Missile defense is broken, and what is left to our fleet?
N.S. Khrushchev. 1960
It became clear from the president’s address that a number of nuclear deterrent devices were developed in Russia in a “secrecy setting”, for which considerable funding was allocated. It remains unclear only why the Americans were warned that their efforts to build a missile defense system would be completely useless. Let them spend their military budget further. The assurances of the Americans that their missile defense system is capable of repelling less than one percent of our ICBMs, we stubbornly ignore and the strengthening of the nuclear shield continues. Apparently the logic works - “today you can one percent, and tomorrow all ten”. It remains to be seen whether our conventional weapons are well funded, as is the nuclear shield ...
Fig. 1. The main shock of the Russian Navy - the frigate "Admiral Gorshkov"
In Soviet times, the author was engaged in the development of radar systems for ship-based air defense systems, and then he began to engage in the opposite task - the development of attack methods by our aircraft on enemy ships. Now, having retired, I decided to consider the state of the program for the construction of impact surface ships. The proposed review was compiled from open sources and the author’s personal opinion is expressed only when discussing the status of the ships' air defenses.
1. Aircraft carrier construction
In 2016, our Admiral Kuznetsov arrived in Syria. Nothing special except the facts of the fall of two aircraft, this campaign is not remembered. If the first plane fell for technical reasons, then the second - due to rupture of the aerofinisher, that is, due to a failure of the aircraft carrier. As a result, the campaign cost 10 billion rubles, and now the ship has returned to Murmansk and has been waiting for repairs for over a year. A special commission announced the cost of repairs and upgrades to 65 billion rubles. Then they attended to the fact that it was possible to build an 2 frigate with such a sum, and decided to reduce it to 40 billion. The ship was built at the Nikolaev shipyards, and it is impossible to repair it there now. There are currently no free docks in Russia capable of repairing such a ship. For example, in the Northern shipyard, in order to get a ship into the factory pool, it will be necessary to expand the gates and carry out the dredging. In addition, this pool is busy repairing another heavy cruiser “Admiral Nakhimov”. Only now USC President Rakhmanov announced that the repair contract has finally been concluded, the repair period is 3 of the year. However, he did not report the volume of repairs, nor funding, nor even the place of repair. The term for extending the service of the ship is also not announced. So far it is clear that traditionally there will be a replacement of boilers.
In 2007, at the price of 120 $ oil, the president declared Russia an “energy superpower”. Following this, representatives of the Ministry of Defense began to make statements that Russia needed to build 6 aircraft carriers, an explanation of the figure of 6 was not given. Apparently, it was believed that if in the US there are 12 aircraft carriers, then we need to have at least half. Then came the crisis, and, despite the fact that Russia was declared an island of stability, the plans to build aircraft carriers disappeared.
At present, paper projects of new aircraft carriers began to appear. The Krylov Center presented a draft of the full-size aircraft carrier Storm, equivalent to American aircraft carriers, but since in addition to developing the aircraft carrier itself, it will be necessary to develop a new DRLO Yak-44 aircraft and build a shipyard of the appropriate size, the price of a single aircraft carrier could significantly exceed $ 10 billion. (In the US, the aircraft carrier "Nimitz" released a series of pieces 10)
Due to the shortage of money, a proposal was made to build a light aircraft carrier with a displacement of 30-40 thousand tons, but it requires the use of short-takeoff and vertical landing aircraft (YAC) Yak-141. Their development was carried out 30 years ago, and it is very difficult to resume it due to the lack of specialists, therefore such a project will not be cheap. In addition, it will be necessary to evaluate their practical reliability - on the previous model Yak-38 many of our pilots died. In addition, the British Ministry of Defense remained dissatisfied with the efficiency of its light aircraft carrier Invincible and its Harrier aircraft. OKB Yakovlev in 90-e tried to develop an improved version of the aircraft KVVP - Yak-201, however, further advance project it did not go and prototypes were not built. Considering the difficulties that the Americans faced in developing their KVVP F-35B, our Ministry of Defense is not in a hurry to finance the Yak-201 program.
