How long does it REALLY take to reload torpedo tubes?
 

I'm wondering how long reloads really took, and were multiple tubes reloaded at once? In the game in takes ~30 seconds, and that doesn't feel right. I know we've got tons of IRL mariners on here who would know something like this.

15 to 30 minutes.

Can more than 1 tube reload at once?

Yes

Due to personnel requirements and physical space limitations only two tubes at one time.

Hopefully this will be changed in the game then to reflect accurate real life reloading limitations?

Well, we can't reload the game to load torpedoes in pairs but we can modify game files to so that the total time of loading two torpedoes is the same. It would still mean 10x as much as what's now (I think in all sims reload time is much shorter than that).

BTW, shipkiller1 - 2 torpedoes at once means one on port side and one on starboard, or can both be loaded at once on the same side?

It'd be an interesting twist, but it'd really slow things down.

You'd fire your four tubes and then evade all counterattacks and disappear for 15-30 minutes up to a whole hour to launch another all-out strike.

Out of curiosity, why does it take that long? Aren't there automatic (ish) loading mechanisms to get torpedoes from the magazine and into the tube? I suppose the torps are pretty damn well secured within the former.

Thats what time compression is for

And therein lies a gameplay issue: what's the point in adding this specific bit of realism if you'll time-compress it away?

It takes away the tactical advantage of being able to spam the sea full of torpedoes.

A USN WWII vet who served on Gato class boats told me they could manually reload a tube in five minutes (provided the boat was straight and level). Modern sub reload times are also rather quick, due to automation.

These boats have power reloading and can reload quickly. November could reload 8 tubes in 15. Type XXI could reload it's 6 tubes even faster in 10 minutes. A fair assumption is that newer boats are capable of better performance.

came across this tidbit of info:
Full Article

It seems to me like the author of the article might mistake reloading torpedoes with refitting at port.
I couldn't find any more info on the whole process of reloading a torpedo so I did some other research.
First, there's this picture, which shows what's been written in the article (the floor being removed from decks). But it clearly shows refitting at port.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._a_torpedo.jpg

Then, as you can see from cut-away pictures, all torpedoes are stored right behind the torpedo tubes:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BlOyLHnaqf...2B688i.jpg.jpg

Then there's this picture:
http://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~bwjo...o-room-700.jpg

You can also see here that all torpedo mounts are on rails so they can freely move left and right. But is there enough room for the system to select the right weapon mount?
Looking at those pictures it looks like they're mounted on 2 rails. That makes 10 mounts on each rail. Considering that each torpedo has 533mm in diameter, and they are stacked very closed to each other (like those supports in the last picture) that gives us about width of about 5.4 meters (with some safety margin). Now, the boat is about 10m wide. I don't know how thick the hull is, but let's just say that the thickness plus the fact that tubes are slightly below the widest point on the hull will leave us with 8m of space. I think that is enough room for at least two of some sort of temp compartments to store mounts that "gets in the way" of selected weapon. Or they are just removed from the rail (the last picture shows a gap between rails). So it seems that if the selected mount is the closest to the tube it just slides in. If not (for ex. the closest is Mk48 and you want a Harpoon) it takes longer, because all torps placed before the wanted mount need to be removed from the rail. Perhaps that thing might take a while , unless there is some automated system that can stored unwanted mounts for the time of reload. In any case, this shouldn't take hours like the article sugested.

That article sounds crazy as the 688 and 688i were improvements on earlier classes but, boy, sure doesn't sound like it! Nuts to think that you have to partially take the deck apart to reload. That simply makes no sense. And the pics above point to a more efficient/automated system.

I'd like to hear from some former crew mates like Jive Turkey for confirmation here.

It's not that long, close the tube door, pump out water (probably slowly to reduce noise), check and clean the tube for any debris that was trapped, remove the old wire spool and any other electronics connections. load new weapon (which won't be that fast given the 3500lbs weight). re-attached new wire spool/electronics. close torp door and given that any weapon handling is probably double or triple checked. That's totally reason. They may speed it up in an emergency but given that anything that has to do with watertight integrity is of the highest priority on a sub. 15 minutes under combat condition still sound reasonable.

