Anti-submarine defense: ships against submarines. Hydroacoustics
There is an opinion that surface ships are extremely vulnerable against submarines. This is not entirely true. Moreover, although in modern warfare at sea, submarines are mainly supposed to destroy surface ships, in the past, when naval confrontation was reduced to fighting surface fleet with the underwater, surface fleet won. And the key success factor in all cases was sonar detection of submarines.
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Early in the morning of September 22, 1914, three British armored cruisers of the Kressi type patrolled at sea near the port of Hook Van Holland on the coast of the Netherlands. The ships moved along the front line in a 10-nodal course, in a straight line, maintaining a distance of 2 miles from one ship to another, going without anti-submarine zigzags.
At 6.25, a powerful explosion occurred on the port side of the cruiser “Abukir”. The ship lost speed, steam engines on board (for example, winches for launching lifeboats) were disconnected. After some time, a signal was raised on a sinking ship forbidding other ships from approaching it, but the commander of the second cruiser, the Hog, ignored him and rushed to save his comrades. For a moment, the Hoga sailors saw a German submarine in the distance, which surfaced after the torpedo was shot due to its sharply reduced weight, but disappeared into the water right there.
At 6.55, a powerful explosion was also heard on the port side of the Hog. Immediately after him another thing happened - detonated part of the ammunition of 234 mm artillery shells on board. The ship began to sink and after 10 minutes it sank. By this moment, “Abukir” has already sunk.
The third cruiser "Cressi" went to the rescue of drowning sailors from the other side. A periscope of a German submarine was observed from its side and opened fire on it. The British even thought that they had sunk it. But at 7.20 on the side of the "Cressi" also occurred a powerful explosion. The ship after him, however, remained afloat, and at 7.35 he was finished off by the last torpedo.
All three cruisers were sunk by a German U-9 submarine under the command of Capt. Lieutenant Otto Veddigen. The old submarine, built in 1910, which had extremely modest characteristics for 1914 and only four torpedoes sent to the bottom three even outdated, but still quite combat-ready ships in less than an hour and a half and left intact.
So in the world began the era of submarine warfare. Until this day, submarines were considered by many naval commanders as a kind of circus on the water. After - no longer, and now this "no longer" was forever. Soon, Germany will go on to unlimited underwater warfare, and its submarines will continue to be used against Entente surface ships, sometimes with deadly effects, such as U-26, which drowned the Russian cruiser Pallada in the Baltic, on which the entire crew died in detonation of ammunition in 598 human.
About a couple of years before the end of the war, engineers in the Entente began to approach submarine detection tools. At the end of May 1916, the inventors Shilovsky and Langevin filed a joint application in Paris for “a device for remote detection of underwater obstacles”. In parallel, similar work (under the conditional code ASDIC) in an atmosphere of deep secrecy was carried out in the UK under the leadership of Robert Boyle and Albert Wood. But the first sonar type ASDIC Type 112 entered service with the British Navy after the war.
After successful tests in 1919, in 1920, this model of sonar gets into series. Several advanced instruments of this type were the main means of detecting submarines during World War II. It was they who "took out" the battles of escort ships against German submarines.
In 1940, the British transferred their technology to the Americans, who themselves had a serious program of acoustic research, and soon sonar equipment appeared on American warships.
The Allies passed the Second World War with precisely such sonar.
The first post-war generation of sonar equipment
The main direction of the development of hydroacoustic stations in the first post-war years of surface ships was the integration with weapons (fire control systems of deep jet bombs and torpedoes), with a slight increase in performance from the level achieved during the Second World War (for example, SAS SQS-4 on destroyers Forest Sherman ").
A sharp increase in the characteristics of ASGs required a large amount of research and development work (R&D) that had been intensively going on since the 50s, but in serial models of ASGs were already implemented on ships of the second generation (commissioned from the beginning of the 60s) .
It should be noted that the GAS of this generation were high-frequency and made it possible to efficiently search for submarines (within their characteristics), including in shallow water, or even lying on the ground.
