VMC in the XXI century. The appearance of the ship of the future in the light of innovative technologies
The weekly Military Industrial Courier continues the theme of the revolutionary changes that characterize the development of the world's naval forces, covered in No. 8.
According to the RAND Corporation, China and India are at the stage of economic and scientific growth, which will allow them to reduce the backlog of scientifically developed countries. For countries with less dynamic development, as well as political and social instability, the ability to implement technologies will be a difficult task even if it is possible to acquire the appropriate technologies. The degree of inconsistency between the possibility of acquiring and mastering (implementing) technologies is illustrated by the 1 pattern.
Fig. 1
The figure above is based on the following prerequisites:
1. The ability to acquire technology is not necessarily the same as the ability to realize it, since the implementation of the technology and the maintenance of its universal use require a certain level of readiness, characterized by incentives and barriers to the implementation of technologies.
2. The values of incentives and barriers were selected on the basis of the same data as for determining the ability of countries to acquire technology. In addition, expert assessments of political, economic and social conditions in countries were taken into account.
3. The country's ability to implement the technology was estimated as the product of the ability to acquire a given country by a percentage of ten initial incentives to implement the technology (vertical axis).
4. The horizontal axis starts at one hundred percent when all ten barriers are present and ends at zero (no barriers).
5. The study assumed that all technologies, incentives and barriers have the same significance, although for a particular country this is not necessarily the case.
The figure below shows that the countries marked in blue have the greatest ability to master the revolutionary technologies to strengthen the armed forces of the future. At the same time, it is noted that due to the intensive development of science and technology, the countries acquiring technologies, in order to maintain their positions in relation to the implementation of these technologies, should make constant efforts in this direction: ensure the adoption of necessary laws, create favorable public opinion, invest in R & D and education, as well as remove obstacles to the development of technology, to take care of the creation and development of appropriate infrastructure. The statistics given in the report on 157 countries of the world showed that the Russian Federation on the integral index of scientific and technical capabilities takes 19-e place. The value of the RF index is 0,89 from the range [5,03 ...- 0,51]. The indices of China and India are 0,10 and 0,04, respectively. Nevertheless, the RAND Corporation puts them with a greater percentage of the ability to master technology to strengthen the armed forces. With the equality of the 1 pattern of barriers from the RF, this conclusion seems to be associated with a higher estimate of the percentage of their incentives.
About priorities
Referring to the cessation of the activities of the Soviet Navy in the ocean, the command of the US Navy says about focusing its attention on land regions, actions in densely populated areas of the world. In this case, the task is to ensure access of US Navy ships to coastal zones and achieve the ultimate goal within reach weapons potential adversary.
The next generation ships for operations in the coastal areas of LCS (Littoral Combat Ship) should solve the access problem. They are designed and built to create a favorable operational environment for shock compounds fleet and invasion forces, that is, to combat enemy missile boats, non-nuclear submarines, mine danger, carry out reconnaissance activities, land and support reconnaissance and sabotage units.
Another notable priority is the development of invasion and forward-based forces. Thus, the US Navy plans to have 2020 – 30 large modern assault ships of various types by the 35 year. To date, they have completely abandoned the use of traditional-type tank landing ships with coastal approaches in amphibious operations. Preference is given to the use of helicopters and landing craft for the landing of troops and equipment. Examples of new ships are the versatile amphibious assault ship of the new type LHA (R) with a displacement of about 49 thousand tons. The LHA is designed without a dock chamber, but with an increased volume of aircraft ammunition cellars and aviation fuel storage. In addition, it provides for the possibility of combat use of the multipurpose F-20В fighter jets up to 35, of shortened take-off and landing. Another new ship was the landing ship-dock of the new generation of the San Antonio type with a displacement of about 25 thousand tons. The number of these ships is scheduled to bring to 2014 year to nine.
The UK plans to have seven large landing ships in the Navy by 2020. This is a helicopter carrier and six ships with dock chambers with a total landing capacity of 3000 – 5000 people.
The most representative amphibious ships of France were two universal amphibious assault ships with a Mistral docking chamber, introduced into the fleet in 2005 – 2006.
In 2005-m in Spain, the construction of a large universal landing craft with a displacement of 27,5 of thousands of tons of aircraft carrying hangar-dock architecture began. South Korea is building three universal landing craft of aircraft carrier architecture with a dock chamber (displacement 19 thousand tons).
So, the nomenclature of the main forces of the US Navy and their closest allies remains unchanged: aircraft carriers, strategic and multipurpose nuclear submarines, NK long-haul maritime zone, universal landing craft. In this case, the main multipurpose ships in achieving dominance at sea will be, in the opinion of the Technology Council in the field of military shipbuilding, multi-purpose submarines. Their development in this direction makes it necessary to reduce the fleet's vulnerability, the capabilities of promising rocket technology and noise reduction technologies. The statement about the nuclear submarine as a multifunctional main ships of the fleet correlates poorly with the fact that the US Navy has 12 nuclear aircraft carriers - participants of all regional conflicts and indispensable observers in areas of heightened tension.
So, the most significant response to the changing geopolitical situation can be called a variety of ways to increase the effectiveness of the use of strike forces and invasion forces in various operational and tactical conditions and to give traditional types of ships a number of additional functions not related to combat operations.
On improving efficiency
The problem of the influence of scientific and technological progress on the appearance and effectiveness of naval technology is many-sided and voluminous.
The main trend and the most important product of the scientific and technological revolution was the solution of the problem of secrecy and stealth submarines and NK. In this case, we will understand by stealth the ability to remain undetected by various means of REV. It is clear that this mainly refers to the submarine. The concept of visibility is attributed primarily to the NK in the sense of detecting them by the homing systems of anti-ship missiles, as well as various paths of underwater weapons. It is these qualities that significantly influenced the appearance of modern submarines and NK.
