It also makes me wonder how depth charges worked, did you simply roll them off the deck and hope it would explode somewhere near the submarine? How did you know it would explode anywhere near it?
GEORGE B
Favorite Answer
Acoustic torpedoes are designed to do exactly that.
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_torpedo
Socrates
Umm.....you SHOULD know that subs have been firing torpedoes against surface ships for well over 100 years now. Modern technology since the 1950-70's (not sure when it started) have allowed surface ships to fire torpedoes against subs.
The original depth charges work just like you think. They are set to explode at a certain depth and are rolled into the water. They often did detonate near the sub. Shaking the Hell out of the sub and crew. Any military history program on TV or on computer will tell you that. The trick is detonating close enough to the sub to crack it like an egg.
The "Hedge Hog" was a big improvement to the depth charge. You have a computer. You can look that up yourself. In fact, you can find much more on-line with your computer than anyone can tell you about here. The same goes for most any topic.
STEVEN F
Both are possible. This isn't even REMOTELY an either/or issue.
Depth charges are set to detonate as a predetermined depth below the surface. There was always an degree of guesswork what depth to set them for.
jeeper_peeper321
subs can fire porpeados from below the waves up at surface ships
surface ships or aircraft can launch torpedos at subs under the waves
depth charges were set to explode at a predetermined depth, the ship had no way of knowing what depth the sub was at, other than knowing the depths a sub at that time could decend to
TomB
It is much easier and far more likely that a sub will take out a surface target than a surface target taking out a sub. - which is why where there is a fleet, there are usually friendly attack subs lurking not far off helping to protect them along with various airborne anti submarine warfare assets.
Enter ASW Patrol aircraft....like the Orion, Poseiden, Aurora, Nimrod, Atlantique, Bear, Dolphin etc and various models of Helos (Sea Hawks, Sea Sprites, Helix etc) that can carry and drop torpedoes, mines, depth charges...etc
They can patrol the coast and/or in advance of a fleet to set up picket lines around them by dropping Sonar Bouys (and dipping arrays lowered from helos) to passively monitor and/or actively "ping" subs to get exact locations/depth to compute firing solutions.
Because of an aircraft's ability to locate and track passively, unless they come up to periscope depth for a look around, most subs won't even know that they are being monitored or followed from the sky until they hear the active "ping" followed by the splash of weapons entering the water.