Today is the best, tomorrow is superfluous. Disadvantages of the frigate of project 22350
Continuing the discussion of the artillery theme of the frigate of project 22350, one cannot ignore the anti-aircraft artillery complex "Broadsword" present on it in the amount of two modules.
In its characteristics, one specific feature is indicated: guidance angles in elevation from -20 to +82 degrees. They are also impressive for the "main caliber" of the A-192M gun mount: from -15 to +85 degrees. And if the positive values of the elevation degrees close to the vertical speak unambiguously about the claims for the fight of guns with air targets at the zenith, then the significant negative values make inquisitive minds inquire about the purpose of such specific options of characteristics.
Anything that can approach the ship at a distance of a kilometer or closer can become targets for guns with a barrel position from 0 to -15 / -20 degrees. These are the boats of terrorists or saboteurs that jumped out from behind some shelter, this is a surfaced submarine, this is a drifting floating mine - "an echo of the past war." But I will assume the possibility of firing at the detected torpedo attacking the frigate, and maybe more than one.
According to specialized publications, the frigate of project 22350 possesses perfect means of illumination of the air and underwater environment, modern BIUS, capable of combining disparate weapons into a single combat organism. The detected enemy submarine and torpedoes coming to the ship will be attacked by specialized weapons in the form of torpedo torpedoes from the "Caliber" family and anti-torpedoes from the "Packet-NK" launchers, and the anti-submarine helicopter will not be left out.
But as "the last argument of the kings" at the closest line of defense, it is logical to use the fire capabilities of artillery. Considering abstractly a torpedo as a target for a ship's artillery, one must admit its great vulnerability, because it has a speed and maneuverability ten times less than any subsonic anti-ship missile system, with comparable weight and dimensions. And the fire performance, targeting speed and accuracy of the artillery guns on the ship are quite enough to effectively destroy torpedoes. Moreover, the damaging factor of the shock wave from the explosion of a land mine in water has a much stronger effect on submerged objects.
It remains to clarify the availability of specialized ammunition for firing at underwater targets in the artillery arsenal of the ship. Obviously, a "wide" choice of fuses (bottom, remote and radar) for a 130-mm gun is clearly not "what is needed" for firing at underwater targets, obviously there is a request for the development of a specialized projectile capable of penetrating the border of two media to a given depth.
Long time on navy The RBU-6000 and RBU-12000 rocket launchers were considered effective to combat the underwater threat. It seems to be a useful addition to rocket torpedoes and anti-torpedoes to attach 130-mm artillery (and if there is a replacement, then 100-mm).
If we compare the existing samples of ammunition: the RSB-60 rocket depth charge and the 130-mm unitary cartridge with a high-explosive fragmentation projectile, then it is not difficult to guess about the possibility of modern genetics to cross a snake and a hedgehog.
Caliber: 212 mm / 130 mm;
Length: 1830 mm / 1369 mm;
Weight: 119,5kg / 52,8kg;
Explosive weight: 23,5 kg / 3,56 kg;
The bomb's flight speed is 300 m / s / the muzzle velocity of the projectile is 850 m / s.
Having creatively reworked the ammunition for a given function, it is quite possible, in addition to anti-aircraft and high-explosive fragmentation, to receive a 130 mm deep projectile. In a heavier (60 kg) and long (1450 mm) shot, we reduce the mass of the propellant charge with an increase in the length and weight of the deep shell itself to 40 kg (OFS weighs 33,4 kg) with an increase in the weight of the explosive inside to 10 kg. The figures are, of course, approximate and deserve adjustments from experts and criticism from readers, but the very idea of expanding the range of ammunition for naval artillery, which has frozen at the level of the end of World War II, is a global trend.
Smoothly moving from artillery to the topic of anti-torpedoes and anti-submarine defense of frigates of project 22350, I will immediately say a good word about the two four-pipe launchers of the "Packet-NK" complex.
By the presence of loaded and ready to fire pipes, our ship is twice or a third superior to enemy classmates. And the author, your humble servant, would also advocate an increase in the number of guides on the PU up to six on one condition - a change in caliber upwards! The Soviet navy used torpedo tube calibers of 400 mm, 533 mm and 650 mm. If 533 mm caliber (21 inches) can be considered historical heritage and traditional, then the other two appeared during the heyday of the power of the Navy of the Brezhnev USSR.
In general, the country draws the right conclusions from the bloody military-historical lessons: the railways maintain a track gauge of 1520 mm, not succumbing to the European temptations of 1435 mm, and even recently transferred the railway on Sakhalin to the Russian standard. The army feels calm and confident with the rifle caliber weapons 5,45 mm, resisting the temptation to switch to the NATO standard of 5,56 mm. It would seem that the difference is 8,5 centimeters and 0,11 millimeters! ...
