A series of unobtrusive frigates of the “Project-17А”: Indian recipe for an arms race with China
The concept of a promising unobtrusive frigate for the Indian Navy "Project-17A"
A series of advanced Chinese missile fire control destroyers (URO) Type 052C and 052D does not give a minute of peace fleets Japan, India, Australia and the United States, annually scattering a growing network of naval dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. The Chinese Navy currently has 6 destroyers of the Lanzhou 052C Type 5C destroyer and at least 052 Kunmin Type 7D destroyers; 2018 more Kunmin class destroyers are at various stages of construction at the Dalian and Jiannan shipyards. By 18, the fleet will include all XNUMX ships of two classes.
“Lanzhou” and “Kunmin” with a displacement from 6600 to 7500 tons on the seaworthy and technological qualities are on the same step, or significantly superior to American counterparts - the destroyers classes “Arley Burke”. Thus, the cruising range of Chinese ships reaches 14000 miles, while the American Aegis destroyers have a range of 6000 miles. Type 052C and 052D are no longer conventional artillery and missile destroyers-arsenals (class "Lyuda" and Type 052) with the "farm" principle of operation of various combat systems of the ship: their shipboard anti-aircraft missile systems HQ-9 / 9B, anti-submarine complexes CY- 5 and anti-ship missile systems are programmatically built around the modern high-performance combat information and control system (BIUS) H / ZBJ-1, as well as the tactical and command information exchange bus on the coded radio channel HN-900 (analogue Link-11). Since Type 052C / D are considered to be destroyers of air and missile defense, the main source of information for combat operation of their BIUS is the multifunctional radar with 4-side phased Type 348 (at EM Lanzhou) and Type 346 (at Kunming EM). The digital architecture of their radio-electronic base was borrowed from the domestic Mars-Passat RLC installed on the heavy aircraft carrier missile cruiser of 1143.5 Ave. Admiral Kuznetsov: according to some sources, in 90-s, the drawings of the project “Mars -Passat.
As you know, at that time, the Mars-Passat RLC was never brought to a level that allows it to carry out combat firing at Zour interceptors at anti-ship missiles and other means of air attack. The fact is that “Sky Watch” (as the complex was called NATO), at that stage of development of electronic technologies, there was a serious problem with the principle of programmatic transfer of an electron beam through the 360-degree aperture of X-NUMX X-PFAR canvases, i.e. when moving the beam from the sector of the review of one antenna array to the sector of the other (each sector is about 4 degrees). As is known, when an air object enters the next antenna array, the on-board computer of the radar complex, according to the data of the previous antenna array, it should prepare the exact coordinates of the tracked target for instantaneous acquisition for autotracking with a new canvas. This requires modern high-performance processors, which then neither the USSR nor the United States possessed. A striking proof of this was the first versions of the Aegis BIUS.
When designing the AN / SPY-1 MRLS, Lockheed Martin specialists could not create a centimeter radar with an all-aperture that would accompany and capture aerial targets without the help of specialized AN / SPG-62 radar spotlights, and only in 2010 began development of a promising multi-functional AMDR radar, where the single-channel aperture AN / SPG-62 is replaced by multi-channel AFAR-radar lights. Also, this technology was used in the APAR I-band centimeter IRLS installed on European frigates of the Saxony, De Zeven Provinsien and Iver Hüitfeld type. Our modern example is the shipyard 3K96-2 “Polyment-Redut” air defense system, which still has problems in integrating the 9М96Е and 9М100 SAMs with the combat information-control system Sigma-22350 and the multi-functional MRLS Polymen.
The Chinese copied “Aegis” quite successfully, which caused great fears of the US and its allies, but even more fear from the West with its Asian partners appeared after the publication on the Chinese Internet of photographs showing the loading of modular universal built-in launchers of Chinese EM Type 052D transport-launch containers (TPK) with supersonic anti-ship missiles YJ-18A. For the US Navy, Japan and India, this meant only one thing - the loss of the superior strike potential of the fleets for the long term. Americans can’t answer today with anything worthy of the 3-Yak-YN-18A. All anti-ship missiles of the Harpoon family and AGM-158C "LRASM", despite the range from 240 to 1000 km, are subsonic, and therefore can be easily intercepted by Chinese ship HQ-9B. The use of SM-6 SAM in anti-ship mode also has its own characteristics. A large range of their flight is achieved only along a semi-ballistic trajectory, where missiles can be easily detected by Type 346 radars and intercepted by HQ-9 missiles.