The level of secrecy, as well as visibility, can not be quantitatively either constant or absolute. It is changing due to the continuous development of detection tools. Finding a goal earlier than being heard is the dilemma of an endless rivalry. Reducing the noise of modern submarines and the shift of their zone of action from the “deep water” to the coastal shallow water has significantly complicated the problem of detection by passive means. That is why the concept of acoustic stealth has become more voluminous and significant compared with the traditional definition of the noise of submarines. Active sonar tools are on the agenda in the deployment option of the so-called multi-static active detection systems in the secondary hydroacoustic field. Counteraction is the reduction of the power of the submarine target, which is a quantitative expression of the echo signal returned from the irradiated submarine. Another group of factors characterizing the subtlety of submarines is the fields of the electromagnetic group. Moreover, the role of these fields increases significantly with the movement of operations in the coastal zone of relative shallow water. From the point of view of both detection and submarine attacks, anti-submarine aircraft with highly sensitive magnetometers with a detection range of up to two kilometers today, as well as infrared equipment, pose the greatest danger to them. And in the Arctic (ice conditions), this is actually the only way. The large amount of information recorded by modern electromagnetic systems allows us to solve the problem of determining the distance, course of submarines and its classification.
The hydrophysical fields of the wake wake (HFP KS) are called a significant unmasking factor of submarines. Numerous publications show that NATO countries conduct extensive research and development projects to create non-acoustic detection means, by which temperature gradients, electrical conductivity, fluorescence and low concentrations of various SPs are recorded. With great confidence, we can assume that the submarines and NKs of leading maritime countries have on board HF detection equipment of the CS.
The subtlety of submarines actually justifies their necessity. This is due to the fact that after the discovery of the submarine becomes particularly vulnerable. As one foreign scientist wittily remarked, “poorly protected and having a small chance of surviving after the first strike, the submarine has the only means of defense - flight. This leads to the fact that some schools, in particular Russian and American, are trying to provide the submarines with very high speeds, sometimes more than 40 nodes. The range and speed of modern antisubmarine weapons make this method illusory. ”
The problem of stealth has already given rise to a pronounced tendency to reduce the maximum speeds of submarines and naval submarines. Thus, the maximum speeds of the most recent submarines of the Virginia, Astute, Baraccuda types are five to seven knots lower than those of previous generations. At a minimum, there are two reasons for this trend. The first is to increase the effectiveness of the SJC and increase the detection range. The second is associated with a decrease in the decrease in the maximum speed of resistance to movement and the required power. This in itself creates obvious prerequisites for the design of less vibroactive power equipment and propulsion. It is noted that at the same time a relatively low noise speed increases and the level of interference to the work of the GAK is reduced, which makes it possible to work in a passive mode. As follows from the press, on the Seawolf submarine such speed was brought to the 20 nodes. Conventionally, this speed can be called the second low noise, whereas the ten speed mentioned in the print is the lowest noise, when the noise level is determined only by the operation of machinery and equipment.
The visibility of a surface ship is a combination of the differences between its main signatures and the natural or artificial background in the upper and lower hemispheres. The nomenclature of signatures of NK includes several dozen names belonging to the three main groups of physical fields: electromagnetic, acoustic and hydrophysical. The complex of methods and means of protecting NK is usually combined with the term “stealth technology”. This complex includes architectural measures (often called them stealth technologies), various absorbing materials, as well as metamaterials and plasmon formations that implement the ideas of diffraction of an electromagnetic field. This direction is predicted as one of the most effective means of making NK invisible to anti-ship missiles. As part of the said complex, it is possible to call electronic warfare agents - active jamming stations and passive false targets. In the lower hemisphere, in addition to traditional ones, magnetic fields associated with corrosive currents and having long propagation ranges are playing an increasingly important role.
By the way, the term "stealth technology" is increasingly beginning to be used in relation to the submarine, especially in connection with measures to reduce the power of the submarine goal. In this regard, proposals and even the implementation of new configurations of the hull and protections of the protruding parts (“stealth architecture”), as well as new types of hydroacoustic coatings, are typical.
A special threat to NK, as well as for submarines, is sea mines. Modern multi-channel mines use all informational signs of physical fields. They are hardly noticeable for underwater search tools, are made of non-metallic materials, their enclosures have anti-location coatings. Vibrating devices are used for digging into the ground. By virtue of this, mines become practically non-leviable. To reduce the distance of operation of non-contact min systems, the need to reduce the primary fields of the ship is indicated, although at exhibitions (for example EURONAVAL-2012) a large number of BPA is presented to detect and destroy bottom mines (usually two BPA channels - optical and acoustic).
Constantly evolving trend was to give the ships multifunctionality. With regard to the submarine fleet, American experts see the expansion of the tasks of nuclear submarines as a result of new technologies and such a catalyst as the high vulnerability of surface forces operating in advanced areas, but not possessing secrecy. It is argued that new submarine concepts will emerge, free from the main focus of the Cold War on strategic deterrence and anti-submarine warfare. At the same time, acoustic and non-acoustic secrecy will remain a fundamental quality.
The multifunctionality of NK will be stimulated by the expansion of the range of tasks of the Navy, among which are called non-traditional tasks, different from the hostilities. One of the priority principles of ensuring multifunctionality is called modern technology of payloads. These technologies are aimed at achieving greater unification, flexibility and modularity, allowing the configuration of the payload to be easily modified for specific combat missions.
