It has become increasingly apparent that the world's major naval powers are developing the means to build entire arsenals of innovative underwater weapons and armadas of undersea watercraft able to operate at unprecedented speeds. This high-velocity capability is based on the physical phenomenon of supercavitation. This fluid-mechanical effect occurs when bubbles of water vapor form in the lee of bodies submerged in fast-moving water flows. The trick is to surround an object or vessel with a renewable envelope of gas so that the liquid wets very little of the body's surface, thereby drastically reducing the viscous drag.

The Russian Shkval (SQUALL) torpedo (in cutaway) is thought to feature a flat disk cavitator at the nose to create a partial cavity that is expanded into a supercavity by gases injected from forward-mounted vents. Small starter rockets get the weapon moving until the cavity is formed, whereupon the large central rocket kicks in. This rocket-powered torpedo can "fly" through water at 100 meters per second (about 230 miles per hour) or more inside a self-generated gas cavity. The torpedo is reportedly 27 feet long and weighs 5,940 pounds.

Supercavitating systems could mean a quantum leap in naval warfare that is analogous in some ways to the move from prop planes to jets or even to rockets and missiles. Some naval experts believe that supercavitating systems could alter the nature of undersea warfare, changing stealthy cat-and-mouse stalking contests between large submarines into something resembling aerial combat, featuring noisy high-speed dogfights among small, short-range "subfighters" shooting underwater bullets at one another after having been launched from giant "subcarriers."

Other experts point to the possibility of fielding long-distance, multistage supercavitating torpedoes/ missiles fitted with nuclear warheads ("long-range guided preemptive weapons") that could prove to be a relatively cheap and effective counter to future "Star Wars" missile defense systems. These devices could dash in from many miles out at sea entirely underwater, pop out of coastal waters close to their targets, and drop their lethal payloads before any aerial or space-based defenses could react.