In the USSR at that time both promising R&D and active development of the Anglo-American and German experience and scientific and technical groundwork of the Second World War were going on for the creation of domestic GAS of the first post-war generation of ships, and the result was quite worthy of work.
In 1953, the Taganrog Plant, now known as “Surf”, and then just “Mailbox No. 32”, released the first full-fledged GAS “Tamir-11”. According to its performance characteristics, it corresponded to the best examples of Western technology at the end of World War II.
In 1957, the Hercules Hercules was adopted, which was installed on ships of various projects, which by its characteristics was already comparable to the American SAS SQS-4.
Of course, the effectiveness of the use of ASGs in difficult marine environments directly depended on the training of personnel, and experience has shown that in capable hands ships with such ASUs could effectively counteract even the latest nuclear submarines.
As an illustration of the capabilities of the GAS of the first post-war generation, we give an example of one pursuit of an American submarine by Soviet ships
From the article cap. 2 ranks Yu.V. Kudryavtseva, commander of the 114th brigade of ships OVR and cap. 3 ranks of AM Sumenkov, commander of the 117th PLO Division of the 114th OVR Brigade:
To evade the ships, the boat 45 times changed its speed from 2 to 15 knots, turned 23 times by an angle of more than 60 °, described four complete circulations and three circuits of the G11 type. released 6 movable and 11 stationary simulators, 13 gas curtains, 11 times created sighting interference with ship sonars with light from records. During the persecution, the operation of the UZPS means and the operation of the GAS boat in active mode were noted three times. It was not possible to precisely note the changes in the depth of immersion, since the ships chasing it were equipped with the GAS Tamir-11 and MG-XNUMX without a vertical path, but judging by an indirect sign - the range of reliable contact - the travel depth also varied widely .
The whole article with the schemes of pursuit, combat maneuvering and building a warrant PLO here, highly recommended to all interested in the subject.
It is worth paying attention to this: the article describes how an American submarine repeatedly tried to hide from pursuit with the help of a gas curtain, but even then it failed. Nevertheless, it is worth focusing on this - gas curtains were an effective means of evading the first generation GAS. The high-frequency signal with all its advantages did not give a clear picture when working “through” the veil. The same applies to the situation when the boat intensively mixes the water with sharp maneuvers. In this case, even if the CEO detects it, then apply weapon according to her data, it doesn’t work: the curtain, whatever it is, prevents the determination of the elements of the target’s movement - speed and course. And often the boat was just lost. An example of such evasion is well described in the memoirs of Admiral A.N. Lutsky:
We came to the area. Four IPCs are already in the area, waiting. We approached the “voice” communication, stipulated the conditions. IPC retreated to 5 cables, surrounded on all sides. Now, hell, we agreed that they would move by 10 kb! Yes, okay ... Let's see how to digest the homemade. In the central post, a set of IPs (hydroreactive imitation cartridges - ed.) And something else was prepared for production ...
- combat alert! Stand in places to dive! Both motors forward middle! Below, how much under the keel?
- The bridge, under the keel 130 meters.
- The IPC launched, turned on the sonar, accompanied by hell ...
- All down! Urgent immersion! ... The upper hatchway hatched up! Boatswain, dive to a depth of 90 meters, trim 10 degrees deposited!
At a depth of 10 meters:
- Starpom, VIPS (launcher for jamming devices - ed.) - Pli! Put IPs with full rate of fire! At a depth of 25 meters:
- Blow fast to the bubble! The right to board! Right motor back middle! Boatswain, complete circulation with the motors "rip" on the course ...!
So, stirring up water from the surface almost to the ground, lay on a course along the underwater hollow into the far corner of the BP area. Under a keel of 10 m, the stroke with one engine is “the smallest”. The squeak of sonars remained behind the stern at the dive point, as they moved away, it became quieter, quieter and quieter ...
The IPCs were spinning at the point of our dive, probably for almost an hour, then they were built into the front line and began the systematic combing of the area. We, clinging to the ground, maneuvered along the far edge of the area. Four hours later, they never reached us.
