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Fish type (Yu-1)

In the early 1950s, China purchased a large number of torpedo boats and torpedoes from the Soviet Union, forming the first torpedo speedboat units of the New China Navy. On August 6, 1965, PLAN torpedo speedboats sank the Kuomintang ships in the battle of the East China Sea. Thus, the Chinese Navy recognized the important position of torpedoes in modern naval battles. At that time, the Chinese navy had not been able to equip a large number of anti-ship missiles, and the torpedo weapons became particularly important. In this context, according to the technology transfer agreement between China and the Soviet Union, after comprehensive consideration by naval experts, China decided to use the imported type 53 Soviet torpedo technology to develop its own domestic torpedo. This is the origin of China's first domestic torpedo - fish-1 torpedo.

It is China's first self-made large-scale torpedo. This type of torpedo is still one of the main attacking equipment for submarines and torpedo boats. This type of torpedo is based on the Russian-made 53 type. The torpedo uses high-pressure oxygen. It has a diameter of 533 millimeters, a length of 7.8 meters, and a warhead of 400 kilograms. It uses a gas thermal power propulsion system with a maximum speed of 50 knots. The maximum range is 10 kilometers, and both submarines and surface ships can be equipped. This type of torpedo uses high-pressure gas as fuel and has a short range, but it is easy to use and safe.

At the time of the imitation work, Sino-Soviet relations were already very tense, and it was impossible to obtain a design blueprint for the torpedo. Fortunately, there are sample torpedoes, and naval engineers and technicians will disassemble the samples to understand their actual structure, and then carry out reverse mapping design.

In 1962, the 705 Research Institute began to develop it. In March 1966, after the 705 Research Institute and its affiliated 50 factories, Binh Duong Machinery Factory and Dongfeng Instrument Factory, the first domestic torpedo was successfully assembled. It was found that there were three major shortcomings that were difficult to overcome: the fire was stopped midway during the launch at a fixed depth of 2 meters; the power of the power system was unstable.

In March 1970, under the organization and leadership of the Navy, relevant factories, research institutes, academies, representatives of the garrison, repair shops, and test bases jointly organized a technical battle. In this event, 104 voyage tests were carried out successively in Lushun, Ningbo, Qinghai and other places, and 513 torpedoes were deployed. It lasted one and a half years. A total of 28 technical solutions were tested, and almost all technical problems were finally solved.

After unremitting efforts, until 1971, the fish-1 was officially designed and finalized. In September 1971, with the approval of the Navy Military Product Modeling Committee, the design and production were finalized at one time and named the "Fish-1" type torpedo. Equipment situation: Type 25 (Huchuan class) torpedo boat, Type 033 (R class) submarine.

In the mid-to-late 1980s, the Chinese Navy torpedo research department improved the sound control guidance system based on the foreign technology introduced at that time, and modified the line guide and acoustic self-guided anti-ship torpedo on the basis of the fish-1 type. The improved torpedo, called The fish-1 type A, has greatly improved its combat capability. In the mid-1980s, the Chinese Naval Equipment Argumentation Research Center improved the sound guidance system to significantly improve its combat capability. This is a modified type of fish. The current type of fish in the Chinese navy is mainly this improved type.

The successful development of Yu-1 is of great significance in the history of Chinese torpedoes. It not only ended the history of Chinese torpedoes relying on imports, but also laid the foundation for Chinese torpedo research and production to move from localized trial production to self-development.