I honestly dont think the shkval is an effective weapon now and wont be in the future due to:
1. its extremely short range. A seahawk helicopter would destroy the submarine long before its in range to fire the shkval.
2. Its too noisy and will emmediately uncover the submarines approximate location.
And anyone here honestly hope that your opinion will be totally shared by US Navy Command and those of its allied nations ,it would be a true dream realized
Unluckily i honestly believe that they share the opinion exactly opposite to yours.....
1) Shkval-E torpedo offered on international market is not only a
vastly downgraded version of the first model of VA-111 (capable moreover to hit only surface units ) but also show an
immensely simplified propulsion section just to
prevent anyone to obtain ,from samples of this export version ,
any technical information useful for develop, at its own time, a supercavitating torpedo version even only on par with the first domestic version. 2) Even this vastly downgraded unguided export version of the first model of VA-111 can represent a simply deadly weapon ,
without any peer among competitors in the hands of a proficient operator.
The weapon ,in facts,
assure the destruction of the attacked targets in spite of any defensive torpedo counter-measure on board for the simple reason that ,
in virtue of its enormous speed ,it can literally proceed toward the computed intercept point in a totally unguided way (therefore totally immune to any soft-kill countermeasure) and still prevent the engaged ship to avoid the impact in any way; also the immensely more advanced and faster guided version can initiate the terminal , completely inertial, engagement phase toward the intercept point far outside the range of any anti-torpedo defensive countermeasure.
The
only real defensive countermeasure against those class of weapons is represented by active anti-torpedo hard-kill defensive systems such as "Paket" ,anyhow with reduced threat's suppression chances;
but ,at today ,exactly as for VA-111 torpedo, don't exist any western corresponding to Paket hard kill defensive system. )
A seahawk helicopter would destroy the submarine long before its in range to fire the shkval.
Dozen of different systems could be used to attempt to engage an enemy submarine .....
if detected in first instance and....
if detected long enough .
Several of those systems, wanting only to talk of conventional means, are
hundreds of times more efficient than an Sh-60 (used mostly to deploy sonobuoys screens or to remotely investigate a "contact" at a speed of....170-180 km/h
Do you know, if you receive a remote contact from a sonobuoys barrier or a bottom MAD sensors or thermo-differential detector or even a distant submarine or ship,
two or three RPK-7 "Veter" or 91R1 "Kalibr" going toward the coordinates at more than 1800 km/h or 2400 km/h have several hundreds of times more chances to destroy the detected enemy submarine before the contact go lost.
Returning to the real range of detection of enemy submarines (outside national sea areas covered by overlapping sensor systems) results obtained by the entire ASW screens of US NAvy CVBGs against even the most outdated foreign conventional submarines -several of which vastly inferior even to export models of first version ok Kilo class - are ......not perfectly encouraging.
This is a cute photo taken by the......Oberon-class !!! .... HMAS "Onslow" submarine of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS "Carl Vinson" ,just before executing its simulated "kill" from ....300 yards after having surpassed totally undetected the surface and submarine screen of the CVBG
This is USS "Enterprise" ,in all its beauty, kindly eternalized by a photo from a German Type 206A
This instead is a lovely closing salutation ,before the kill, from the much more modern Type 212, SMG "S. Todaro" to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS "Theodore Roosevelt" ,just seconds after having engaged also a destroyer of its escort
And so on with Australian Collin class, Chinese Song class , Dutch Zwaardvis-class etc…..
With VA-111-E (export version) torpedo any submarine, in the same conditions and operation time,
would have been perfectly capable to engage the entire CVBG instead of one or two at maximum, with the absolute certainty ,not only that none of the attacked ships would have been capable to neutralize in any way the menace , but that the immensely reduced time for the target's destruction and the lack of need for any wire guidance wouldn't have conceded to them any window for execute a counter attack on the submarine .
"seahawk helicopter would destroy the submarine long before its in range to fire the shkval".......oh yes, yes, of course.