Yu - 3 torpedo The Yu - 3 ( 鱼 - 3 ) is a Chinese acoustic homing torpedo designed to be fired from submarines against surface targets . It entered service with the Chinese Navy in 1984 . Several sources state that it may be a copy of the Soviet SET - 65E , although this seems unlikely as development began in 1965 after the Sino - Soviet split . It is therefore probably the first indigenously developed torpedo in China . Development . When the Chinese nuclear submarine program begun in the early 1960s , the design of torpedoes which would be used on the nuclear submarine s was also started in conjunction . A research team was first formed in the winter of 1964 by the 705th Research Institute , and it was decided that priority should be given to acoustic homing ASW torpedo . China was able to indigenously provide two types of propulsion systems , electrical and steam , but electrical propulsion could not provide the speed required , so the steam propulsion was selected . However , the steam propulsion had its own problem : there were two types of steam propulsion engines , reciprocating engine and steam turbine engine . China only had experience with the reciprocating engine , but the mechanical motion generated loud noise which greatly reduced the effectiveness of the acoustic seeker of the torpedo . Since the steam turbine technology was monopolized by the west , Chinese researchers suggested the plan of torpedo approaching the target at high speed , and then reduce the speed to home in on the target at low speed . In 1964 , the design was submitted to the National Defense Science and Technology Committee and named as Yu - 3 torpedo , and after continued evaluation that lasted from April 1965 to October 1965 , and approval was given , the permission to begin the production program was issued in March 1966 . Two month later , in May 1966 , the design was change on last time , when China successfully developed silver - zinc battery , which enabled the torpedo to seek out targets at high speed , since electrically powered torpedo produced much less noise . The final propulsion of the Yu - 3 torpedo selected was thus silver - zinc battery . The chief designer of the Yu - 3 torpedo was Mr . Dong Lin ( 董琳 ) , with Mr . Yang Baosheng ( 杨保生 ) and Mr . Jiang Liangfang ( 江连方 ) as the deputy chief designers . The pressure of at operating depth of the torpedo was great , and newly developed aluminum alloy was used and successfully passed the tests . By the end of 1966 , special torpedo test range was also authorized to be built , resulting from lessons learned from the development of Yu - 1 torpedo and Yu - 2 torpedo . In order to guarantee the development , the Central Military Committee of the Communist Party of China issued “ Special Official Letter “ in 1967 to prevent the any disruptions from the political turmoil that plagued China at the time . The original plan of high speed approach with low speed search and engagement had severely limited the speed of the torpedo , because the original acoustic homing seeker was very limited in its effectiveness and prone to noise radiated by the engine . In 1967 , this problem was finally solved when a new multi - beamed acoustic homing seeker was successfully developed jointly by the Acoustic Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Science and 705th Institute , under the leadership of Mr . Hou Chaohuan ( 侯朝焕 ) . By 1969 , the 750 metre deep deepwater torpedo testing range was established with the help of over 80 enterprises and named as 750 Testing Range ( 750试验场 ) in Kunming , after the greatest simulated depth of the range , and a total of 4 sample torpedoes were produced . In the same year , the fire control and launching system for Yu - 3 torpedo were also successfully developed and installed on board the nuclear submarine . In the autumn of 1969 , Batch 0 , the preproduction batch built for initial tests had been successfully tested in lakes . Development immediately continued to directly modify Batch 0 torpedoes for oceanic trials , with modification completed in 1971 , and oceanic tests begun in 1972 , with the design finalized in 1975 . However , oceanic environment had caused unexpected problems and from 1974 to the beginning of 1976 , over 40 enterprises were ordered by the Yunnan National Defense Office to help Dawn Machinery Factory ( Shuguan Jixie Chang , 曙光机械厂 ) of the Yunnan 6th Machinery Bureau to complete the development of Yu - 3 torpedo , but when all of the problems have been solved , it was already years after the designed had already been finalized , and due to the political turmoil in China and the technology bottlenecks , China still had a long way to go . In December 1977 , the production version of Yu - 3 torpedo was successfully tested in lakes , and from March to October , 1983 , work was concentrated on solving the problems discovered during oceanic tests , during which a total of 43 Yu - 3 torpedoes were test fired . Finally , in March 1984 , the torpedo met all requirement and went into mass production . In May 1988 , Han class nuclear submarine had successfully test - launched Yu - 3 torpedo at maximum depth in deep water testing facility in Hainan . The torpedo was also given a name as Chinese sturgeon ( Zhonghua Xun , 中华鲟 ) . Modification . Several modifications have been incorporated to Yu - 3 torpedo . One of the important upgrade was to incorporating ASuW capability to Yu - 3 torpedo so that the submarines would no longer need to carry separate ASuW and ASW torpedoes . In May 1985 , Dawn Machinery Factory ( Shuguan Jixie Chang , 曙光机械厂 ) , 750 Test Range and 705th Research Institute jointly developed an export version as Chinese sturgeon ( 中华鲟 ) - II , with export designation as ET32 , but there was no known export . Other modifications included updating electronics and incorporating the capability of being launched from different platforms and being used as part of the CAPTOR mine type mine system ET32 . ET32 torpedo with the name Chinese sturgeon ( 中华鲟 ) - II is an export version of Yu - 3 torpedo marketed by China Shipbuilding Co . , but as of 2009 , there is no known export . ET32 is almost identical to Yu - 3 , but slightly smaller , and can only be launched from submarine . Specifications :