And in the Navy they continue to learn English (but this is personal) and in the modern situation they are adopting a sample of the NATO caliber of 324 mm! One can understand the experienced general admiration for the West in the 90s, we also remember the romantic proposals for joining NATO, the desire to squeeze the West in the traditional arms markets is also understandable, but not by the same sycophantic method!
Or maybe they wanted to buy American or British small-sized torpedoes in the future (as well as German diesel engines with Italian avionics)?
The error must be fixed! If something bad and does not suit the Soviet caliber of 400 mm, let's take 381 mm (15 inches. So it was good against the British battleships of WWII!). Learned how to do everything small and miniature - no question, 330 mm (13 inches); it turned out "unparalleled in the world" - yes, at least 305 mm, please, also a traditional Russian caliber! But not the notorious 324.
A characteristic feature of all frigates from the table is the presence of a vertical launch facility. It's hard to say why, but all the neighbors in the table of our frigate have anti-ship missiles stored and launched from deck-mounted inclined launchers, and only our frigate uses anti-ship missiles from UVP. Perhaps this is how the dominant influence of the "big brother" on the military shipbuilding of satellites is manifested? And if the American UVP MK 41 can be blamed for the inability to fire anti-ship missiles from the arsenal of the carrier ship, then for the sake of objectivity, the main drawback of the domestic UVP 3S14 UKSK should be recognized - the lack of a compatible long-range anti-aircraft guided missile in the range of weapons used with it, comparable in size to mine UVP.
From the table top five, the German frigate must be recognized as the favorite in the ship's air defense, three lines of reach are provided by three types of anti-aircraft missiles (24 pieces of "Standard" SM-2 Block IIIA with a range of destruction of air targets up to 120 km; 32 pieces of Sea Sparrow RIM -162B ESSM with a launch range of up to 50 km; 42 pieces of RIM-116A with a reach of up to 10 km) in combination with the SMART-L early detection radar (can track up to 1000 targets simultaneously) and the APAR target designation and guidance radar (tracks up to 200 targets with the ability to fire at 30 targets).
To break out into the undisputed leaders according to such an important criterion for our ship, it is necessary to take a decisive and much-needed step. It is vitally important to supplement the range of missiles used by the Redut 9M100 (launch range 10-15 km) and 9M96 (50-150 km firing range) 48N6 anti-aircraft guided missile (with a range of 220-250 km) used from the UVP 3C14.
Even if the instrumental range of radar reconnaissance on our frigate is limited to 420–440 km, it will correspond to the radio horizon at a flight altitude of aerodynamic targets of 10 kilometers. At this altitude, aerodynamic targets move at speeds of 750 km / h (12 km / min) and higher. The flight time to the point of destruction by the shipborne version of the 48N6 SAM (at speeds from 750 to 3600 km / h) can be from 20 to 3 minutes, which is quite enough to determine the parameters of the target movement, take it for auto-tracking, launch and fly the SAM to the distance of the outer border affected areas.
The presence of such a long-range anti-aircraft missile in the ship's ammunition will significantly push back the boundaries of safe aerial reconnaissance and the issuance of target designation to enemy strike aircraft, and complicate the work of AWACS patrolling aircraft and active jammers. In addition, the exponentially decreasing radio horizon (and it will already be only 220 meters at a distance of 2500 km) will make it very difficult for attack aircraft-carriers of anti-ship missiles to reach the line of safe missile launch with subsequent evasion from the attacking missile defense system below the radio horizon line.
And if the proposed missile defense system is also equipped with an active radar homing head, such a maneuver may become useless. By registering the missile defense missile system on board the frigates of Project 22350 of the first four admirals, who are likely to remain in the Northern Fleet and form a full-fledged replacement for the outgoing nature from the bundle of Project 956 and Project 1155, we will get a combination of "universal destroyers in miniature." The next four admirals of project 22350, already with four UVP 3S14, will form the strike core of ships for the Pacific Fleet, even despite the beginning of modernization of the BOD of project 1155 into frigates with the expansion of strike capabilities.
And only when this prerequisite is fulfilled, common sense appears in the ships of project 22350M with an increased displacement of up to 7000 tons, with six UVP 3S14, with two helicopters and doubled ammunition of the air defense missile system, otherwise in fifty years there will be a repetition of the shortcomings of the BOD of project 1155 on a new spiral of walking by historical rake.
Unfortunately for the author, neither in the table nor in the text of the article is there a comparison of data on equipping our frigate and foreign classmates in radar weapons, hydroacoustics and electronic warfare systems, the characteristics of which mainly form and determine the combat value and capabilities of modern ships. It makes no sense to compare based helicopters either. But the propulsion energy of the ships cannot be left aside.
Let's leave aside the "vain feats" of our short-sighted industrial policy with a Ukrainian background and consider the bare facts and a few figures from the table.