...
Came to the base. I report to the brigade commander, but he is already in the know.
- What did you throw there again?
- A bunch of IPs.
- ...?
- Well, the maneuver, of course.
In the next generation of GAS, the problem of gas curtains was solved.
Second postwar generation
A key feature of the second post-war generation of GAS was the emergence and active use of new powerful low-frequency GAS, with a sharply (an order of magnitude) increased detection range (in the United States it was SQS-23 and SQS-26). Low-frequency GAS were insensitive to gas curtains and had a much longer detection range.
To search for submarines under the jump in the United States, the towed mid-frequency (13KHz) GAS (BUGAS) SQS-35 was developed.
At the same time, the high technological level allowed the United States to create low-frequency GAS, suitable for placement on ships of even medium displacement, while the Soviet counterpart SQS-26, GAS MG-342 "Orion" anti-submarine cruisers of project 1123 and 1143 had a huge mass and dimensions ( only the telescopic retractable antenna had dimensions 21 × 6,5 × 9 meters) and could not be installed on ships of the SKR - BOD class.
For this reason, on ships of smaller displacement (including the BOD of project 1134A and B, which had an “almost cruising” displacement), a smaller mid-frequency GAS “Titan-2” (with a range significantly less than its American counterparts) and towed GAS MG were installed -325 Vega (at the level of SQS-35).
Later, to replace the GAS "Titan-2", the hydroacoustic complex (SAC) MGK-335 "Platinum" was developed in its entirety, which had a telescoping and towed antenna.
New sonar stations dramatically expanded the anti-submarine capabilities of surface ships, and in the early sixties of the last century, Soviet submariners had to fully test their effectiveness on themselves.
Let us cite as an example an excerpt from the story of Vice Admiral A.T. Shtyrov, "It is ordered to observe radio silence," about an attempt by a diesel-electric submarine of the USSR Navy to go the distance of using weapons on an American aircraft carrier. The described events date back to the mid-sixties and took place in the South China Sea:
- The instruction developed by the squadron regulates: to evade divergence at a distance of at least 60 cable. I can detect the noise of the propellers of my ship's ShPS (noise-finding station) at a distance of about 60 cable ones too. Therefore, having discovered the operation of low-frequency GAS, I must assume that I myself have already been detected by the enemy. How to get out of this situation, the situation will tell.
- And how will you keep track of the main objects, being inside the warrant ship warrant?
Neulib did not know how to carry out such a task, having noise direction finders with a range shorter than the "lighting zones" of low-frequency sonars of aircraft carrier protection ships. He silently shrugged: "This is called - and eat the fish, and do not sit on the hook."
However, he guessed: a comrade from the headquarters of the fleet, a probable creator of the combat order, does not know this himself either.
But that was the time when it was fashionable to “set tasks” without thinking about the possibilities of their implementation. According to the formula: "What does it mean I can’t when the party ordered ?!"
...
By the end of the seventh night, Sinitsa, the commander of the OCHNAZ group of rumors, had climbed the bridge and reported:
- Decoding, Comrade Commander. The Ticonderoga carrier group arrived in the Charlie area ...
- Well! Let's get closer.
If Neulyba could have foreseen what it would cost him, this invigorating lightweight is “excellent”.
...
- The sector on the left is ten - on the left sixty there are three sonars. Signals are amplified! The interval of parcels is a minute, periodically go to the interval of 15 seconds. Noises are not audible.
- combat alert! Dive to a depth of thirty meters. Record in the logbook - they began rapprochement with the forces of the AUG (carrier-strike group) for reconnaissance.
- Sonar signals are amplified quickly! Goal Number Four, Sonar Right Sixty!
“Oooo-oo-oo-oo! Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo!” Powerful low-tone packages were now tapped to the chassis.
Neulyba's cunning plan - to slip along the security forces to the alleged place of the aircraft carrier - turned out to be ridiculous: after half an hour the boat was tightly blocked by ships on all sides of the horizon.