Examples of modular design and placement of payloads (missiles, outboard NLA, diving equipment) are visible on the submarine "Ohio" (variant with cruise missiles), "Jimmy Carter" (insert the multi-purpose section), "Virginia" and on a number of NK. The module-container design principle is another option for providing multi-functionality. The most graphic examples are the American ships of the type LCS, the German MEKO, the Danish type Flex 300.
Multifunctional weapon systems, such as modular vertical missile launch systems, are common abroad. One of the most modern is the MK 41 system, which provides storage and launching of SM-2, SM-3, Tomahawk, ASROK and other missiles. These systems are installed not only on American ships, but also on ships of many G20 countries.
The active development of the trend is the creation of a fully "electric ships".
Purpose:
provide energy and energy storage non-conventional weapons;
create a single electric power plant as an alternative to the two existing ones: the main rowing plant and the ship power station.
In this case, the task is to win in weight and size and acoustic characteristics.
Today it is difficult to say which technical solutions will lead to the expected result. The destroyers of Great Britain ("type 45") and the USA ("Zumvolt") have not yet answered this question. The widely propagated superconductivity has not yet found practical application. Some results are seen in the civilian sector — large passenger liners and even cargo ships with full electric propulsion (high voltages - six kV and more, high-speed vehicles).
The task of developing and using unmanned underwater, surface and aircraft of a wide range of applications has become extremely relevant and ambitious. In fact, this family of weapons of the new type. Unmanned vehicles are assigned the role of partially assuming certain functions of the main attack forces of the fleet and the invasion forces in order to reduce the vulnerability of ships and increase the efficiency of using the main weapon. Among the tasks of unmanned vehicles are the detection of submarines, NK and targets, including active means in the composition of multi-static systems, target designation, ensuring continuous communication in all environments, percussion functions, reconnaissance and sabotage, mine action, air defense.
In this context, we mention the so-called gliders - gearless vehicles, moving in the water along a variable trajectory (immersion - ascent) only due to changes in buoyancy. The ideas of such devices were short messages at the end of 90's. Today there are active samples, for example, Seaexplorer, for research purposes. Their high stealth and high autonomy are attractive.
Many other technical solutions or ideas that in one way or another influence the appearance of ships help to increase the combat capabilities of the fleet:
fundamentally new ways of storing and using weapons;
REV multifunctional complexes using advanced sensors measuring physical parameters;
systems of active management of own acoustic portrait, active controlled coatings;
systems for the suppression of naval weapons by special physical fields;
New technologies to dramatically improve the efficiency of acoustic emitters at low frequencies;
new methods for processing acoustic information;
nanostructured materials - coatings to protect against radiation from weapons of directed energy;
structural absorbing materials using nanostructured components to reduce optical and radar visibility;
use of diffraction effect (metamaterials and plasmon formations);
New hydrogen preservation materials for air-independent installations with ECH;
shaftless propulsion systems;
integrated automation systems as a means of reducing crew size with troubleshooting functions, fighting for the survivability of a ship and weapons;
non-traditional hull forms to achieve, in addition to traditional goals, reduced levels of hydrodynamic and hydrophysical fields.
About cost and financing
These and other well-known innovations can not affect the complexity and increase the cost of ships. This circumstance concerns all manufacturers and consumers of naval equipment.
Table 1
US estimates show an average annual increase in the cost of ships of about ten percent (table 1). This means that over the decade, the cost increases about 2,5 times.
At the same time for different types of ships from one third to half of the cost accounted for labor compensation. The largest component of the cost - weapons, mechanisms, equipment. Similar data are given for UK ships. The main components of the annual 10-percent increase in the cost of construction are listed in the 2 table.
The Congressional Budget Office made the following conclusion on the shipbuilding program before 2012 adopted in 2041: “If during the next 30 years the construction of ships is funded in the same amounts as in the last three decades, the Navy will not have enough money for all purchases under the 2012 plan of the year. "
They are looking for a way out in building ships based on basic platforms, modular-modular construction methods, applying COTS technologies, and conducting special research and development projects to reduce labor intensity and cost. As an example, the data on the submarine "Virginia". As a result of the implementation of special R & D works already in the process of building 33, three strategic directions have been developed to increase the rate of construction and reduce submarines:
the practice of concluding multi-year contracts;
reducing the range of components;
improvement of construction technology itself.
Result: the time of the construction of the seventh submarine is reduced by nine months, the expected complexity of the submarine commissioning in 2020 will be 48 percent of the main labor intensity, and the cost is about two billion dollars against 2,8.
Table 2
Reducing the cost of construction and the simultaneous increase in combat effectiveness is seen through the implementation of the modernization potential of ships. In foreign practice, this is achieved by an accelerated change of generations of weapons in relation to the life cycle of the ship - up to two or three shifts of generations on the original platform. The combination of high-volume construction with successive weapons modifications is recognized by the US Congress as the main focus of the 30-year shipbuilding program. As one of the examples - the extension of a series of destroyers of the Orly Burk type in exchange for the construction of the new generation UPO CG (X) cruiser.
According to American analysts, the constant substantial increase in the combat capabilities of the fleet was possible thanks to stable funding for targeted research and development. They are conducted by numerous specialized laboratories, naval research centers, and venture centers of the DARPA type. Funding volumes and areas of work are regularly covered in military shipbuilding digests. But one feature deserves special mention. This research on large-scale models.
When designing the Sea Wolf and Virginia submarines, dozens of variants were tested on large-scale self-propelled models with a displacement of 150 and 200 tons and a horsepower power unit 3000 for selection of optimal propulsion units, shape and tail end. And this is in the presence of supercomputers and a unique large-size cavitation pipe - the main tool for the design of propulsion. According to American experts, this allowed us to obtain results that require 10 – 15 years of traditional research.