But, unfortunately, the United States is not the only serious player in the “anti-Chinese axis,” a very large role is played here by the Naval and Air Forces of India, which now receive the most sophisticated models of surface ships, diesel-electric submarines and tactical fighters combining Russian, Ukrainian, Israeli, French, and their own national technologies of the XXI century. For example, the main surface attack and defense component of the Indian Navy is represented by 3 destroyers of the “Project-15A” (project P15A) of the class “Calcutta”. The performance of 163-meter destroyers with an almost “cruising” displacement of 7500 tons is provided by the 4 gas turbine power units GTD-59 with 2 gearboxes WG-54 developed by the Nikolaev enterprise GP Zorya-Mashproekt (Ukraine), and the same-of-quotas), developed by the project, as well as, as-quotas), developed by the NGN-2, developed by the Nikolaev enterprise GP Zorya-Mashproyekt, developed by the Nikolaev company ZoRa-Mashproekt, Ukraine, as well as the new unids, made by the new ZN-Mashproekt units, developed by the Nikolaev ZN-Mashproyekt’s Ukraine-based units, developed by them, as well as, as well, as-quotas, were used by the ZN-XNUMX gearboxes. designed by FSUE SPKB ("Northern Design Bureau") and FSUE TsNII them. Academician A.N. Krylov.
Impact anti-ship equipment is represented by 16 heavy supersonic low-profile anti-ship missiles of the Russian-Indian development “BrahMos”, placed in 2-X vertical launch launchers (TLU) of 8 transport-launch containers in each. The defensive armament and the radar aids assigned to it were already developed by Israeli corporations Israel Aerospace Industry (IAI) and ELTA Systems. These include the Barak-8 long-range shipborne air defense system, the multifunctional EL / M-4 MF-STAR X-NUMX radar with AF / S-band AF / EL / M-2248 STAR radar ( range 250 km). As an aid to the review of airspace, the destroyers are equipped with a classic LW-2238 “Jupiter” decimeter radar detector with a parabolic antenna array and a horn-type radiator, mass-produced by the Dutch company “Thales Nederland BV”. But despite the ability of the cumulative anti-ship volley 350-x destroyers (INS "Kolkata, INS" Kochi "and INS" Chennai ") from 08 PKR" BrahMos ", this is not enough to destroy even half of the ship of the Chinese EM" Lanzhou "and" Kunming " "Carrying on board the complex HQ-3. Moreover, modern Chinese multi-purpose fighters Su-48MKK, J-9B, J-30D / S are unlikely to let dozens of Indian Su-10MKIs at a distance acceptable for launching BrahMos (15 km).
The Indian Navy urgently needed a quick and effective solution to maintain the parity of power with the Chinese Navy in the Indian Ocean and off the coast of Southeast Asia.
As 17 of September 2016 of the year reported on its website, the Military Parity analytical resource, the Indian shipbuilding enterprise Mazagon Docks Ltd (Mumbai), in cooperation with the Italian holding company Fincantieri - Cantieri Navali Italiani SpA, is launching a low-profile 7 production program frigates of the next generation "Project-XNUMHA". The design of a promising outrigger with a displacement of 17 tons was developed by Fincantieri under a contract with the Ministry of Defense of India since the end of 6670. In July, the first graphic image of the new frigate was published on the network 2011, which was a constructive continuation of the first Indian stealth frigate of the Shivalik class, the creation of which Hindus owe to Northern PCB, involved in designing in the middle of the 2012's. Therefore, we can observe some similarities with the Russian 90 "Talwar" pr.
