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 The depth charge has now largely been replaced by anti-submarine homing torpedoes.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 All nuclear anti-submarine weapons were withdrawn from service by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China in or around 1990.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:
“People who comprehend a thing in all its depth seldom remain true to it forever. For they have brought its very depth to light: and there is always so much nastiness to see there.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“America does to me what I knew it would do: it just bumps me.... The people charge at you like trucks coming down on you—no awareness. But one tries to dodge aside in time. Bump! bump! go the trucks. And that is human contact.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)