Another example. In France, when developing a new concept of a strategic submarine to replace the “Redoubtable”, the DGA Defense Ministry set a fantastic goal at that time: to reduce noise by a thousand times (60 DB, in foreign practice the decibel scale is calculated relative to the level of acoustic pressure by one micropascale, therefore a direct comparison with domestic ones data is impossible) and the detection range - ten times in relation to the existing submarine. Over the course of ten years, 20 spent thousands of hours on model experiments. Instead of the experimental basin liquidated in the center of Paris in the town of Val de Roy, a new hydrodynamic center with a unique large-sized cavrub was built. For experiments with real Reynolds numbers, large ONER wind tunnels were used. Despite this, several self-propelled models on the 1 to 10 scale were created and tested. Additionally, two old submarines were used as pilot platforms for studying hydrodynamic interference (flow noise) on the front end of the HAS antenna and pump pump propulsion. The results obtained for the Triumfant nuclear submarine were taken into account when designing the new multi-purpose submarine under the Barracuda program.
The last news It became information about the entry into the US Navy unmanned remote-controlled full-size ship - laboratory SDTS (Self Defense Test Ship). The ship was created on the basis of the destroyer type DD-1974 built in 964, the Spruence type. It is designed to conduct hazardous research in conditions as close as possible to the battle: testing promising samples of air defense, detection systems and command and control, self-defense means.
About the Navy without nuclear ships
A few words about the Navy of a large group of countries that are not yet members of the Nuclear Fleet Club. This group includes India, which is preparing to put into operation the first strategic submarine Arihant, Brazil, which announced the start of the design of the submarine.
The motivation for the development of the naval forces of most countries of this group are local interests related to border issues, various contradictions of developing countries, terrorism and piracy, and the protection of their economic zones. Non-nuclear submarines became predominant in the Navy of these countries, surface ships mainly of the frigate class.
Intentions to have a submarine demonstrate many countries, even non-G20. The total volume of the NNS market, according to various estimates, ranges from 300 to 400 units over the next decade. Mostly this submarine displacement 1500 – 2000 tons. The market of small submarines with a displacement of 500 – 1000 tons is considered promising. From the latest developments can be called the submarine project of the German TKMS-HDW. The displacement of submarines is 735 tons, the maximum speed is 12 knots, the depth of the dive is 150 meters, the air-independent power plant, the autonomy is 21 days, the crew is 15 people. Submarine objectives: PLO, the fight against NK, strikes on the shore, the blockade of sea communications, special operations. Three key submarine features are noted:
functional flexibility and adaptability to changing tasks;
high degree of automation;
ability to interact with other objects of network-centric methods of warfare.
These "talents" are provided primarily through replaceable modules of various types of weapons, the use of COTS-technologies, different-purpose REV tools, and non-acoustic detection systems.
Potential naval base suppliers are five or six known countries. Today it is a diesel-electric submarine. At the same time, the NNS market is increasingly being filled with submarine proposals with air-independent installations. The most advanced technologies are based on the use of fuel cells - the leader is Germany, the French technology "Mecmo" and the Stirling engines are the leader of Sweden. The competition to these practically mastered technologies is made also by others, promising in addition to increase underwater autonomy.
Non-nuclear submarines, especially with air-independent installations, have increased secrecy. Significant difficulties of their detection by passive means are also connected with the peculiarities of the propagation of acoustic signals in shallow water. On the other hand, the submarine voyage in a relatively shallow sea environment forms spatio-temporal irregularities in the wake wake — additional signs of unmasking.
From surface ships one of the main classes is called frigates. Their construction has become quite massive, which is associated both with the replacement of obsolete ships, and with the need to give them multifunctionality to solve a wider range of tasks. The new generation of frigates, the bulk of which will be built during the 2015 – 2035 period, will have the functions of air defense, air defense and anti-missile defense. Modular principles in a broad aspect - a distinctive feature of the frigates. This and the placement of REV in specialized or standard containers, modules with "flexible payload."
Competition of countries - exporters of frigates is the most severe. It is aggravated by the desire of importing countries, after acquiring a limited number of ships, to develop their own construction under license or according to their own project. The fight for the market encourages weapons developers and designers to search for the most advanced technical solutions: ultra-long-range torpedoes, low-frequency active-passive HAC, HAC using effects of specular reflection of emitted dual pulses to detect objects in the coastal zone, non-lethal weapons. Variants of ships with full electric propulsion, hybrid installations, the use of composites are considered. At the same time, it is noted that the price factor will play a certain role in the competition. In any case, the mention of the desire to reduce the cost of construction a lot.
Instead of a conclusion
The author agrees in advance that the topic put is far from fully disclosed and, of course, requires additional coverage. And instead of concluding two theses.
1. Among researchers and developers of marine engineering, the question of the primary determinants of the development of the Navy periodically arises. On the one hand, the tasks generated by the balance of power, the geography of hot spots, new geopolitical challenges, definitely cause new demands on promising technology, affect its appearance. On the other hand, new knowledge, research, revolutionizing technologies and developments, which in turn open up the possibility of solving new problems in the military and naval sphere of activity. Of course, these are counter-parallel processes, the integral of which is the appearance of the ship of the future.
Fig. 2
There is an opinion, recorded in the forecast of technologies of the US Navy before 2035, also having the right to be discussed. Its essence is that it is premature to predetermine the promising Navy platforms. The way of preparing new technologies, demonstrating their success and the subsequent formation on the basis of these technologies and the cost-effectiveness analysis of the concept of new IUDs was called more cautious.