The new ships were to significantly strengthen the combat stability of the Indian ship and carrier strike groups in the first half of the 21st century, and therefore the armament and radar architecture of the new ship were updated. For an additional reduction of the radar signature, the antenna posts of the MR-760 “Fregat-M2EM” radar detectors and other electronic reconnaissance equipment with outdated open architecture were removed from the “Project-17A” radio-electronic equipment nomenclature. There are typical for barely noticeable ships reverse blockages of the upper parts of the sides, an angular composite mask of the main artillery gun and a high pyramidal superstructure for the multi-function radar, allowing to increase the radio horizon by several kilometers. Now directly about the radar and ship defense air defense "Project-17A."
Being a deeply refined frigate of the Shivalik class, with a full displacement increased by 500 tons, the “Project-17А” most closely approached the class “destroyer”. Also, this is indicated by its length - 149 m, width - 17,8 m and draft 9,9 m (in the missile cruiser of the Ticonderoga level, it is 9,7 m). Thanks to the ship's computerization using new microprocessor platforms, the crew size was reduced from 257 to 150 people, which automatically freed up the additional internal volumes of the frigate necessary for a larger number of launch modules with rocket armament. The configuration of weapons and BIUS is as close as possible to the squadron destroyers of the “Project-15A” “Calcutta”. From the list of ship-based air defense systems, the 4 X-Channel Channel Shtil-1 was removed with four radars of target illumination of the 3Р90 Oreh (present at Shivalika), but an Israeli Barak-8 SAM with antenna post multi-radar EL / Radar was installed. 2248 MF-STAR.
Despite the excellent speed and maneuverability missiles 9M317E installed on the "Shivalik" "light" version of "Calm-1" with 4 RPN 3R90 could not provide a full reflection of massive missile attack Chinese supersonic antiship and anti-radar missiles, unlike ranged «Barak-8 "(" LR-SAM "). If the 9М317E SAMs use a semi-active radar homing head and strictly 4 target chambers, then the Barak-8 anti-aircraft guided missile interceptors have an active radar homing system, which receives target designation from the MF-STAR, therefore the complex channel can approach 8 ––––––––––––––––– In addition, the antenna post of the MF-STAR station is set to 12 times higher than the 2-R3 radar spotlights, due to which the Barak-90 range can reach 8 km for low-altitude targets, but for the X-NNXX Calm, no more than 35 km.
Such a choice of Hindus in favor of the Israeli air defense missile system for a promising frigate could also be condemned, arguing the best speed performance of 9М317Е missiles in comparison with Barak-8 missiles (1550 m / s versus 720 m / s), but here it is completely inappropriate because The Indian Navy today is guided by the need to effectively combat dozens of low-flying Chinese anti-ship missiles on opposing trajectories, for which the Barak-8 is ideally suited, while the four-radar version of the Stihl with high-speed 9М317E is more suitable IT for the destruction of a smaller number of objectives in pursuit. It is also worth mentioning that the range of the Israeli high-altitude system reaches 80-90 km, while the lighting system "Calm", based on the radar "Nut", limits the firing distance of 35 km, and the 9М317Е rocket has a maximum radius of 50 km . The Project-17А frigates will have an integrated vertical launcher installed on the 32 TPK with the Barak-8 SAMs.
General shipborne radar warning systems for long-range and near-air situations, as well as target designation will be provided by a powerful L-band DRLO radar "SMART-L". This moment strikingly distinguishes the frigates of the “Project-17А” for the better, in comparison with the destroyers “Calcutta”, in terms of: covering the far-air situation, detecting and tracking small ballistic targets, the number of simultaneously tracked targets, as well as identifying the various stages of flight operatively -Tactical ballistic missiles. The SMART-L radar is represented by a passive HEADLAMP mounted on a rotating (with a frequency of 12 rpm) antenna post at the rear of the superstructure of a warship. The antenna array is represented by 16 active-type receiving and transmitting modules and 8 receiving modules of the passive type (24 MRP) assembled into 8,4X4 m canvas. The station operates in the frequency range from 1000 to 2000 MHz (15-30 cm wavelength and allow for detection to enable detection and allow for detection to enable detection. weapon with ESR less than 0,01 m2 at a distance of 65 km. SMART-L is capable of tracking air targets and 1000 surface targets on the passage to 100; but a separate item is the possibility of accompanying ballistic missiles at the initial and final stages of the flight with fixing the moment of separation of the steps and the head part.
