Yu - 6 torpedo Yu - 6 ( 鱼 - 6 ) torpedo is the Chinese counterpart of the US Mark 48 torpedo . Guidance can be by wire , active and passive homing , or wake homing . Domestic Chinese sources have claimed that the Yu - 6 torpedo is in the same class as the Mk 48 Mod . 4 torpedo , but official information on the Yu - 6 torpedo is limited . Background . At least one Mark 48 torpedo was reportedly recovered by Chinese fishermen in the late 1970s or early 1980s , and the government of China might have begun reverse engineering in the 1980s . However , due to the inexperience of the Chinese technological base at the time and the concentration on economic development , most of the reverse engineering project was put on hold after research had been completed on Otto fuel II , wire guidance and some other subsystems ; some research continued on a much smaller scale . The Yu - 6 torpedo development program was revived when the Chinese military realized that despite developing several torpedoes including the Yu - 1 , Yu - 2 , Yu - 3 , Yu - 4 , and Yu - 5 , the obsolete doctrine of having separate ASuW and ASW torpedoes was unsuited for modern naval warfare , and the Chinese navy needed a torpedo for both ASuW and ASW . As a result , the Yu - 6 program was fully resumed in 1995 and 705th Institute was named as the primary contractor , with Dong Chunpeng ( 董春鹏 ) as the general designer . Development . One of the difficulties encountered was that the Yu - 6 torpedo had greater operating depth than all previous Chinese torpedoes , and Chinese arms manufacturers could not build the new casing needed . A brand new alloy was required to cast the outer casing of the Yu - 6 torpedo ; under the leadership of Ding Wenjiang ( 丁文江 ) , professor of material science at Shanghai Jiao Tong University , the problem was solved when ZLJD - 1S alloy was successfully developed and used to cast the casing for Yu - 6 torpedo . He Yuyao ( 贺昱曜 ) was in charge of developing the power module for the newly developed computer of the Yu - 6 torpedo , which took three years , from 1999 to 2001 . Another obstacle was the casing for the acoustic seeker required new materials to build , but Chinese arms manufacturers had never had any experience in this field when the reverse engineering was first attempted . When most of the reverse engineering was put on hold , research in this field continued and Tianjin Rubber Research Institute ( also known as Tianjin Municipal Rubber Industry Research Institute ( 天津市橡胶工业研究所 ) was tasked to develop the rubber needed for the acoustic seeker casing . A team of seven scientists , Shen Yingjun ( 申英俊 ) , Hou Yehua ( 侯月华 ) , Zhang Jianguo ( 张建国 ) , Ma Gangying ( 马刚英 ) , Zhang Lixia ( 张立侠 ) , An Jiazhu ( 安家柱 ) and Zhang Suqin ( 章素琴 ) , was formed , and eventually developed new rubber and production techniques needed by October 1994 , shortly before the Yu - 6 program was fully resumed in 1995 . The resulting rubber exceeded the required specification , with density 1 . 098 ton per cubic meter , speed of sound 1 , 551 metres per second , and surface roughness 0 . 16 micrometres . The propulsion system was the biggest obstacle in the development of the Yu - 6 torpedo . A team of three scientists , Ms . Su Li ( 苏丽 ) , Mao Yuanfu ( 毛元福 ) , and Wang Lisong ( 王立松 ) of Harbin Electro Carbon Research Institute ( 哈尔滨电碳研究所 ) , was tasked to develop the graphite material used to make engine valves and other components . By September 1998 the new graphite material , designated M130 , had been successfully developed and then utilized for Yu - 6 torpedo . The piston ring of the engine was developed successfully in December 2003 by Yizheng Shuanghuan Piston Ring Co . Ltd . ( 仪征双环活塞环有限公司 ) . Wang Guozhi ( 王国治 ) was in charge of noise reduction , and his successful research in this field won him second place in the Chinese national scientific and technology advancement award in 1998 . Over two - thirds of the technologies used for the Yu - 6 torpedo were new to Chinese arms manufacturers , and there were some serious doubts that they could complete the project on its own . Dong Chunpeng ( 董春鹏 ) , a University of Science & Technology of China graduate in 1966 who worked for 705th Institute since then , completed the project , filing 18 patents including four in fields that China had had no experience in . After ten years of development , the Yu - 6 torpedo was accepted into service in 2005 ; Dong Chunpeng ( 董春鹏 ) was awarded the 2006 Scientific and Technological Advancement Award at the end of February in Beijing . One characteristic of the Yu - 6 torpedo is its high - performance processor ; most western torpedoes are believed to use old , but known reliable , processors . The microprocessor used for the Yu - 6 is of approximately Intel 80486 class . Some Chinese sources have claimed that Loongson - 1 is used for Yu - 6 torpedo . The transducer array of the torpedo ' s acoustic seeker is believed to have about the same number of transducers as the Mark 48 torpedo . The Yu - 6 torpedo uses modular design and open architecture software programming , so that when new technologies and programs become available they can be readily incorporated . The first generation Chinese - made wire - guided torpedo Yu - 5 torpedo , used acoustic guidance only in the final stage of an attack or if the wire was severed ; in the new torpedo guidance can be switched between wire and acoustic at any time . If the wire is severed , the targeting information stored in the memory enables the computer onboard to calculate the approximate new location of the target , augmenting the acoustic homing to achieve a higher kill probability . Yu - 8 torpedo . Yu - 8 ( 鱼 - 8 ) torpedo was developed as the electrically - powered counterpart of the Otto - fuel - II - powered Yu - 6 , with which it shares many components and technologies , with the exception of the propulsion system . Domestic Chinese sources have said that the Yu - 8 torpedo had become the test vehicle and subsequently the first torpedo to be armed with a new warhead developed by the Chinese naval research institute . The new warhead utilizes sodium hydride compounds / chemical reaction ; on detonation a large amount of sodium powder is released , which reacts with seawater to produce large amounts of very - high - temperature hydrogen within a very short period of time , so that the temperature instantly increases to over 2 , 000 °C within a radius of a few dozen metres as the hydrogen reacts with oxygen , destroying the target even if not hit . During the test in East China Sea , a retired 12 , 000 - ton ship was struck by two Yu - 8 torpedoes , which completely melted the side of the ship within fifteen minutes .