Old and Busted: Phat MK-48--New Hotness: MK-58?

less is more

OK, hold on…you might have suffered the same yawn that I did when reading news about our old girl NIXIE…

U.S. Navy budget documentation released last week is adding a series of new capabilities to the current AN/SLQ-25 Nixie countermeasures suite, including a new hard-kill capability via deck launchers, set to be deployed to over 168 different front-line ships in coming years.

…until you got to the second clause.

I know some of you are thinking, “Oh, we can talk about hard kill now?” Then, in the next paragraph by Carter Johnson at Naval News, this sexy little creature wanders on stage,

The hard-kill weapon, known as the Mk58 Compact Rapid Attack Weapon (CRAW), is expected to be deployed on Nimitz and Ford-class aircraft carriers initially, supplementing the Nixie’s soft-kill capability with a proven hard-kill capability that is currently deployed on attack submarines. The plan comes after years of development and experimentation with different sensors, weapons, and configurations.

The what? Of course, we need to pull the thread on this,

The War Zone reported on first signs of an ATT CRAW variant in 2020, while ideas of a general counter-torpedo torpedo, in the form of the Countermeasure Anti-Torpedo (CAT), date back even further. The U.S. Navy shifted CAT sustainment in FY2024 when it merged the developed equipment and procedures into the CRAW program.

This time the Navy is confident that the ATT CRAW and associated hardware within Nixie are mature enough to deploy across the fleet.

What does this little lady look like?

“CRAW TI-1 effort acquisition strategy is to fund Penn State University Applied Research Laboratory (PSU-ARL) to complete modification of the existing very-lightweight torpedo design leveraged from the ATTDS program. The CRAW TI-1 effort is being executed as a Middle Tier of Acquisition (MTA) effort and will rapidly develop fieldable prototypes to demonstrate the new very-lightweight torpedo ASW capabilities in an operational environment.”

This will give you a little better perspective about its size.

Wait, let’s go back up a bit, did I read that correctly…you can deploy this on USV…that means you can put it about anywhere, including riverine boats?

But wait, it just gets better.

“Revolver is a launcher integration kit that is required to integrate the MK 58 [CRAW] torpedo into the [Virginia-class] submarine Torpedo Tubes. The Revolver system is not permanently installed onto the submarine. Instead it is loaded onto the submarine in the same manner as any payload that is stowed in the torpedo room.”

U.S. Navy FY2026 Budget Documentation

…

TI-1 is also driving development of the Revolver MP and Reloader, as well as capabilities to launch torpedoes from vertical launch cells equipped on Virginia-class attack submarines. CRAW torpedoes developed under TI-1 will remain in the fleet as a residual operational capability, and TI-2 will become the main torpedo of choice in the CRAW family.

TI-2, Raytheon-led, will improve on TI-1 to improve mass production potential while adding additional capabilities to the weapon, like counter-torpedo capability for both submarines and surface ships.

…

The Mk 58 CRAW torpedo is slated to become a workhorse of the U.S. Navy by 2030, in a move that will change how submarines and surface combatants can engage and defend against a variety of high-end and low-end targets. The Mk 58 offers magazine depth in the dozens for low-cost, high-density, large-salvo missions against large and small surface ships—something INDOPACOM sees as favorable to engage hostile amphibious forces in constrained, littoral areas of the Pacific.

Basically, trading off some range, speed, and payload, we will have more, cheaper, that will have anti-torpedo, anti-submarine, and anti-surface capability.

All those PRC Naval Militia ships…a MK-48 is just too much for them, and not enough.

A gaggle of MK-58s? Now we’re talking.

You can have all the surface-to-air missiles, railguns, lasers, and kitchen sinks in the world to throw at attack drones, ASCM, and ASBM…but what are you going to do with you have an angry cluster of a couple of dozen MK-58s headed your way loaded with the latest AI driven software riding on a modern seeker head?

How close will you get to shore when any converted jet ski could carry a couple? Heck, back up a pickup truck to a boat ramp and spit out a half dozen for a little redneck shore battery.

How many of these puppies can an XLUUV carry?

Encouraging. Very encouraging.