A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon intended to destroy or cripple a target submarine by the shock of exploding near it. Most use conventional explosives and a fuze set to go off at a preselected depth in the ocean. Depth charges can be dropped by surface ships, patrol aircraft, or helicopters. The depth charge has now largely been replaced by anti-submarine homing torpedoes.
A depth charge fitted with a nuclear warhead is known as a nuclear depth bomb. These were designed to be dropped from a patrol plane or deployed by anti-submarine missile from a surface ship, or another submarine, located a safe distance away. All nuclear anti-submarine weapons were withdrawn from service by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China in or around 1990. They were replaced by conventional weapons that provided ever-increasing accuracy and range as ASW technology improved.
Read more about Depth Charge: History, Delivery Mechanisms, Effectiveness, Later Developments, Underwater Explosions
Famous quotes containing the words depth and/or charge:
“Now as at all times I can see in the mind’s eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depth of the sky”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Yet I would bear my shortcomings
With meet tranquility,
But for the charge that blessed things
I’d liefer not have be.
O, doth a bird deprived of wings
Go earth-bound wilfully!”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)