With the help of specialized drivers installed in the SMART-L radar information conversion interface, the developers from Thales Nederland managed to programmatically increase the sensitivity of the station's receiving and transmitting modules, which made it possible to open the extended-range mode ELR. This mode was tested on the radar installed on the frigate F803 "Tromp" of the Royal Netherlands Navy during a joint naval exercises on missile defense in the Asia-Pacific region with the US Navy. The operators of the SMART-L station tracked the flight of the ARAV-B training simulator simulating MRSD, starting from the moment of ascent above the radio horizon and up to the ascent to the low-orbit segment of outer space (150 km), followed by the separation of the head part on the descending trajectory segment. The shipborne surveillance radar showed all capabilities for integration into various missile defense systems for intercepting advanced hypersonic weapons, as well as monitoring near space up to low orbits.
In March, 2012 of the year it became known that the radar "SMART-L" installed on most European frigates, thanks to the ELR mode (Extended Long Range, - "Long-Range Expansion") will be able to detect launching BRs at a distance of 1000 km, which made it visible qualities as a direct competitor of the AN / SPY-1A family. And in the summer of the same year we saw the first graphic image of the Indian “Project-17А” with “SMART-L” on board, this confirms the new conceptual approach of the Ministry of Defense and the Indian Navy to the requirements of the new warships. In the subtle frigate of the new generation, the Indians see the NK of moderate displacement, with the maximum level of automation and “digitization”, the minimum crew size, high defensive capabilities and the ability to monitor the entire spectrum of aerospace threats with their partial neutralization. These defensive qualities will give the Indian fleet a series of 7 frigates of the "Project 17".
Impact armament of the frigate will remain the same: the project provides for the 1x8 TLU for the 2-flywheel RJP PJ-10 "BrahMos". All 7 frigates of the series will carry an arsenal of 56 "BrahMos" capable of overtaking targets at a distance of 270-290 km along a combined trajectory, which is not very pleasant for the Chinese fleet, since, like the American Aegis, the Chinese H / ZBJ-1 is very It is easy to overload with a massive rocket attack, which the entire 4, provided for a CICS, continuous radiation radar for target illumination cannot cope with. Within a few years, we should expect the Navy and Air Force of India to adopt the BrahMos-2 hypersonic version capable of breaking through the enemy's echelon anti-aircraft system at speeds up to 1600 - 1700 m / s. The rockets, designed with the help of “stealth” technology, will be included in the nomenclature of weapons of both multi-purpose Su-30MKI fighters and all surface ship projects. After that, a noticeable lag in the Chinese shipboard missile defense from the promising Indian RCC will begin. The Chinese fleet will need the immediate development of a promising anti-aircraft missile system based on a new multi-channel AFAR-radar, similar to the American AMDR prototype, or the Japanese-Dutch serial multifunctional RLC FCS-3A, installed on Acikuka-class destroyers and Hyuga helicopter carriers. For several years, the Celestial Empire will lag behind in terms of the defense level of its naval strike groups and aircraft carrier formations.
Interestingly, the Indian “stealth” frigates of the “Project-17A”, as well as other NK of different projects, will be equipped with the improved Russian jet-bomb installation RBU-6000 RPK-8, large-scale production of the first version (“Smerch-2”) which was launched in the 1964 year at the Ural Heavy Machinery Plant (UZTM, “Uralmashzavod”) in the city of Sverdlovsk. It can be assumed that the continuation of the tradition of installing RBU-6000 is a peculiar tribute to fashion in the new century of more modern anti-submarine and anti-torpedo complexes such as “Package-NK”, RPK-9 “Medvedka” and “Caliber-NKE” with anti-submarine rocket 91РЭ2, but not everything is so simple here.
