Polundra! French UDC is coming to us

January 21 2011 2

Moscow presented a truly royal gift to Paris

By the evening of the Catholic-Protestant Christmas Eve, that is, 24 December 2010, the news came about the results of the tender for the purchase of the Russian Navy of universal landing ships. The sensation did not happen. The winner was the French UDC “Mistral”, which, as the Paris newspaper La Tribune indicates, was the Kremlin’s Christmas present to the Elysée Palace.

True, the French were not allowed to achieve an absolutely clear victory. The order will receive a consortium, which includes the French state company DCNS and the Russian United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC). Thanks to the persistent efforts of USC, it was possible to repel 20% participation in the construction of the first building, which the French side had stubbornly opposed. According to the upcoming contract, as reported by the agency RIAK "News»Head of the USC press service Igor Ryabov, Russia will receive technologies for the production of combat information and control systems, as well as communication systems. The share of localization, that is, participation, of Russian enterprises will grow from body to body. The third and fourth UDC are planned to be assembled entirely at the Admiralty Shipyards. However, it is not clear whether this will happen at all. Indeed, in September last year, the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Anatoly Serdyukov, said that in the budget of the department headed by him, expenditures for these purposes up to 2020 of the year are not provided.

"UNPRECEDENTED" TRANSACTION

In a statement from the Elysée Palace, the deal is called "unprecedented." Still would! For many years, DCNS tried to sell the Mistral UDC abroad. And all without sense. And then the first hull will go for 720 million euros, and the second - for 650 million. While the French Navy two such ships cost 1 billion euros. Of course, everything becomes more expensive! In addition, the Russian version of the French “North wind” will require a rather serious reworking of the project. And it costs money.

The contract, which is still to be concluded, will give work to four thousand French shipbuilders at the STX-France shipyard in Saint-Nazaire during four years. The French-Russian deal more than compensates for the reduction of the military budget of the Fifth Republic by 1 billion euros in 2011 under the article “Procurement of military equipment”.

That is, for the French side, the advantages of the forthcoming transaction are obvious. And for the Russian? “Independent Military Review” has repeatedly addressed this topic. As noted more than once, ships of this class do not need the Russian Navy at all. They do not correspond to the provisions of the country's defense doctrine, nor to the standards established by domestic military shipbuilding. It is possible to assess the intellectual abilities of modern Russian naval commanders in different ways, but the fact that in two years they have not been able to come up with anything sensible about the tasks that these ships will perform demonstrates a lot.

Talking about the "Mistral" will bring us some unprecedented shipbuilding technology, you should not be taken seriously. All these technologies, and many more advanced ones, can be freely acquired on the world market, including through foreign companies operating in Russia.

Therefore, a deal with Paris can only be viewed as a sort of revenge for France for the defeat in the Patriotic War of the 1812 of the year, the bicentennial of which will be celebrated next year. And this is almost no irony. The current president of the Fifth Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, associates himself with Napoleon Bonaparte. No more and no less! No wonder the artist of the site FreakingNews.com, imitating David's canvas, depicted Sarkozy in the clothes of the emperor, galloping on a dashing horse. And whoever had the honor to beat the Russians. He is the main driving force of the upcoming contract. French voters should know that “Sarko”, as the citizens of the republic call their head of state, can not only raise the retirement age, but also send Moscow the ships they don't need for big money. True, even the closest allies of Paris - the Americans, as is evident from the correspondence of the staff of the US State Department, published on WikiLeaks, assess the owner of the Elysian Palace as “the naked king”.

But as German vice-chancellor and foreign minister Guido Westerwelle noted, “you never know what will happen when Sarkozy participates in the case.” Obviously, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev somehow got under the “fascinating” biofield of the French president. Because without his “good”, such a deal is simply not possible to take place.

Conjectures on this topic are built a lot. So French publicist and founder of the Internet project Reseau Voltaire Thierry Meyssan argues that “Medvedev agreed with Sarkozy about significant commissions (about 8% of the total contract value), thanks to which Medvedev could pay for his election campaign against his“ old friend ”Putin, and Sarkozy would be able to finance his re-election. ” This seems unlikely, since 8% of 1,37 billion euros is a negligible amount for the presidential campaign, at least in Russia. Other sources say that the purchase of "Mistral" - a form of gratitude to the French president for his assistance in resolving the conflict around South Ossetia. But even without that, Sarkozy acquired unprecedented political capital, “appeasing” the parties that had already ceased firing. That is, this motive is not suitable. But the motive is definitely there. We do not know him yet, so we will not guess.

In captivity of the illusion?

However, it would be unfair to blame the "insidious" French in everything. Many of the strings that led to, to put it mildly, the debatable deal, of course, are of Russian origin. In recent years, naval construction in the Russian Federation has acquired a virtual-fantastic character. For example, the presidential address to the Federal Assembly in November 2009 of the year stated that the fleet in 2010 would be supplemented with three nuclear submarines and a corvette. But even then it was clear that, for a number of objective reasons, the Navy of the Russian Federation would receive nothing of the kind. Alas, that's what happened. Last year, the Navy included only the St. Petersburg diesel electric submarine, which was built from December 1997. And the fighting surface forces were strengthened only by the anti-sabotage boat “Rook” with a displacement of about 140 tons. The president of such a huge country as Russia is not obliged to know all the nuances of the implementation of a government program, including the shipbuilding program. For this, he has relevant assistants and advisers who are called upon to objectively inform the head of state. But, apparently, the level of training of these experts is much lower than permissible. Or they are guided by other, unknown to us considerations. History with "Mistral" - proof of this.