And the main conclusion is the vision of the future naval forces as dispersed, flexible, multifunctional, subtle and with minimal vulnerability (Fig. 2).
2. There is no need to accept unconditionally foreign assessments of the state of the Navy and the technological capabilities of countries in strengthening military power. However, it is impossible to ignore them and conclusions must be made. The main one was once again clearly voiced at the annual meeting of the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences in December 2012: “Today, more than ever, the task of forming a scientific and technical reserve for creating advanced weapons and military equipment is acute for the Russian Armed Forces.”
It is also impossible not to draw attention to the need to remove barriers in the development of new technologies, create a legislative space for motivating business to finance new developments, and also in reducing the role of administrative resources as a competitor to innovative industries.
According to the RAND Corporation, China and India are at the stage of economic and scientific growth, which will allow them to reduce the backlog of scientifically developed countries. For countries with less dynamic development, as well as political and social instability, the ability to implement technologies will be a difficult task even if it is possible to acquire the appropriate technologies. The degree of inconsistency between the possibility of acquiring and mastering (implementing) technologies is illustrated by the 1 pattern.
Fig. 1
The figure above is based on the following prerequisites:1. The ability to acquire technology is not necessarily the same as the ability to realize it, since the implementation of the technology and the maintenance of its universal use require a certain level of readiness, characterized by incentives and barriers to the implementation of technologies.
2. The values of incentives and barriers were selected on the basis of the same data as for determining the ability of countries to acquire technology. In addition, expert assessments of political, economic and social conditions in countries were taken into account.
3. The country's ability to implement the technology was estimated as the product of the ability to acquire a given country by a percentage of ten initial incentives to implement the technology (vertical axis).
4. The horizontal axis starts at one hundred percent when all ten barriers are present and ends at zero (no barriers).
5. The study assumed that all technologies, incentives and barriers have the same significance, although for a particular country this is not necessarily the case.
The figure below shows that the countries marked in blue have the greatest ability to master the revolutionary technologies to strengthen the armed forces of the future. At the same time, it is noted that due to the intensive development of science and technology, the countries acquiring technologies, in order to maintain their positions in relation to the implementation of these technologies, should make constant efforts in this direction: ensure the adoption of necessary laws, create favorable public opinion, invest in R & D and education, as well as remove obstacles to the development of technology, to take care of the creation and development of appropriate infrastructure. The statistics given in the report on 157 countries of the world showed that the Russian Federation on the integral index of scientific and technical capabilities takes 19-e place. The value of the RF index is 0,89 from the range [5,03 ...- 0,51]. The indices of China and India are 0,10 and 0,04, respectively. Nevertheless, the RAND Corporation puts them with a greater percentage of the ability to master technology to strengthen the armed forces. With the equality of the 1 pattern of barriers from the RF, this conclusion seems to be associated with a higher estimate of the percentage of their incentives.
About priorities
Referring to the cessation of the activities of the Soviet Navy in the ocean, the command of the US Navy says about focusing its attention on land regions, actions in densely populated areas of the world. In this case, the task is to ensure access of US Navy ships to coastal zones and achieve the ultimate goal within reach weapons potential adversary.
The next generation ships for operations in the coastal areas of LCS (Littoral Combat Ship) should solve the access problem. They are designed and built to create a favorable operational environment for shock compounds fleet and invasion forces, that is, to combat enemy missile boats, non-nuclear submarines, mine danger, carry out reconnaissance activities, land and support reconnaissance and sabotage units.
Another notable priority is the development of invasion and forward-based forces. Thus, the US Navy plans to have 2020 – 30 large modern assault ships of various types by the 35 year. To date, they have completely abandoned the use of traditional-type tank landing ships with coastal approaches in amphibious operations. Preference is given to the use of helicopters and landing craft for the landing of troops and equipment. Examples of new ships are the versatile amphibious assault ship of the new type LHA (R) with a displacement of about 49 thousand tons. The LHA is designed without a dock chamber, but with an increased volume of aircraft ammunition cellars and aviation fuel storage. In addition, it provides for the possibility of combat use of the multipurpose F-20В fighter jets up to 35, of shortened take-off and landing. Another new ship was the landing ship-dock of the new generation of the San Antonio type with a displacement of about 25 thousand tons. The number of these ships is scheduled to bring to 2014 year to nine.
The UK plans to have seven large landing ships in the Navy by 2020. This is a helicopter carrier and six ships with dock chambers with a total landing capacity of 3000 – 5000 people.
The most representative amphibious ships of France were two universal amphibious assault ships with a Mistral docking chamber, introduced into the fleet in 2005 – 2006.
In 2005-m in Spain, the construction of a large universal landing craft with a displacement of 27,5 of thousands of tons of aircraft carrying hangar-dock architecture began. South Korea is building three universal landing craft of aircraft carrier architecture with a dock chamber (displacement 19 thousand tons).
So, the nomenclature of the main forces of the US Navy and their closest allies remains unchanged: aircraft carriers, strategic and multipurpose nuclear submarines, NK long-haul maritime zone, universal landing craft. In this case, the main multipurpose ships in achieving dominance at sea will be, in the opinion of the Technology Council in the field of military shipbuilding, multi-purpose submarines. Their development in this direction makes it necessary to reduce the fleet's vulnerability, the capabilities of promising rocket technology and noise reduction technologies. The statement about the nuclear submarine as a multifunctional main ships of the fleet correlates poorly with the fact that the US Navy has 12 nuclear aircraft carriers - participants of all regional conflicts and indispensable observers in areas of heightened tension.