Maneuvering abrupt changes in course, speed throws from small to full, the boat went to a depth of 150 meters. There was a meager "reserve" of depth - twenty meters.
Alas! Isothermal over the entire range of depths did not impede the operation of sonar. The blows of powerful packages hit the body, like sledgehammers. The "gas clouds" created by the carbon dioxide cartridges fired by the boat seemed to be a little embarrassed by the Yankees.
The boat darted, striving with sharp throws to get away from the nearest ships, whose clearly visible noises were now slipping in unpleasant proximity. The ocean raged ...
Neulib and Whisper did not know (this was realized much later) that the tactics of "evasion - separation - breakthrough" available to them, nurtured by post-war instructions and tortoise speeds, are hopelessly outdated and powerless in front of the latest technique of the "damned imperialists" ....
Admiral I.M. gives another example in his book. Captain:
... set the task: to ensure the immersion of two submarines; forces were determined for this - three surface ships and a floating base.
The first submarine, which was tracked by a Forrest Sherman type destroyer when it counteracted our floating base and patrol ship, managed to come off after 6 hours. The second pl, which was watched by the frigate Friend Knox, tried to tear itself away for 8 hours and, having discharged the battery, surfaced.
Hydrology was the first type favorable for podcast sonar stations. Nevertheless, we hoped with two ships against one US ship to push it back, make tracking difficult, and planned to interfere with the hydroacoustic stations by resetting the regeneration.
...
according to the actions of the patrol ship, we realized that it maintains contact with the submarine at a distance of more than 100 cable ... GAS AN / SQS-26 had ... a detection range of up to 300 cable.
... intense resistance within 8 hours did not produce results; the submarine, having consumed the energy of the battery, surfaced again.
We were no longer able to oppose the new sonar station, and we had to go to the Navy CP with a proposal to send a detachment of ships on a planned official visit to Morocco, in which a submarine will also take part.
These examples are formally contradictory: the instructions of the submarine Pacific Fleet brigade indicate the detection range of new low-frequency GAS US Navy about 60 cabs, and the Captain (up to 300 cabs). In reality, everything depends on the conditions, and primarily hydrology.
Water is an extremely difficult medium for the work of search tools, and even the most effective means of search in it - the acoustic environmental conditions influence very strongly. Therefore, it makes sense to at least briefly touch on this issue.
In the Russian Navy, it was decided to distinguish 7 main types of hydrology (with many of their subtypes).
Type 1. Positive gradient of sound speed. There is usually in the cold season.
Type 2. The positive gradient of the speed of sound changes to negative at depths of the order of tens of meters, which takes place when there is a sharp cooling of the surface or near-surface layer. At the same time, below the “jump layer” (“fracture” of the gradient), a “shadow zone” is formed for the sap liners.
Type 3. The positive gradient changes to negative, and then again to positive, which is typical for the deep-sea regions of the oceans in winter or autumn.
Type 4. The gradient changes from positive to negative twice. Such a distribution can be observed in shallow areas of the ocean, shallow sea, and shelf zone.
Type 5. A decrease in the speed of sound with depth, which is typical for shallow areas in the summer. In this case, an extensive “shadow zone” is formed at shallow depths and a relatively small distance.
Type 6. The negative sign of the gradient changes to positive. This type of VSWR occurs in almost all deep-sea areas of the oceans.
Type 7. The negative gradient changes to positive, and then again to negative. This is possible in shallow sea areas.
Particularly difficult conditions for the propagation of sound and the operation of the GAS take place in shallow areas.
The reality of the detection range of low-frequency GAS strongly depended on hydrology, and on average were close to the previously mentioned 60 cabs (with the possibility of a significant increase in favorable hydrological conditions). It should be noted that these ranges were well balanced with the range of the main anti-submarine means of the US Navy - Asrok anti-submarine missile system (SLCM).