A way out of this situation would be the development of an aircraft carrier destroyer. The author developed the concept of such a destroyer with a displacement of 15 thousand tons, which accommodate up to 35 unmanned aircraft weighing 2 tons. These aircraft would provide strikes at a range of 500-600 km. In addition, they could provide aircraft defense. Naturally, they will require the development of specialized radar and guided missiles. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Defense does not consider such projects.
2. Baseline data used to analyze the construction of strike ships
2.1. Ship classification
Currently, there is no consensus among experts regarding the names of ships of various classes. Next, destroyers of the ocean zone will be called the standard displacement of the order of 8 thousand tons, frigates - ships of the order of 4 thousand tons for the near ocean zone, corvettes - ships of the near sea and two hundred-mile sea zone of the order of 2 thousand tons. In cases where the reference is given the full displacement, it exceeds the standard on 15-20%. The cost of the ship's hull is usually less than 30% of the total price. Therefore, the concept proclaimed by the Ministry of Defense, reducing the displacement of the ship while maintaining the full set of weapons, does not provide significant cost savings.
2.2. Propulsion Systems (DU)
For all three types, remote control systems based on gas turbines or diesel engines are used. Diesels have a significantly greater mass, but they are 1,5-2 times more economical than turbines. Therefore, the most promising is the equipment of a ship with a diesel engine of moderate power, giving the ship the opportunity to make long transitions, at not high economic speed. In critical situations, when it is necessary to reach maximum speed, the turbine in the 3-4 of greater power is connected to the diesel engine.
In 2013, Ukraine had to conclude an agreement with the European Union. Therefore, D.O. Rogozin began to make intensive trips to Ukraine and to give promises about the mass purchase of turbines for helicopters and ships, and even promised to restore abandoned Nicholas shipyards and place orders on them. In 2014, after the well-known events, these plans collapsed. As a result, instead of receiving high-quality Ukrainian turbines and diesel engines of the German company NTU, we had to deal with the import substitution of the control of all ships under construction.
The turbines are produced by NPO Saturn, but the nomenclature produced by them is still insufficient to supply all ships. Diesel engines are produced by Kolomna Plant, which has experience in building diesel locomotives. The development of ship diesel engines is now just beginning, and their reliability is inferior to German.
2.3. The use of technology "stealth"
The greatest danger to surface ships is aviation and enemy missiles. Therefore, the stealth technology is essential in providing air defense of the ship. The radar signature of a ship is measured by the area of its effective dispersion surface (EPR), which characterizes the magnitude of the signal reflected from the ship. Ships of previous generations, due to the presence of a large number of external reflecting elements - antennas of various types, gun mounts, as well as the sides of the ship with an inclined outward direction - had an increased EPR. On average, it was believed that the EPR of a destroyer class ship was 3 thousand m2, while the frigate or corvette was 1 thousand m2. When using the stealth technology, all protruding elements are hidden under the flat surfaces of the ship's superstructures. If the radar of an airplane irradiates a large plane from its side, the signal will be reflected from this plane according to the law of specular reflection and will not return to the radar. Therefore, such a radar plane will not see. Reduced EPR significantly reduces the detection range of the ship by aircraft radar. The second advantage of reducing the ship is that the aircraft must detect ships in the background of signals reflected from sea waves. If the ship’s ESR is reduced to 10-30 m2, then it becomes extremely difficult to detect it with sea disturbances of more than 2-3 points. Therefore, modern ships should have an ESR less than these values, that is, the ESR of old Soviet ships should be reduced by tens to hundreds of times.
If the plane approached so close to the ship that it can detect it, despite its inconspicuous nature, then the ship’s further disguise is carried out by radiating interference into the aircraft’s radar station. The interference power should be proportional to the ship's EPR, that is, reducing the EPR by a factor of n will reduce the power of the interference also by a factor of n. This will not only simplify the design of the transmitter of interference, but also reduce the harmful effects of interference on the rest of the ship’s radio systems.