So, the most significant response to the changing geopolitical situation can be called a variety of ways to increase the effectiveness of the use of strike forces and invasion forces in various operational and tactical conditions and to give traditional types of ships a number of additional functions not related to combat operations.
On improving efficiency
The problem of the influence of scientific and technological progress on the appearance and effectiveness of naval technology is many-sided and voluminous.
The main trend and the most important product of the scientific and technological revolution was the solution of the problem of secrecy and stealth submarines and NK. In this case, we will understand by stealth the ability to remain undetected by various means of REV. It is clear that this mainly refers to the submarine. The concept of visibility is attributed primarily to the NK in the sense of detecting them by the homing systems of anti-ship missiles, as well as various paths of underwater weapons. It is these qualities that significantly influenced the appearance of modern submarines and NK.
The level of secrecy, as well as visibility, can not be quantitatively either constant or absolute. It is changing due to the continuous development of detection tools. Finding a goal earlier than being heard is the dilemma of an endless rivalry. Reducing the noise of modern submarines and the shift of their zone of action from the “deep water” to the coastal shallow water has significantly complicated the problem of detection by passive means. That is why the concept of acoustic stealth has become more voluminous and significant compared with the traditional definition of the noise of submarines. Active sonar tools are on the agenda in the deployment option of the so-called multi-static active detection systems in the secondary hydroacoustic field. Counteraction is the reduction of the power of the submarine target, which is a quantitative expression of the echo signal returned from the irradiated submarine. Another group of factors characterizing the subtlety of submarines is the fields of the electromagnetic group. Moreover, the role of these fields increases significantly with the movement of operations in the coastal zone of relative shallow water. From the point of view of both detection and submarine attacks, anti-submarine aircraft with highly sensitive magnetometers with a detection range of up to two kilometers today, as well as infrared equipment, pose the greatest danger to them. And in the Arctic (ice conditions), this is actually the only way. The large amount of information recorded by modern electromagnetic systems allows us to solve the problem of determining the distance, course of submarines and its classification.
The hydrophysical fields of the wake wake (HFP KS) are called a significant unmasking factor of submarines. Numerous publications show that NATO countries conduct extensive research and development projects to create non-acoustic detection means, by which temperature gradients, electrical conductivity, fluorescence and low concentrations of various SPs are recorded. With great confidence, we can assume that the submarines and NKs of leading maritime countries have on board HF detection equipment of the CS.
The subtlety of submarines actually justifies their necessity. This is due to the fact that after the discovery of the submarine becomes particularly vulnerable. As one foreign scientist wittily remarked, “poorly protected and having a small chance of surviving after the first strike, the submarine has the only means of defense - flight. This leads to the fact that some schools, in particular Russian and American, are trying to provide the submarines with very high speeds, sometimes more than 40 nodes. The range and speed of modern antisubmarine weapons make this method illusory. ”
The problem of stealth has already given rise to a pronounced tendency to reduce the maximum speeds of submarines and naval submarines. Thus, the maximum speeds of the most recent submarines of the Virginia, Astute, Baraccuda types are five to seven knots lower than those of previous generations. At a minimum, there are two reasons for this trend. The first is to increase the effectiveness of the SJC and increase the detection range. The second is associated with a decrease in the decrease in the maximum speed of resistance to movement and the required power. This in itself creates obvious prerequisites for the design of less vibroactive power equipment and propulsion. It is noted that at the same time a relatively low noise speed increases and the level of interference to the work of the GAK is reduced, which makes it possible to work in a passive mode. As follows from the press, on the Seawolf submarine such speed was brought to the 20 nodes. Conventionally, this speed can be called the second low noise, whereas the ten speed mentioned in the print is the lowest noise, when the noise level is determined only by the operation of machinery and equipment.
The visibility of a surface ship is a combination of the differences between its main signatures and the natural or artificial background in the upper and lower hemispheres. The nomenclature of signatures of NK includes several dozen names belonging to the three main groups of physical fields: electromagnetic, acoustic and hydrophysical. The complex of methods and means of protecting NK is usually combined with the term “stealth technology”. This complex includes architectural measures (often called them stealth technologies), various absorbing materials, as well as metamaterials and plasmon formations that implement the ideas of diffraction of an electromagnetic field. This direction is predicted as one of the most effective means of making NK invisible to anti-ship missiles. As part of the said complex, it is possible to call electronic warfare agents - active jamming stations and passive false targets. In the lower hemisphere, in addition to traditional ones, magnetic fields associated with corrosive currents and having long propagation ranges are playing an increasingly important role.
By the way, the term "stealth technology" is increasingly beginning to be used in relation to the submarine, especially in connection with measures to reduce the power of the submarine goal. In this regard, proposals and even the implementation of new configurations of the hull and protections of the protruding parts (“stealth architecture”), as well as new types of hydroacoustic coatings, are typical.
A special threat to NK, as well as for submarines, is sea mines. Modern multi-channel mines use all informational signs of physical fields. They are hardly noticeable for underwater search tools, are made of non-metallic materials, their enclosures have anti-location coatings. Vibrating devices are used for digging into the ground. By virtue of this, mines become practically non-leviable. To reduce the distance of operation of non-contact min systems, the need to reduce the primary fields of the ship is indicated, although at exhibitions (for example EURONAVAL-2012) a large number of BPA is presented to detect and destroy bottom mines (usually two BPA channels - optical and acoustic).
Constantly evolving trend was to give the ships multifunctionality. With regard to the submarine fleet, American experts see the expansion of the tasks of nuclear submarines as a result of new technologies and such a catalyst as the high vulnerability of surface forces operating in advanced areas, but not possessing secrecy. It is argued that new submarine concepts will emerge, free from the main focus of the Cold War on strategic deterrence and anti-submarine warfare. At the same time, acoustic and non-acoustic secrecy will remain a fundamental quality.