At the same time, the analog low-frequency sonars of the second post-war generation of ships had insufficient noise immunity (which in some cases our submariners successfully used) and had significant limitations when working at shallow depths.
Considering this factor, the previous generation of high-frequency GAS was preserved and was widely represented in the fleets of both the USA and NATO, and the Soviet Navy. Moreover, in a sense, the “revival” of high-frequency anti-submarine ASGs has already occurred at a new technological level - for air carriers - helicopters of ships.
The US Navy was the first here, and Soviet submariners quickly appreciated the seriousness of the new threat.
In the USSR, for the Ka-25 anti-submarine helicopter, the omitted GAS (OGAS) VGS-2 "Oka" was developed, which, despite its simplicity, compactness and cheapness, turned out to be a very effective search tool.
The small mass of the Oka made it possible not only to provide a very good search tool for our helicopter pilots, but also to massively equip the Navy ships (especially those operating in areas with complex hydrology) of the OGAS. The HCV-2 was also widely used on border ships.
Of course, the lack of OGAS in the ship version was the ability to search only on the foot. However, for the weapons of submarines of that time, the ship at the foot was a very difficult target. In addition, anti-submarine ships were usually used as part of ship search and strike groups (KPUG), had systems of group attacks and data exchange on detected submarines.
An interesting episode on the use of the Oka OGAS with actual performance characteristics is much higher than the established ones (and under the difficult conditions of the Baltic Sea) is contained in the memoirs of cap. 1 rank of V. V. Dugints. "Ship fanagoria":
...
The tension grew every day, not only on ships, but also on the CP KP of the commanders of bases and the entire BF. Everyone was anxiously awaiting the results of this protracted duel of submariners and anti-submariners. By noon on May 31, MPK-27 found contact, joyfully reported it, however, by all indications it turned out to be an underwater boulder or rock.
... when searching, they used the innovative 'double-scale' technique or, more simply, 'work through sending', which increases the range of the station. This trick was developed by our divisional acoustics midshipman Alisov A. It consisted in the fact that while the first impulse of sending the generator went into the water, the next next sending was manually turned off and as a result it turned out that this first impulse passed and listened to twice the distance scale.
... on the indicator quite unexpectedly appeared a blurry burst of sweep at the maximum distance, which after a few parcels formed into a real mark from the target.
- Echo-bearing 35, distance 52 cable. I suppose contact with a submarine. The echo tone is above the reverb tone!
... the usual silence and monotonous boredom of a search on a ship instantly exploded on the ramps and deck of the ship. ...
... the acoustics kept contact for 30 minutes, during which time Slynko transmitted the data to the division commander, and brought to the target two IPCs that took contact and attacked the submarine.
Working from the stop allowed us to take into account the conditions of hydrology as much as possible, literally "select all the possibilities" for the search for submarines. For this reason, the powerful OGAS “Shelon” IPC of project 1124, for example, from the history of MPK-117 (Pacific Fleet): 1974 - when practicing the tasks of detecting a pl, he set a division record. GAS MG-339 Shelon discovered and held the boat within a radius of 25,5 miles; 26.04.1974/1/50 - monitored a foreign square Contact time was 00.02.1975 hour. 2 minutes (according to intelligence by the U.S. Navy apl); 10/XNUMX/XNUMX - monitored a foreign square Contact time was XNUMX hours. XNUMX minutes.
At the end of the seventies, a new technological leap was outlined in hydroacoustics.
Third post-war generation
The key feature of the third post-war generation of GAS was the emergence and active use of digital processing in GAS and the massive introduction of GAS with a long-distance towed antenna in the Navy of foreign countries - GPBA.
Digital processing dramatically increased the noise immunity of the GAS and made it possible to efficiently operate low-frequency sonars in difficult conditions and in areas with shallow depths. However, the main in the guise of the western anti-submarine ships became flexible extended towed antennas (GPBA).
