UPDATE: Carre Film in Sydney: The Schkval Torpedo Motive for Kursk

UPDATE: FACTS About the VA-111 Shkval torpedo

The VA-111 Shkval torpedo and its descendants are supercavitating torpedoes, developed by the Russian Navy, which are capable of speeds of several hundred knots.
and,
From GlobalSecurity.org (note that Russian B is prounced V in english): BA-111 Shkval underwater rocket


Cross-posted from UltraQuiet No More:

From The Sydney Morning Herald (September 24, 2005) comes newsAs It Happened: Kursk - A Submarine in Troubled Waters About the French film (shown January 2005 in France) directed by Jean-Michel Carre (conjecture):

"The Kursk was participating in a military exercise involving a torpedo, the Schkval, capable, we're told, of travelling underwater at 500kmh. The intention was to impress the Chinese; instead it annoyed the Americans so much that, according to French filmmaker Jean-Michel Carre, the events that followed could have pushed the world into nuclear war.

Carre's film suggests the Kursk was sunk not by a faulty Russian torpedo but a perfectly good US one. He goes further by implying a deal between presidents Putin and Clinton hushed the true story while America reimbursed Moscow through the back door. "

Showing SBS, Saturday 7.30pm

"Submarines, always silent, always strange" - Vigilis