Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

146 JEFF EDWARDS
The Ozeankriegsführungtechnologien DMA37 torpedo had been
designed as a ship killer. Programmed to dive under the target’s hull
before detonating, it carried a 250-kilogram high-explosive warhead
powerful enough to shatter the keel of any ship the size of a cruiser or
smaller. To make matters worse, as the explosion ripped through the steel
hull plates, a white-hot bubble of expanding gases would flash-vaporize
the water directly below the ship’s keel. Combined with the devastating
effects of the explosion, the nearly incalculable stress created by the
sudden loss of all support beneath the hull was frequently enough to break
a ship in half.
But at 82,000 tons, Kitty Hawk was nearly ten times as large as any
cruiser or destroyer on the planet. She could be damaged by torpedoes,
but it would take more than one or two to sink her.
The wounded aircraft carrier slowed a few knots and began to list to
starboard as water poured in through the two enormous holes in her hull.