The largest and fastest ship in the table is the Japanese Akizuki, as it is 20% larger than our frigate in full displacement and 10% longer than it.
At the same time, the total power of the main power plant of the Japanese (60000 hp) is almost 10% lower than the same indicator of the domestic frigate (65400 hp). It's a paradoxical situation, isn't it!
Everything will fall into place, and the laws of hydrodynamics will remain unshakable if we admit that the power plant on our frigate is of the CODOG type, and not CODAG, as many media mistakenly claim. The joint operation of a sustainer diesel engine and an afterburner (in other words, the summation of the powers of two different engines) on the M55P diesel gas turbine unit is not provided. Thus, the weakest diesel engines from those displayed in the table are forced to constantly carry on the ship two afterburner turbines of decent size and weight, and those, in turn, receive weights in the form of two marine diesel engines during the afterburner. Frankly speaking, not the most progressive and advanced scheme.
The Japanese, not relying on the reliability of a common gearbox for two propellers, use a COGAG-type power plant with a two-speed gearbox for two turbines of different power and providing for their joint operation on the propeller shaft in full speed mode.
European frigates, apparently out of greater concern for the economy of ships, use the CODAG scheme with two diesels and one turbine. With a lower total power plant of the Norwegian (41420 hp) and German (51500 hp) frigates, it allows them to compete on equal terms in maximum speed with our ship and is more flexible in everyday use. In addition, our weak diesels provide the lowest economic speed of the Russian frigate.
Unfortunately, we have to admit that the frigate of project 22350, being a breakthrough in the domestic ship engine building in terms of achieving complete import substitution, is far from perfect and the achievements of world practice.
Therefore, we must admit to ourselves that equipping frigates of project 22350 with a main power plant of the CODOG type with two DGTA M55R combined with a 4 MW diesel engine and a 20 MW turbine is a necessary measure against hopelessness and is not optimal. In the historical period of 20 years from the laying of the first hull in February 2006 to the entry into service according to the plan of the eighth frigate of the admiral's series in December 2026, we will formally receive three modifications of ships of the project 22350 (1 - two hulls with a power plant of Ukrainian origin and a small URO ammunition load ; 2 - two corps with a Russian power plant and a small URO ammunition; 3 - four corps with a Russian power plant and an increased URO ammunition load and a slightly elongated body). And at the same time, it is not yet a fact that the plans will not be revised or shifted in time to the right.
Nevertheless, plans have already been announced for a promising project 22350M, in which the power plant will consist of two M70FRU cruise turbines with a capacity of 14 MW (19000 hp) and two afterburner M90FR with a capacity of 20 MW (27500 hp).
Considering all of the above, it would not hurt to concretize now that the new power plant will be built according to the COGAG type and in no case according to the COGOG type. The optimal solution to progressive evolutionary development without voluntaristic leaps into the unknown would be the development of a power plant of the COGAG type, consisting of two M70FRU-2 cruise turbines with a capacity of 7,35 MW (10000 hp) and two afterburner M90FR with a capacity of 20 MW (27500 l s.), for the seventh and eighth ships of the project 22350.
Such modernization would have provided the elongated ships of the third sub-series with an economic cruising speed of 18 knots and a maximum speed of 32 knots, which would make it possible to form a minimum security order for the Admiral Kuznetsov TAVKR that left the modernization and a promising nuclear aircraft carrier.
Let's summarize.
The artillery armament of the project 22350 needs a critical reassessment, improvement of the tactics of use and the expansion of the range of ammunition. While the "Package" weapon system for surface ships and submarines has not become widespread in the domestic navy, it is necessary to abandon the use and production of ammunition for it in the caliber of 324 mm. In the arsenal of the first rank frigate, a long-range anti-aircraft guided missile with the possibility of using it from the UVP 3S14 UKSK should appear. Without stopping at achieving success in import substitution of the production of power plant ships, continued R&D is required to reach the level of world quality and efficiency standards.
Systematic work on the elimination of the voiced shortcomings of project 22350, if not in every subsequent hull, then at least in the next pair of ships that are still being laid, and the changes made will not require alteration of the built one and delay in commissioning - it will allow the fleet to get not an extra unit for increase in numbers, but the best ships for combat missions.
PS
In the first part of the article, when the condition for replacing the main caliber gun was fulfilled, a weight reserve of 18 tons was formed. It could be used to improve radar weapons or expand the capabilities of hydroacoustics, to install a more advanced travel gearbox or increase the fuel supply on board, to equip the ship with more powerful propulsion diesel engines or to install an additional UVP for the air defense system. In addition to the two Broadswords, the author would prefer to install a pair of Duets in the area of convergence of the upper deck, side and forward superstructure. Still, the savings came at the expense of artillery, and four six-barreled blocks of rapid-fire assault rifles, spaced vertically and horizontally, will be more reliable in protecting the side from the unfinished anti-ship missiles.
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