Low frequencies in water propagate over extremely long distances, theoretically giving the possibility of detecting submarines at very large distances. In practice, the main obstacle to this was the high level of background noise of the ocean at the same frequencies, respectively, for the implementation of long detection ranges, it was necessary to have separate (in frequency) “peak” emissions of acoustic energy from the submarine's noise spectrum (discrete components - DS), and appropriate means of processing information anti-submarine, allowing you to "pull" these DS "from under the interference", and working with them to obtain the desired long range detection.
In addition, working with low frequencies required the size of antennas that went beyond the possibilities of placement on the ship's hull. So GAS with GPBA appeared.
The presence of a large number of characteristic “discrete” (discrete noise signals, that is, noises clearly audible at certain frequencies) in Soviet submarines of the 1st and 2nd generations (not only atomic, but also diesel (!) Ensured the high efficiency of GAS with GPBA. to the least, they retained effectiveness on already well-noiseed boats of 3 generations when solving the problem of anti-submarine defense of convoys and warship units (especially when moving our submarines at higher speeds).
To ensure maximum ranges and optimal detection conditions, the GPA sought to penetrate into the underwater sound channel (PZK).
Taking into account the peculiarities of sound propagation in the presence of a slam-shut device, the detection zone of the GPA was a few “rings” of the lighting and shadow zones.
The requirement to “catch up with and overtake” the USA according to the GAS for surface ships was embodied in our SAC MGK-355 Polynom (with a winged, towed antenna and for the first time in the world (!) - a really working path for detecting torpedoes, ensuring their subsequent destruction). The backlog of the USSR in electronics did not allow creating a fully digital complex in the 70s of the last century, Polynom was analog with secondary digital processing. However, despite its size and weight, it ensured the creation of highly effective anti-submarine ships of Project 1155.
Vivid memories of the use of the Polynom complex were left by hydroacoustics with the BPC Admiral Vinogradov:
"Polynomial". Powerful but ancient analogue station.
I don’t know what state the Polynomials are in now, but about 23-24 years ago it was quite possible to passively classify surface targets located 15-20 km away, that is, outside visual control.
If there is a go-ahead to work in the active, always try to work in it. The active is more interesting. With different ranges and power. Surface targets, depending on hydrology, in active mode are also well caught.
Here we somehow stood for ourselves in the center of the Strait of Hormuz, and it has a width of 60 km with something. So the “Polynomushka” whistled all of it. The minus of the strait is that it is shallow, 30 meters in total, and a bunch of signal reflections accumulated. Those. quietly along the coast you could sneak unnoticed, probably. In the Baltic, diesel was kept at 34 km from a towed station. Perhaps, the BOD of project 1155 has a chance to use the Trumpet to its full range on its own control unit.
According to the direct participant in the events, who was then the cap "Vinogradov" V. Chernyavsky
Then the amers, English, French and ours conducted joint teachings in Persian (the beginning was like in a joke). .. went on to catch underwater objects.
The amers had a couple of simulators (the cap persistently called them “interference”) with a programmable driving route.
"The first one went." At first, while the “noise” was spinning nearby, everyone maintained contact. Well, for the Polynomial, a distance of up to 15 km is generally considered a close search. Then the “hindrance” went away and from the collective of those who saw, the paddling pools with the Saxons began to fall off. The amers fell off, and the whole western crowd could only listen to our reports on the distance, bearing, course and speed of the “interference”. Chernyavsky said, at first, probable allies did not really believe in what was happening and asked again, such as "rial stable contact, or not rally."
Meanwhile, the distance to the interference exceeded 20 km. In order not to be bored, amers launched a second simulator. The oil painting repeated. At first, the animation was revived while the noise was spinning nearby (the whole simulator continued to keep ours) and then the silence broken by the reports from Vinik: “the first“ interference ”is there, the second is there.”
It turned out to be a real embarrassment, given that ours, unlike not ours, was what to hammer at the target at such a distance (PLUR shoots at 50 km). According to the cap, the data on the maneuvering of the simulators taken from the “bodies” and “tracing-paper” removed from the water from “Vinika” completely coincided.