2.4. Information support of the ships
A shipborne radar is able to detect an enemy ship at ranges of no more than 30-40 km. For a more complete overview of the situation using helicopters. The Ka-27 shipboard antisubmarine helicopter available in Russia was developed by the 40 years ago and has a very large mass (11 tons), dimensions and high fuel consumption (1т / h). Therefore, as a rule, only one helicopter is located on the ship. The helicopter survey radar was located in the drum under the nose cone, which made it impossible to install a sufficiently large antenna. In 2000, it was decided to upgrade this radar in order to detect at least large ships at a range of about 200 km. This radar is only now being installed on helicopters and, due to the smallness of the antenna, it can detect air targets, stealth ships and anti-ship missiles very poorly. The short time of airborne duty (3 hours) and the duration of preparation for the new flight does not allow for the organization of the 24-hour Ka-27 duty.
As a result, the Navy is in dire need of developing a new early warning radar detection helicopter. It is possible to propose to develop an unmanned helicopter (UAV) weighing no more than 2 tons, which could provide detection of stealth ships and airplanes at a distance of 200 km, and anti-ship missiles at a distance of 65 km, and ensured the time of duty in the air 6-7 h. However The Defense Ministry is not interested in such proposals.
3. Destroyers build program
The Navy now has a dozen old destroyers aged from 25 to 40 years old, of which 8 are on the move. In modern fleets The destroyer is the main attack ship with a typical displacement of 6-10 thousand tons.
In 2009, the Leader shock destroyer construction program was announced. The project of the first destroyer with a displacement of 9 thousand tons was to be released by 2012 year. However, the design was delayed.
Due to the lack of an appropriate engine for the destroyer "Leader", it was decided to use an atomic remote control from an icebreaker on it. As a result, the displacement of the destroyer from the original 9 thousand tons increased to 17 thousand tons, that is, the destroyer began to approach the displacement of the Peter the Great cruiser. There was no money for the construction of such enormous ships at Minoborny, and now the destroyer has remained only on paper. But even in paper form, the stealth technology is clearly not adequately observed - the rotating radar antennas of obsolete types and the tilt of the sides outwards are preserved. In particular, the radar of the Kortik air defense missile system was developed 40 years ago and, not possessing high characteristics, significantly increases the ship's EPR. In addition, the presence of as many as five types of radar significantly increases the cost of the ship. The author offered options for the development of a unified range of radars, allowing to solve all the tasks of air defense and firing at naval targets, one radar, but this proposal was also ignored by the Ministry of Defense. In the state program of armaments GPV 2018-2027 construction of destroyers is not provided.
4. The program of building frigates
4.1. Frigate 22350 "Admiral Gorshkov"
In 2017, C.K. Shoigu said that we do not need to build large ocean ships, but it is enough to have the 22350 frigates, which will operate in the near-ocean zone. At the same time, it is claimed that the armament of this frigate with a displacement of 4,5 thousand tons is equivalent to the modern destroyer. Indeed, it also has anti-ship missiles, the Poliment-Redut air defense system, a hydroacoustic complex, and torpedo tubes, but all this equipment is inferior to the corresponding equipment of modern destroyers. The “Polyment-Redut” system is a ship version of the outdated C-350 system. At the same time, the “Polyment” radar itself has antennas in the form of four expensive phased arrays fixedly located on the edges of the superstructure. Each antenna sheet has a very large area - on the order of 10 м2. However, the long detection range in this radar can not be reached due to the fact that 3 is selected for it, see the wavelength range. The disadvantage of this range is a strong attenuation of radio waves in the clouds, fog and rain, when the distance to the target is greater than 100-200 km. But the main disadvantage of this radar is that it is not made multifunctional, that is, it is used only for tracking the targets and targeting them to missiles. Detection of air targets is done with the help of the Furke-4 radar with a rotating antenna. The antenna area of this radar is also close to 10 m 2 and requires a powerful drive to rotate. In addition to these air defense radars, the ship is provided with the presence of the “Monument” radar, intended for viewing the water surface and targeting anti-ship missiles, as well as the Puma radar for adjusting artillery firing. The use of four radars shows that they were developed several decades ago, and do not correspond to the level of modern radar. For example, the “Poliment” radar could solve the “Monolith” and “Puma” radar tasks, and if the working wave length is equal to 6 cm, then the “Poliment” radar could replace all the 4 radar. The cost of the four radars installed significantly increases the cost of the ship. As a result, the price of the frigate is not much less than the price of a typical destroyer.