The multifunctionality of NK will be stimulated by the expansion of the range of tasks of the Navy, among which are called non-traditional tasks, different from the hostilities. One of the priority principles of ensuring multifunctionality is called modern technology of payloads. These technologies are aimed at achieving greater unification, flexibility and modularity, allowing the configuration of the payload to be easily modified for specific combat missions.
Examples of modular design and placement of payloads (missiles, outboard NLA, diving equipment) are visible on the submarine "Ohio" (variant with cruise missiles), "Jimmy Carter" (insert the multi-purpose section), "Virginia" and on a number of NK. The module-container design principle is another option for providing multi-functionality. The most graphic examples are the American ships of the type LCS, the German MEKO, the Danish type Flex 300.
Multifunctional weapon systems, such as modular vertical missile launch systems, are common abroad. One of the most modern is the MK 41 system, which provides storage and launching of SM-2, SM-3, Tomahawk, ASROK and other missiles. These systems are installed not only on American ships, but also on ships of many G20 countries.
The active development of the trend is the creation of a fully "electric ships".
Purpose:
In this case, the task is to win in weight and size and acoustic characteristics.
Today it is difficult to say which technical solutions will lead to the expected result. The destroyers of Great Britain ("type 45") and the USA ("Zumvolt") have not yet answered this question. The widely propagated superconductivity has not yet found practical application. Some results are seen in the civilian sector — large passenger liners and even cargo ships with full electric propulsion (high voltages - six kV and more, high-speed vehicles).
The task of developing and using unmanned underwater, surface and aircraft of a wide range of applications has become extremely relevant and ambitious. In fact, this family of weapons of the new type. Unmanned vehicles are assigned the role of partially assuming certain functions of the main attack forces of the fleet and the invasion forces in order to reduce the vulnerability of ships and increase the efficiency of using the main weapon. Among the tasks of unmanned vehicles are the detection of submarines, NK and targets, including active means in the composition of multi-static systems, target designation, ensuring continuous communication in all environments, percussion functions, reconnaissance and sabotage, mine action, air defense.
In this context, we mention the so-called gliders - gearless vehicles, moving in the water along a variable trajectory (immersion - ascent) only due to changes in buoyancy. The ideas of such devices were short messages at the end of 90's. Today there are active samples, for example, Seaexplorer, for research purposes. Their high stealth and high autonomy are attractive.
Many other technical solutions or ideas that in one way or another influence the appearance of ships help to increase the combat capabilities of the fleet:
About cost and financing
These and other well-known innovations can not affect the complexity and increase the cost of ships. This circumstance concerns all manufacturers and consumers of naval equipment.
Table 1
US estimates show an average annual increase in the cost of ships of about ten percent (table 1). This means that over the decade, the cost increases about 2,5 times.At the same time for different types of ships from one third to half of the cost accounted for labor compensation. The largest component of the cost - weapons, mechanisms, equipment. Similar data are given for UK ships. The main components of the annual 10-percent increase in the cost of construction are listed in the 2 table.
The Congressional Budget Office made the following conclusion on the shipbuilding program before 2012 adopted in 2041: “If during the next 30 years the construction of ships is funded in the same amounts as in the last three decades, the Navy will not have enough money for all purchases under the 2012 plan of the year. "
They are looking for a way out in building ships based on basic platforms, modular-modular construction methods, applying COTS technologies, and conducting special research and development projects to reduce labor intensity and cost. As an example, the data on the submarine "Virginia". As a result of the implementation of special R & D works already in the process of building 33, three strategic directions have been developed to increase the rate of construction and reduce submarines:
Result: the time of the construction of the seventh submarine is reduced by nine months, the expected complexity of the submarine commissioning in 2020 will be 48 percent of the main labor intensity, and the cost is about two billion dollars against 2,8.
Table 2
Reducing the cost of construction and the simultaneous increase in combat effectiveness is seen through the implementation of the modernization potential of ships. In foreign practice, this is achieved by an accelerated change of generations of weapons in relation to the life cycle of the ship - up to two or three shifts of generations on the original platform. The combination of high-volume construction with successive weapons modifications is recognized by the US Congress as the main focus of the 30-year shipbuilding program. As one of the examples - the extension of a series of destroyers of the Orly Burk type in exchange for the construction of the new generation UPO CG (X) cruiser.According to American analysts, the constant substantial increase in the combat capabilities of the fleet was possible thanks to stable funding for targeted research and development. They are conducted by numerous specialized laboratories, naval research centers, and venture centers of the DARPA type. Funding volumes and areas of work are regularly covered in military shipbuilding digests. But one feature deserves special mention. This research on large-scale models.
When designing the Sea Wolf and Virginia submarines, dozens of variants were tested on large-scale self-propelled models with a displacement of 150 and 200 tons and a horsepower power unit 3000 for selection of optimal propulsion units, shape and tail end. And this is in the presence of supercomputers and a unique large-size cavitation pipe - the main tool for the design of propulsion. According to American experts, this allowed us to obtain results that require 10 – 15 years of traditional research.
