torpedo | weapon | Britannica
torpedo, cigar-shaped, self-propelled underwater missile, launched from a submarine, surface vessel, or airplane and designed for exploding upon contact with the hulls of surface vessels and submarines. A modern torpedo contains intricate devices to control its depth and direction according to a preset plan or in response to signals received from an outside source, as well as a device that detonates the explosive-filled warhead when it strikes its target or comes close to it. Originally the word torpedo referred to any explosive charge, including the type of weapon now known as a mine (q.v.). During the Napoleonic Wars the American