On this frigate there are torpedoes of caliber 324 mm, which are inferior to torpedoes of the main caliber 533 mm in range and speed. Apparently, the general overload of the frigate did not allow the use of heavy torpedoes.
The appearance of the frigate shows that the technology "stealth" is applied on it in an insufficient degree. Consequently, enemy aircraft will be able to detect it, but the number of missile launchers on this frigate is just 32, while on typical destroyers from 64 to 128. In the “Polyment-Redut” system the medium range 9М96 missiles with a range of 50 km are used. Enemy airplanes can launch anti-ship missiles (ASM) from 120-250 km ranges. This frigate will not be able to sustain a large number of enemy aircraft.
In addition to design defects, there are flaws in the installed equipment on the frigate. For example, the “Polyment-Redut” air defense system has not been able to pass state tests for the last five years, which is why the Admiral Gorshkov, founded in 2006, has not yet been incorporated into the fleet. During trial operation there was a serious breakdown of the diesel of the Kolomna plant, which is now undergoing major repairs.
As a result, the ship turned out to be expensive, and its fighting qualities are not high. Cruising range - 4 thousand miles is ensured only on a very slow economical course - 14 nodes. Displacement 4.5 thousand tons, in conditions of overloaded weapons, does not allow for the crew to create the same amenities as on destroyers. A heaving during ocean storms impairs the crew’s work and equipment’s accuracy. As a result, we conclude that the ship, which is declared the main strike ship of the Russian Navy, does not meet the current level. The high cost of the ship led to the fact that, despite the fact that the 2011-20 HPV provided for the construction of 8 frigates of this series, in the 2016 year it was announced that before the 2025, only 4 units would be built.
4.2. Cheaper frigates of the 11356 "Admiral Makarov" project
Simultaneously with the frigate "Admiral Gorshkov" it was decided to build the 6 considerably cheaper frigates of the 11356 project "Admiral Makarov with a displacement of 3.6 ths. Tons. This project is an upgrade of frigates developed in the 90-s for the Indian Navy. The frigate 11356 is intended for the Black Sea Fleet and the display of the flag in the Mediterranean. Its combat capabilities are substantially less than those of Admiral Gorshkov. Therefore, this frigate will be able to demonstrate the flag next to the NATO bases only under the cover of any destroyers. The frigate used the “Shtil-1” air defense missile system, in which the ship’s version of the Buk complex was used, but the missile guidance radar present in the Buk missile system was not introduced into the Shtil-1 air defense system, apparently because of savings . As a result, the target designation ZURAM comes from the surveillance radar "Frigate-M2EM". The accuracy of target designation provided by this radar is significantly lower than that of the radar aimed at the missile system of the Buk air defense missile system; moreover, there will be nothing to make command correction of the missile defense system during the flight. Thus, in the “Shtil-1” air defense missile system, the SAM should itself be aimed at the target using its own semi-active homing head from the moment of launch. The illumination of the target is made by a special antenna installed on the ship. This method of guidance gives good results only when firing a single target. The semi-active method has a significant drawback - the SAM measures angles at the target, but does not measure the target range. When targeting, for example, a pair of targets flying at the same speed, the missile system is aimed at one of them that has a large EPR. In the course of the flight, the EPR of the targets is constantly changing (fluctuating) and the SAM can be re-targeted from one target to another, which can lead to the loss of tracking. The worst case occurs when the long-range goal has an ESR that is much larger than the nearest one. In this case, the missile will go to a big goal. For example, if the illumination beam accidentally hits a passenger plane, the missile defense system will change its focus. This happened with the Ukrainian C-200, shot down the Tu-154, and with the Malaysian Boeing is not all clear. The emergence of stealth aircraft will make it almost impossible to capture their self-guided missiles at the Zur because of the small size of their antennas. Consequently, aircraft of the F-35 type can be intercepted at ranges of no more than 10-15 km. That is, the guidance characteristics of the Shtil-1 air defense system will turn out to be significantly worse than the Buk air defense system.
A simplified hydroacoustic station was installed on this frigate, which will not allow it to detect the latest diesel submarines of NATO countries.