Another example. In France, when developing a new concept of a strategic submarine to replace the “Redoubtable”, the DGA Defense Ministry set a fantastic goal at that time: to reduce noise by a thousand times (60 DB, in foreign practice the decibel scale is calculated relative to the level of acoustic pressure by one micropascale, therefore a direct comparison with domestic ones data is impossible) and the detection range - ten times in relation to the existing submarine. Over the course of ten years, 20 spent thousands of hours on model experiments. Instead of the experimental basin liquidated in the center of Paris in the town of Val de Roy, a new hydrodynamic center with a unique large-sized cavrub was built. For experiments with real Reynolds numbers, large ONER wind tunnels were used. Despite this, several self-propelled models on the 1 to 10 scale were created and tested. Additionally, two old submarines were used as pilot platforms for studying hydrodynamic interference (flow noise) on the front end of the HAS antenna and pump pump propulsion. The results obtained for the Triumfant nuclear submarine were taken into account when designing the new multi-purpose submarine under the Barracuda program.
The last news It became information about the entry into the US Navy unmanned remote-controlled full-size ship - laboratory SDTS (Self Defense Test Ship). The ship was created on the basis of the destroyer type DD-1974 built in 964, the Spruence type. It is designed to conduct hazardous research in conditions as close as possible to the battle: testing promising samples of air defense, detection systems and command and control, self-defense means.
About the Navy without nuclear ships
A few words about the Navy of a large group of countries that are not yet members of the Nuclear Fleet Club. This group includes India, which is preparing to put into operation the first strategic submarine Arihant, Brazil, which announced the start of the design of the submarine.
The motivation for the development of the naval forces of most countries of this group are local interests related to border issues, various contradictions of developing countries, terrorism and piracy, and the protection of their economic zones. Non-nuclear submarines became predominant in the Navy of these countries, surface ships mainly of the frigate class.
Intentions to have a submarine demonstrate many countries, even non-G20. The total volume of the NNS market, according to various estimates, ranges from 300 to 400 units over the next decade. Mostly this submarine displacement 1500 – 2000 tons. The market of small submarines with a displacement of 500 – 1000 tons is considered promising. From the latest developments can be called the submarine project of the German TKMS-HDW. The displacement of submarines is 735 tons, the maximum speed is 12 knots, the depth of the dive is 150 meters, the air-independent power plant, the autonomy is 21 days, the crew is 15 people. Submarine objectives: PLO, the fight against NK, strikes on the shore, the blockade of sea communications, special operations. Three key submarine features are noted:
These "talents" are provided primarily through replaceable modules of various types of weapons, the use of COTS-technologies, different-purpose REV tools, and non-acoustic detection systems.
Potential naval base suppliers are five or six known countries. Today it is a diesel-electric submarine. At the same time, the NNS market is increasingly being filled with submarine proposals with air-independent installations. The most advanced technologies are based on the use of fuel cells - the leader is Germany, the French technology "Mecmo" and the Stirling engines are the leader of Sweden. The competition to these practically mastered technologies is made also by others, promising in addition to increase underwater autonomy.
Non-nuclear submarines, especially with air-independent installations, have increased secrecy. Significant difficulties of their detection by passive means are also connected with the peculiarities of the propagation of acoustic signals in shallow water. On the other hand, the submarine voyage in a relatively shallow sea environment forms spatio-temporal irregularities in the wake wake — additional signs of unmasking.
From surface ships one of the main classes is called frigates. Their construction has become quite massive, which is associated both with the replacement of obsolete ships, and with the need to give them multifunctionality to solve a wider range of tasks. The new generation of frigates, the bulk of which will be built during the 2015 – 2035 period, will have the functions of air defense, air defense and anti-missile defense. Modular principles in a broad aspect - a distinctive feature of the frigates. This and the placement of REV in specialized or standard containers, modules with "flexible payload."
Competition of countries - exporters of frigates is the most severe. It is aggravated by the desire of importing countries, after acquiring a limited number of ships, to develop their own construction under license or according to their own project. The fight for the market encourages weapons developers and designers to search for the most advanced technical solutions: ultra-long-range torpedoes, low-frequency active-passive HAC, HAC using effects of specular reflection of emitted dual pulses to detect objects in the coastal zone, non-lethal weapons. Variants of ships with full electric propulsion, hybrid installations, the use of composites are considered. At the same time, it is noted that the price factor will play a certain role in the competition. In any case, the mention of the desire to reduce the cost of construction a lot.
Instead of a conclusion
The author agrees in advance that the topic put is far from fully disclosed and, of course, requires additional coverage. And instead of concluding two theses.
1. Among researchers and developers of marine engineering, the question of the primary determinants of the development of the Navy periodically arises. On the one hand, the tasks generated by the balance of power, the geography of hot spots, new geopolitical challenges, definitely cause new demands on promising technology, affect its appearance. On the other hand, new knowledge, research, revolutionizing technologies and developments, which in turn open up the possibility of solving new problems in the military and naval sphere of activity. Of course, these are counter-parallel processes, the integral of which is the appearance of the ship of the future.
Fig. 2
There is an opinion, recorded in the forecast of technologies of the US Navy before 2035, also having the right to be discussed. Its essence is that it is premature to predetermine the promising Navy platforms. The way of preparing new technologies, demonstrating their success and the subsequent formation on the basis of these technologies and the cost-effectiveness analysis of the concept of new IUDs was called more cautious.And the main conclusion is the vision of the future naval forces as dispersed, flexible, multifunctional, subtle and with minimal vulnerability (Fig. 2).
2. There is no need to accept unconditionally foreign assessments of the state of the Navy and the technological capabilities of countries in strengthening military power. However, it is impossible to ignore them and conclusions must be made. The main one was once again clearly voiced at the annual meeting of the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences in December 2012: “Today, more than ever, the task of forming a scientific and technical reserve for creating advanced weapons and military equipment is acute for the Russian Armed Forces.”
It is also impossible not to draw attention to the need to remove barriers in the development of new technologies, create a legislative space for motivating business to finance new developments, and also in reducing the role of administrative resources as a competitor to innovative industries.
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