As of 3Apr2019, positions of torpedoes, ships, and plasma weapons are only updated after we finish receiving a packet (5-10 times per second). It should be possible to create SKActions to move these objects automatically, and just adjust their position when new packets arrive. An earlier version did this, but we had some stability issues. In particular, adding this feature should not result in an increase in our occasional SpriteKit crashes.
Adding and removing SKActions can be CPU intensive. So it's best to do this intelligently. Its also important not to extrapolate the position when a ship/torpedo moves from off-screen to on-screen.
This issue is specific to the tactical screen. The strategic screen does not use SpriteKit and only needs to update once per second.