The first three frigates were received by the Ukrainian control units consisting of one economically driven turbine and one full-speed turbine, and for the next three, there are no remote control units now. Therefore, we decided to use two turbines of the same Russian-made average power instead of Ukrainian control centers. As a result, the efficiency of the remote control will significantly decrease. As a result, we find that the frigate, though turned out to be cheaper, but its quality fell proportionally. As a consolation, you can add that all six frigates planned for LG 2011-2020 will be built before the end of this program.
5. Corvette Building Program
To protect the coastal zone is required to have a large number of light and cheap ships. In the Russian Navy, 29 of obsolete ships of this type remained. Under the HPV 2011-2020, the construction of 35 corvettes was envisaged. To date, the 5 corvettes of the 20380 “Stereguschy” project have been put into operation with a displacement of 1.8 thousand tons. It is equipped with 8 anti-ship subsonic X-35 cruise missiles. The air defense system is provided by the Redut air defense system, but, just like the 11356 frigate, there is no radar for guided missiles. The missiles are given target designation from the surveillance radar "Furke-2". The missiles have an active homing vessel, but since the diameter of the missile shield housing is only 240 mm, the homing antenna turns out to be even smaller. Therefore, the target detection range is not very large, and the missile defense system must be brought to the target with good accuracy. This accuracy radar provides only non-maneuvering target. Even worse, the active GOS ZUR will detect stealth aircraft. The advantages of the ZRR “Redut” missile defense system in front of the “Shtil-1” air defense missile system will be the ability to distinguish a group target, as well as a smaller mass of the missile attack. Anti-submarine armament: despite the presence of a modern acoustic station Zarya, small torpedoes with a diameter of 324 mm are mounted on it, that is, the range of destruction of submarines will not be great.
The greatest disadvantage of the corvette is non-compliance with the technology "stealth". The presence of multiple antennas and an additional mast leads to the fact that the ship's ESR, compared with the ships of the Soviet projects, is reduced by only 3 times, which is unacceptably small.
The ship has a total of 12 launchers of missiles, so that alone a pair of aircraft can withstand the attack is difficult.
The first five corvettes managed to equip the diesel engine control unit of the German company NTU, five more corvettes were laid, but they already had to install diesel engines of the Kolomna plant, reconciled with their low reliability. Despite the shortcomings of this project, its developers were presented with state awards. To eliminate the identified deficiencies, the construction of the modernized project 20385 "Loud" began. Work was carried out to reduce the ship's EPR - the rear mast was eliminated and the number of protruding antennas was reduced. However, until the full implementation of the technology "stealth" is still far away. The X-35 anti-ship missiles were replaced with “Caliber-NK”, and the number of missile launcher containers was increased to 16. The cost of the ship also increased, which led to the limitation of the 20385 series to two pieces.
In 2016, it was decided to lay an even more modernized corvette of the 20386 project “Daring”. This time, the Ministry of Defense decided to classify its parameters from annoying Internet commentators, and the most controversial rumors circulate about it. Therefore, to make some opinion about him prematurely.
6. About the place of the Russian Navy in the world
At present, the question of the first place is not even being discussed, it is easier to say that the US Navy is superior to all the other Navy of the world in terms of quality and quantity, and, by the amount, tripled. Destroyer "Zamvolt" knowingly received the name "super destroyer." It perfectly fulfilled the requirements of technology "stealth". Removed all protruding antennas, artillery barrels and sides are made with a slope inward.
The newest radar with AFAR ZRK Indzhis provides air defense and missile defense. Two 155 mm caliber gun mounts have a wide range of projectiles from conventional to active jet with a range of 110 km. Information support is supported by a conventional helicopter and three helicopter UAVs. The main disadvantage of Zamvolt is the high price - $ 4 billion.
