman, Edmond Pope, and a Russian colleague were arrested by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in Moscow. The men were charged with stealing scientific secrets -- specifically information on the Shkval torpedo. Pope, a retired U.S. Navy captain who spent the majority of his career working in naval intelligence, was then the head of a private security firm. Two weeks after the arrest, the FSB claimed that Pope was seeking plans for the high-speed underwater missile. The retired navy officer was detained during informal contact with one of the Russian scientists who helped to create the torpedo.
Pope spent eight months in the Russian Lefortovo prison awaiting trial. He was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 20 years. On Dec. 14, 2000, Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned Pope on humanitarian grounds; the American has been suffering from bone cancer.
Pope was in Russia as a businessman to purchase Russian technology when he apparently fell prey to a Canadian intelligence operation intent on purchasing the Shkval torpedoes, according to U.S. intelligence sources. "
Purely conjecture but still interesting....
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