Firstly, despite the technical possibility of unifying transport-launch containers for the BrahMos anti-ship missiles with 91РЭ2 Caliber-NKE anti-submarine missiles, a full anti-submarine defense in the near submarine zone (“dead zone”) cannot be provided around 5 km . Secondly, for these purposes a more compact defensive anti-torpedo / anti-submarine complex of the “Package-NK” type is needed, but as you know, this complex was not exported and is present only in service with our 20380 / 85 corvettes and frigates of 22350 Ave. “Admiral Pots. "Package-NK", developed by JSC GNPP "Region", is produced in a double version - anti-torpedo and anti-submarine. The antitorped version is represented by M-15 anti-torpedoes installed in one or several (up to 8) CM-588 launcher guides. The anti-torpedo is equipped with an active-passive acoustic homing head and has a range of 1400 m at a speed of 90 km / h. Target homing head occurs at a distance of 400 m. "Dead zone" anti-torpedo version is no more than 100 m.
Anti-submarine version of the package-NK provides for equipping 14 times more long-range compact thermal torpedo MTT; its range reaches 20 km, the speed is similar. The ratio of the configuration of the installation with the M-15 anti-torpedoes to the CM-588 guides is also completely different, and may depend on the number of guides (from 1 to 8) and on previously studied underwater acoustic data about the underwater adversary. If, for example, ultra-low-noise anaerobic diesel-electric submarines with an air-independent power plant are operated on the maritime theater site, then greater emphasis is placed on the M-15 anti-torpedo equipment, since the enemy’s submarines themselves will be very difficult to detect and defense from single or massive torpedo attacks. For example, modern German torpedoes DM2A4ER (at a speed of about 30 nodes) have a range of up to 140 km, and the British “Spearfish” - 54 km at a speed of up to 65 nodes (about 120 km / h). It will be almost impossible to detect an enemy's diesel engine carrier at such a distance, especially in the waters where the enemy dominates, and you have to take a hit, destroying modern torpedoes a few kilometers from your own ship.
If, however, it is known that other types of submarines are in the zone of maritime confrontation, including the more noisy atomic SSBNs and SSBNs (they also carry torpedo armament), then the SM-588 PU can be equipped with a certain number of MTT torpedoes; they will keep enemy submarines within 20 km radius from a friendly KUG or AUG.
Indian naval forces do not possess this complex, and therefore good old RBU-6000 remain the only reliable options for protecting new Indian frigates from enemy torpedoes and submarines. A more advanced version of the RPK-8 “Zapad” anti-submarine missile system, using the RBN-12 6000-barrel launchers as a fire weapon, was developed by the Tula Splav design bureau in the late 80s. in order to combine in a single complex the improved anti-torpedo qualities of the Smerch-3 system (with the 6-barrel RBU-1000) and the anti-submarine capabilities of the Smerch-2. The Russian Navy RPK-8 "West" entered into service on November 26 of the year 1991. The “Zapad” differs from Smerch-2 / 3 not only by a single RPU-RBU-6000, but also by the new anti-submarine 90P and the MG-94E missile introduced into the complex.
The 90Р / Р1 anti-submarine missile is the carrier of the 90СГ detachable gravitational submarine with an active sonar homing head. The 90SG torpedo shell is a multifunctional defensive weapon, and can be used against enemy submarines as well as against torpedoes and compact saboteurs delivery vehicles. The missile has a firing range from 600 to 4300 m, and is capable of destroying enemy submarines at depths up to 1 km. The delivery vehicles of saboteurs and torpedoes can be intercepted at depths from 4 to 10 m. The response time of the RPK-8 “West” computing facilities from the moment of detecting an underwater target to the moment of firing is only 15 seconds, due to which any surface vehicle of the West can timely neutralization of the underwater threat. The 90SG underwater gravity projectile is equipped with an 19,5 kg of explosive, which, with salvoing, allows you to achieve an 80% chance of hitting an enemy submarine.
