5 results about "Supercavitation" patented technology

Supercavitation is the use of cavitation effects to create a bubble of gas or vapor large enough to encompass an object traveling through a liquid, greatly reducing the skin friction drag on the object and enabling high speeds. Current applications are mainly limited to projectiles or fast supercavitation torpedoes, and some propellers, but in principle, the technique could be extended to include entire vehicles. Russian Navy is the only one in the world having supercavitation torpedoes VA-111 Shkval in service. Due to the use of supercavitation, this torpedo is a unique weapon that exceeds the speed of conventional torpedoes by at least a factor of 5. The supercavitation VA-111 Shkval torpedo was developed in the Soviet Union and it has been in service since 1977. Chinese and the US Navy are reportedly working on supercavitating submarines using technical information obtained regarding the Soviet Shkval torpedoes.