The real struggle takes place only in second place. Our main foreign customer, thanks to which, our shipbuilding did not perish in 90-s - China, has by now produced import substitution, and has refused from our ships. According to the total number of ships of the Chinese Navy significantly surpassed the Russian Navy. In terms of the quality of the ships, both fleets were approximately equal. China is completing the construction of a series of 13 medium-sized destroyers 052D with a standard displacement of 6 thousand tons. In terms of equipment, this destroyer resembles our frigate “Admiral Gorshkov”, but in terms of the total number of launchers - 128, it is far superior. In addition, the head heavy destroyer of a new series of 16 units, type 055, standard displacement, 10, thousand tons, was launched. This destroyer has already observed the stealth technology similar to the destroyer Zamvolt, except for the fact that the tilt of the sides has remained traditional. All destroyers are equipped with modern radars with active phased arrays, in which they, too, are superior to our ships. In 2017, the first aircraft carrier of Chinese construction, similar to our Admiral Kuznetsov, was launched, and there are plans to build more modern aircraft carriers with 5-6. Consequently, the question of second place in the world is also already resolved.
We were able to reach the third place in quantity, but not in quality. The famous purchase of two French Mistral is proof of this. They were bought in order to adopt advanced technologies. With a displacement of more than 20 thous. Tons, it is serviced by the crew of 160 people. The technical advantages include turning screws and a screw in the keel, which provide high maneuverability. Its cost is $ 0,5 billion, also less than the expected price of the Russian equivalent when it is created.
7. Proposed measures to improve competitiveness
It is necessary to develop methods that can significantly improve the efficiency of ships, but are not currently used on enemy ships.
• It is necessary to reduce the number of types of ships - to restore the production of destroyers of the ocean zone and abandon frigates.
• Develop a unified range of multi-function radar for ships of all types. Each of these radars should solve all the problems of air defense. For which it is proposed to use radars with AFAR operating in the 5-6 wavelength range, see.
• To improve the efficiency of the ships due to the joint processing of signals from the radar systems of the group of ships. To do this, it is necessary to develop a standard for ultra-high-speed communications between ships of the group using active phased arrays of radars. Hydroacoustic complexes will unite in the same way.
• Development of standards for covert transmission of information between ships while observing the general radio silence mode.
• Develop methods for suppressing radar heads of anti-ship missiles by sharing the EW group complexes.
• Development of DRLO UAV and UAV jammers.
• Develop a set of active-reactive and gas-generating projectiles for the main gunship destroyers.
• Development of methods for protection against enemy large-caliber projectiles.
I would like to carry out other work, but five years ago the financing of defense NIIR was reduced several times.
8. findings
An attempt to analyze the current state of shipbuilding in Russia leads to sad conclusions. Financing of surface shipbuilding is clearly not enough, so when some group manages to break through the design of their ship, then the appearance of this ship is determined according to the principle “not to be fat - I wish I could live.” After testing the first samples, the result, as a rule, remains unhappy. Starts upgrading the project. As a result, the number of types increases, and the series are very short, with a corresponding increase in the cost of ships and their operation.
Import substitution also plays a cruel joke with us. NATO design offices can choose any remote control, any manufacturer, up to the Chinese. The same is true of electronic components. In Russia, we have to develop everything ourselves. As a result, development time and cost increase significantly. To increase the seriality of the project could be due to export deliveries, but the traditional buyers of our ships - China and India, significantly reduced purchases. Consequently, it is possible to improve the situation in shipbuilding only by increasing the competitiveness of our ships, which requires applying a systematic approach and reducing the number of types. Unfortunately, all of the above our ships are not leaders in their classes. All attempts to send proposals to the Ministry of Defense to improve the quality of ships remain unanswered. Apparently, once allocated funding can not be canceled. The duration of the programmed funding period (10 years) leads to the fact that the new proposals by the time they begin their implementation are outdated.
The number of ships in the Russian Navy more than tripled compared with the times of the USSR. The newly introduced ships are only enough to compensate for the outgoing old ones, that is, the total number does not increase. The HPN 2011-20 program will obviously be executed on less than 50%.
In contrast to Russia, there is a major destroyer, Orly Burke, in the United States, released in more than 70 series. It is intended to continue production to more than 100 pieces. To oppose with this destroyer our four frigates “Admiral Gorshkov” is senseless. There are no frigates in the USA at all.
Almost 60 years ago N.S. Khrushchev said that the USSR bakes rockets like sausages. However, on the sly, they stopped the development of the Navy and even cut some ships on the stocks. According to the Chinese "Book of Changes" cycle stories repeated every 60 years. We wait.
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