Common misconception here, but what dictates whether or not range matters is not the approach angle, it is the fact that the torpedo doesn’t have to turn. You could approach the target at a 45° angle, a 20° angle, an 85° angle, a 60° angle, doesn’t matter, as long as the Gyro angle is zero, range still won’t matter. Why is this so? Well, consider the formula for lead angle. It has no stipulation for approach angle:
arcsin ( target speed / torpedo speed * sin ( AOB ) )
The thing to tell people is to just limit the Gyro angle in practice to within 20° of their bow and range won’t really matter. The reason I speak up when I see this misconception is because it severely limits people tactically to only think in terms of approaching at 90°, when that’s not a requirement by any means to disregard range.
It is easy to convince yourself of this by just playing with the TDC dials. Set the bearing so that the Gyro angle is zero, then play with the range dial across its entire range of motion, at various angles on bow - hardly any change in gyro angle. Now do the same thing by making the Gyro angle large on the TDC and then play with the range dial, big time changes then.
|