Separately, it is necessary to dwell on the problem of developing GPBA in the USSR. Relevant R&D was started back in the late 60s, almost simultaneously with the United States.
However, the significantly worse technological capabilities and a sharp decrease in the noise level (and DS) of underwater targets, which were clearly identified from the late 70s of the last century, did not allow the creation of an effective GPA for NKs until the early 90s.
The first prototype of Centaur State Joint-Stock Company with GPBA was deployed aboard the GS-31 test vessel of the Northern Fleet.
From the memoirs of his commander:
...
in order to draw up a “portrait” of the newest American submarine such as Sea Wolf - Connecticut, which made its first trip to the shores of Russia, I had to directly violate the Combat Order and meet it at the very edge of the tervodes, where specialists from “science” copied it far and wide ...
And in the mid-80s, R&D was completed on fully digital HAC for ships - a series (from small to largest ships) of Zvezda.
Fourth generation. After the cold war
The decrease in the noise of submarines built in the 80s led to a sharp decrease in ranges and the possibility of their detection by passive GPA, which led to the logical idea: to “highlight” the water area and targets with a low-frequency emitter (LFR) and not only to preserve the effectiveness of passive search means for submarines (GPBA ships) , Russian State Aviation Safety Aviation), but also significantly increase their capabilities (especially when working in difficult conditions).
Corresponding R&D was started in Western countries at the end of the 80s of the last century, while their important feature was the initial bet on ensuring the operation of various GAS (including ships and RSLA aviation) in multi-position mode, in the form of a “single search systems. "
Domestic experts have formed views on what such systems should be. From the work of Yu.A. Koryakina, S.A. Smirnova and G.V. Yakovleva "Ship hydroacoustic equipment":
1. Active HAS with GPAA can provide a significant increase in the effectiveness of submarines in shallow water areas with complex hydrological and acoustic conditions.
2. GAS should be easily accommodated on small warships and civilian ships involved in anti-aircraft missions without a significant change in ship design. At the same time, the area occupied by UHPV (storage device, setting and retrieving GPBA - auth.) On the deck of the ship should not exceed several square meters, and the total weight of UHPV together with the antenna should not exceed several tons.
3. The operation of the GAS should be provided both in stand-alone mode and as part of a multistatic system.
4. The detection range of submarines and the determination of their coordinates should be provided in the deep sea at distances of the 1st DZAO (the far zone of acoustic illumination, up to 65 km) and in the shallow sea under continuous acoustic illumination - up to 20 km.
To implement these requirements, the creation of a compact low-frequency emitting module is of paramount importance. When linking a towed body, the goal is always to reduce drag. Modern research and development of low-frequency towed emitters go in different directions. Three of them can be distinguished of practical interest.
The first option involves the creation of a radiating module in the form of a system of emitters forming a three-dimensional antenna array, which is located in a streamlined towed body. An example is the arrangement of emitters in the LFATS system of L-3 Communications, USA. The LFATS antenna array consists of 16 radiators distributed over 4 floors, the pitch between the radiators is λ / 4 in the horizontal plane and λ / 2 in the vertical plane. The presence of such a bulk antenna array allows you to give a radiating antenna, which helps to increase the range of the system.
In the second version, omnidirectional powerful emitters (one, two or more) are used, as is implemented in the domestic GAS Vignette-EM and some foreign GAS.
In the third embodiment, the radiating antenna is made in the form of a linear array of longitudinally-bending radiators, for example, of the Diabo1o type. Such a radiating antenna is a flexible garland consisting of small cylindrical elements of very small diameter, which are connected by a cable. Due to its flexibility and small diameter, the antenna, consisting of EAL (electroacoustic transducers - ed.) Type “Diabolo”, is wound on the same winch drum as the tow cable and GPBA. This allows you to significantly simplify the design of UHPV, reduce its weight and dimensions and abandon the use of a complex and bulky manipulator.
