MH-60S with a M197 20mm cannon!

[Gatordev]

The range at Clemente (where I've dropped at least 20 torps) is so scripted for Torp-Ex quals that it is the rare exception for a crew not to get a qual. (PCO Ops is a completely different story!!)
My argument is simply that a crew shooting one a year does not really train us to do our job effect. My Department Heads who all were brought up on Russian subs would drop multiple weapons a year, to include runners against real subs.
Today, we go up against a 6 knot sled to get a weapon off the rail....

I've never flown at San Clemente, so I can't speak that particular range, but at AUTEC and PMRF, this was not my experience. In fact, PMRF in the winter is pretty varsity because the MDRs are pretty low and the PRDs are almost useless (whales humping apparently make a lot of noise). The targets weren't quite as cooperative as you describe, either, but from what I've seen, that's more a matter of how the evaluator decides make the scenario.

 

[lowflier03]

San Clemente is designed to give a crew the qual, nothing hard about ops out there. AUTEC depends on what is going on; Real subs are cake, and the sleds are only hard if the evaluator throws in a good profile.