This new 1.2-ton torpedo can hit a target 31 miles away
The F21 torpedo. (France's Naval Group/)The heavyweight torpedoes launched by submarines are secret, unseen, mysterious. Their universe: the dark silence of deep oceans. Their purpose: to destroy enemy subs and surface warships. Their use: only once every 80 years or so.The weapon is more likely to sit in its launching tube for 30 or 35 years—that’s the average life-span of a heavyweight torpedo—and then be dismantled, than it is to be shot at an enemy. That makes the delivery of a brand new, designed-from-scratch, heavyweight torpedo notable. And in this case, its makers boast that it is “the most advanced torpedo on the market.”The F21, designed and manufactured by France's Naval Group, has been years in the making. The Naval Group finally delivered the first six of 93 to the French Navy in late November 2019. An unspecified number were then delivered in early January 2020 to the Brazilian Navy,...