Complete set and ratio of ranges of detection of elements of shipboard GAS of ATLASELEKTRONIK firm[/ Center]
In the Russian Federation, a family of modern BUGAS “Minotaur” / “Vignette” was developed, with close performance characteristics to foreign analogues.
New BUGAS are installed on ships of projects 22380 and 22350.
However, the real situation is close to catastrophic.
Firstly, the modernization by new GAS of the ships of the combat crew and the normal (mass) supply of new ones were disrupted. Those. there are very few ships with new GAS. And this means that, taking into account the real (complex) hydrological conditions and, as a rule, the zonal structure of the acoustic field (the presence of zones of "illumination" and "shadow"), there can be no talk of any effective anti-submarine defense. Reliable PLO is not provided even for warships (and even more so single ships).
Given the conditions, effective and reliable lighting of the underwater environment can be ensured only by a group of dissimilar anti-submarine forces optimally distributed in the area, operating as a “single multi-position search complex”. The extremely small number of new ships with the Minotaurs simply does not allow it to be formed.
Secondly, our "Minotaurs" do not provide the creation of a full multi-position search system, because they exist in a "parallel world" from our own anti-submarine aircraft.
Anti-submarine helicopters have become a very important part of the new search engines. Equipping them with new low-frequency OGAS allowed to provide an effective "backlight" for both the aircraft RSLA and GPBA ships.
And while Western helicopters are able to provide multi-position joint work with Bugas and aviation (RSAH) with the new OGAS, even the latest project 22350 ships have a modernized Ka-27M helicopter, which essentially has the same high-frequency OGAS “Ros” (digital only) and on a new element base), as on the Soviet Ka-27 helicopter of the 80s, which has absolutely unsatisfactory performance characteristics and is unable to work together with the Minotaur, or to "highlight" the field of the RSGB. Just because they work in different frequency ranges.
Do we have low-frequency OGAS in our country? Yes, there is, for example, “Sterlet” (having a close mass to the OGAS HELRAS).
However, its frequency range of the active mode differs from the Minotaur (that is, it does not provide for joint work again), and most importantly, naval aviation "does not see it point blank".
Unfortunately, until now, our naval aviation is a "detached car" from the "train" of the Navy. Accordingly, the OGAS and the Navy RSLAB “live” in the same “parallel reality” from the naval GAS of the Navy.
The result?
Despite all the technological difficulties, we have a very decent technical level of domestic hydroacoustics. However, with the perception and implementation of new (modern) concepts for constructing and using submarine search tools, we are simply in the dark - a lag behind the West by at least a generation.
In fact, the country does not have anti-submarine defense, and this does not bother officials at all. Even the latest Caliber carriers (project 21631 and 22800) have no anti-submarine weapons and anti-torpedo protection.
The elementary “modern HCV-2” could already significantly increase their combat stability, making it possible to detect both a torpedo attack and underwater means of saboteurs (at distances much more than the regular “Anapa”), and, if you're lucky, and submarines.
We have a large number of PSKR Bohr, which are not planned for use in the event of war. A simple question - in the event of a war with Turkey, what would these PSKR Bohr begin to do? Hide in the bases?
And the last example. From the category “to make admirals ashamed”.
The Egyptian Navy modernized its patrol ships of the Chinese Hainan project (the “pedigree” of which comes from our project 122 of the end of World War II) with the installation of modern BUGAS (VDS-100 from L3 was mentioned in the media).
In fact, according to its characteristics, it is the Minotaur, but installed on a ship with a displacement of 450 tons.
Why is the Russian Navy nothing like this? Why do not we have a series of modern low-frequency OGAS? Small-sized GAS for the mass equipment of both Navy ships (not having a "full-scale" GAK), and PSKR BOHR during mobilization? Indeed, technologically, all this is completely within the power of domestic industry.
And the most important question: will measures be finally taken to correct this shameful and unacceptable situation?
To be continued ...
- Maxim Klimov, Alexander Timokhin
- Wikipedia commons, Surf Factory, GeoSpectrum Technologies, L3, Russian Ministry of Defense, USNI News
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