Ok, everyone needs to take a step back and forget anything you have heard or read about or pictures you have seen regarding Torpedo loading before 1970..

To answer the first question, yes, port and stbd. Not enough room to do both upper and lower tubes efficiently together.

See pic..
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/<a h...psgdha0yez.jpghttp://i218.photobucket.com/albums/c...psgdha0yez.jpg


This is a fourth flight 688 (688i) and the two tubs on the left are tubes two and four. You can see that it is faster to do one each on each side simultaneously.

All torpedo tube loading is 'powered'. The boats do have a block and tackle for this purpose but it is the 'emergency handling gear'. If you loose hydraulics then you use this... If you have lost hydraulics, then you are in a WORLD of hurt...

Once you get the weapon into position in front of the tube, then you pivot the tray to align it with the tube (cant). Attach the loading pole to the aft end of the weapon, the pop all for straps that hold the weapon to the dollies. Then set the pivot tray to the depth own ship is currently at.. (important).
Then start ramming the weapon into the tube.... slowly.. After the weapon is fully loaded, the lock the weapon into the tube. Remove loading pole, and finish the loading process... cables/wires etc.. which I will not go into here.



In the first picture that was posted yes, you have to remove the upper level and middle level decks. That is one of the reasons I stated that it takes two or three hours of setup before you can ship the first weapon. Usually it takes all day.....

So, how would YOU get these 3500lbs weapons into a tube only 33ft in diameter and packed with equipment?

Of course something is going to have to be removed to allow access. The decks are the easy things.. The upper level deck is also where the weapons skid pieces are stowed.

The weapons skid sits topside, bolted to the deck.

The middle level deck is actually a hydraulically powered lifting deck that pivots and locks into place allowing the weapon to ether raise to the topside deck skid or lower from the deck skid into the rails on the middle level deck. Once secured in place, the locks are disengaged and the middle level deck lowers (on its pivot point) which lowers the weapon into the room to site on the four dollies in the original picture. Then it is strapped down.

This was us in Guam:
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/c...pszv56jl5t.jpg

The baseplate is bolted to the deck. The Welmet is the main structure attached to the baseplate. Side rails, the four 'dog ears' and the two legs.
All these are disassembled and stowed below.

Hydraulic powered 'rammer chains' on the middle level deck raise the weapon into the deck skid or lower the weapon into the room.

In the original picture in the first part of the thread, you can see the middle level deck in the raised position.

I think the problem is that the article is written in a such way, that it can be interpreted that you must remove deck floors to reload torpedoes into the tube (from the rack).
I think it's reasonable to assume you need to do this to load all torpedoes into their storage area on sub.

I also found this video:
https://youtu.be/KS28IAG3mQE?t=28s

I know it's a different sub, but the torpedo is the same and at least the ramming process seems similar to what shipkiller1 has said.
In this video the process takes 1.5 minutes but you can clearly see how much has been cut out.
If you add all the necessary wiring then suddenly 15 minutes doesn't seem that much.

It also just appeared to me, that it seems like the upper tubes can be loaded only with the torpedoes from the upper rails. Otherwise it would increase load times even more.

Too bad we can't implement realistic reloads (reloading 1 port and 1 starboard torpedo at a time) without the help from the devs. But we can modify the reload times to somehow simulate the same effect (like setting reload times to 7.5 minutes for a single tube).
I think I'm gonna play with those things for my mod :)

OK. Think we are talking past each other. That linked article seems to be referencing magazine (in port) replenishment procedures - as does some of the pictures. So of course that's going to be a rather lengthy and involved process.

What the OP asked is how long does it take to reload tubes between shots (on patrol). And the consensus appears to be 15 mins. which means the game timeframe is very generous.