The MG-94E anti-torpedo projectile is equipped with a separating hydroacoustic counter-head module, the first stage is similar to the PLUR 90Р / Р1. Due to the unified rocket part, MG-94E has the same range as 90Р1 in 4300 m, while the principle of operation of the combat module of this projectile is to create active hydroacoustic interference in the immediate vicinity of enemy torpedoes, which violates the stable operation of their SSN (systems homing). Together with the new anti-torpedo shells and anti-submarine missiles, the RPK-8 "Zapad" complex retained the possibility of using the RSL-60 rocket depth bombs, which, despite the very outdated "iron", have a range of 5800 meters and are capable of attacking enemy submarines on depths to 450 m, in one salvo usually runs from 2 to 4 RSL-60. The first RBU-6000 launchers as part of the Smerch-2 anti-submarine missile complex were sent to the Indian Navy along with 3 Talwar frigates of the 1135.6 project back in the 2003 year.
But RPK-8 alone is not quite enough for a decent anti-submarine and anti-torpedo defense. The composition of the combat information and control system of the ship must also include modern hydroacoustic means of illuminating the underwater situation at the far and near frontiers. It is these tools that provide accurate target designation for anti-submarine reactive complexes of any generation, and it is from them that the success of repelling an underwater attack of the enemy, or the early destruction of enemy submarines prior to launching from their TA, largely depends.
Based on the latest observations of the cooperation of the Defense Research and Development Organization DRDO (Bangalore) with leading Russian and Western European corporations, all modern Indian submarines and surface ships will be equipped with some of the most advanced hydroacoustic complexes in the world, slightly inferior only to the latest modifications of American GAS AN / SQQ-89 (V) 15. An exception will not be the promising frigates of the “Project-17A”, the hydroacoustic image of which will be partially or completely repeated by the GAK of older frigates of the Shivalik type.
Frigate F48 "Saptura" class "Shivalik" ("Project-17A")
As the main active-passive GAS, the ships will receive an upgraded version of the HUMSA-NG station. This station is located in the bow bulb fairing of a surface ship and is capable of scanning underwater space in active and passive modes both at a direct line of sight (about 46 km) and in 1 and 2 areas of convergence (63 and 120 km, respectively). The station has an excellent potential for locating remote and low-noise underwater objects, but its potential and resolution is noticeably weaker than that of the main USGAS for destroyers and missile cruisers URO AN / SQS-53B / C, since the American station is represented by 576 receiving-transmitting acoustic modules, placed in a cylindrical acoustic antenna array, the stand of 1,75 and a diameter of 4,88 m, and the Indian “HUMSA-NG” in a more compact cylindrical module, with no more than 370 receiving and transmitting elements. Nevertheless, this is absolutely sufficient for the operation of all types of anti-submarine and anti-torpedo weapons of the Project-17А frigate.
Additional sonar station - towed active-passive low-frequency ATAS / Thales Sintra. This station is an analogue of the Russian VAS “Vignetka-EM”. It is represented by a flexible extended towed antenna (GPBA), also known as an equidistant towed antenna acoustic array. Its length at "Sintra" is 900 meters (at "Vignettes" - from 92 to 368 meters). The acoustic grille is located in a flexible sound-transparent tube and is represented by piezoelectric pressure receivers, which are created by low-frequency sonar waves caused by disturbance of the aquatic environment by the submarine and surface housings reflected by the hydroacoustic waves from the station itself in the active mode, as well as by the submarine movers and submersibles and by the submarines and the numbers and submarines. To keep at the required depth during movement of the frigate GPBA "Sintra" helps towed carrier-deepener. The station operates at a frequency of 3 kHz and can detect noise-emitting and noise-reflecting underwater objects both in the near zone of acoustic illumination (from 3 to 12 km) and in the first and second distant zones of acoustic illumination (35-140 km). Torpedoes, low-noise submarines and any types of surface watercraft are detected.
As a result, we have a next generation Indian frigate that is quite balanced in terms of armament and means of detection / guidance, capable of significantly strengthening Delhi’s position in the Indian Ocean before Beijing.
Information sources:
http://bastion-karpenko.ru/17_shivalik/
http://vpk.name/news/163833_indiya_nachnet_stroitelstvo_stelsfregatov.html
http://armyman.info/pvo/pvo-vmf/gas/21388-ansqs-53.html
http://militaryrussia.ru/blog/topic-384.html
Information