On the Internet it is easy to get acquainted with the naval composition of the Navy fleet Of Russia. On different sites, the payroll is slightly different from each other, but invariably leaves a sad impression. And given that far from all the ships listed on the list can tear themselves away from the piers, because they have not been repaired for a long time, the picture looms and is completely gloomy. In fact, the Russian fleet is carrying ships built back in the era of Sergei Gorshkov. And at that time ...

Let's say that a certain Russian family needs to replace an old Moskvich breathing with incense with a new car. And suddenly this family decides to buy instead of the Ford Focus, the modest Renault, the Patriot, or at the worst of the new Lada double decker — a double-decker city bus that runs through the streets of London. It is clear that the neighbors will think about this family. It is clear that they think of us with “Mistrals” in other countries. Some even rub hands with pleasure. So these Russians will become even weaker! Indeed, we were born to make Kafka come true.

And it was not for nothing that at negotiations with the Americans, who at first energetically objected to the deal, the French high-ranking officials emphasized the “complete security” of the UDC of the “Mistral” type for NATO. So Roland Galyarazh, Assistant French Foreign Minister for Continental Europe, according to WikiLeaks, assured his overseas counterparts that this landing ship was “a cross between a truck and an oil tanker with some useful navigation tools”. In the same vein, French Defense Minister Hervé Morin also spoke at the talks with Pentagon chief Robert Gates. Say, "Mistral" will not have any impact on increasing the combat potential of the Russian fleet. However, all this has long been known without Roland Galyarazh and Herve Moren, who is now retired.

Many compare Sarkozy with Bonaparte.
Illustration from FreakingNews.com

NOT ARMED, BUT VERY DANGEROUS

But the Russian ships, these ships will bring a lot. We will quickly list the problems that will have to be solved during the implementation of the Mistral construction program. Let's start from the top, that is, from the flight deck. It will be necessary to raise it more than a meter compared to the basic project. This need is due to the fact that Russian helicopters, which will be based on UDC, have a greater height than those that now "live" on French ships. And without that high-breasted “Mistral” has excess windage. Now it will increase. In addition, the "growth" of the board will inevitably entail a decrease in metacentric height. All this in stormy conditions and when icing threatens to overturn.

Go down to the floor below - in the helicopter hangar. He has already been raised to the meter. But the problems are not limited to this. Helicopter refueling fuel is supplied from two tanks that are below the waterline in the stern of the ship. That is, fuel lines pulled from afar. This is permissible with regard to French helicopters, since they use fuel with a higher flash point for refueling than on domestic helicopters. In other words, the ship will have to burn out, or it will be necessary to redo the entire system of refueling and storage of fuel for domestic requirements. The third solution to this problem is the purchase of Eurocopter helicopters, and the fuel for them from Western energy companies.

The elevators that lift helicopters from the hangars to the flight deck will also have to be redone, since the existing ones are unsuitable for transporting domestic vehicles with suspended weapons.

Let’s go down even lower - to the deck where the armored vehicles are located. There are problems with her too. The weight of each combat unit should not exceed 30–32 tons. This means that there will not be any tanks. In total, five T-90 tanks will fit on the ship: three on the platform in front of the docking chamber, that is closer to the bottom, and two on two landing ships of the project 11770 "Serna". More than two such DKAs will not fit in the dock of the French UDC. The air-cushion landing craft of projects 1206 “Squid” and 12061 “Murena” do not even go through the gates of the docking chamber in height. Therefore, it will be necessary to create new amphibious assault landing craft under the Mistral. Of course, this task is for TsMKB "Almaz", TsKB for SPK them. R.E. Alekseeva or Design Bureau "Pennant" doable. But it will take time and money.

Now about the sides of the Mistral. They have wide “windows” that provide natural ventilation on the helicopter deck and on the one where the vehicle armor is located. This is very convenient in temperate and tropical latitudes, but in the northern and subpolar waters from them, except for harm, nothing, since they guarantee the icing of the equipment. Representatives of French firms have already said that the "windows" will be closed. But then you have to create a very extensive system of forced ventilation. And this will entail a significant rework of the structure and the corresponding considerable expenses.

According to the testimony of the Central Naval Portal, Russian specialists who had a chance to get acquainted with the technical documentation of the Mistral indicate that the ship’s hull does not have ice reinforcement, and this, given the conditions in which the Russian Navy has to act, practically excludes the UDC base of this type in the Baltic, the Pacific, and especially in the North. The hull of the ship near the waterline has clearly defined S-shaped contours, which will lead to a significant increase in loads when overcoming the ice field. In addition, the presence of the nasal bulba, designed to improve ride quality, is also not conducive to ensuring ice strength. And a simple thickening of the board will not succeed. Experts conclude that a substantial reworking of the theoretical drawing is necessary. And this actually means the development of a new project ship. One of the recognized authorities in the field of military shipbuilding, retired rank 1 captain, doctor of technical sciences, specialist in systems analysis and design of complex systems, Vladislav Nikolsky, co-author (together with Vladimir Kuzin) of the fundamental and already classic work - encyclopedia "Navy The USSR 1945 – 1991 ”, after a careful study of the“ Mistral ”during the visit to St. Petersburg, told the ARMS-TASS news agency that“ many technical decisions taken on this ship were so nna that they do not apply, even on the newest amphibious ships of the US Navy. " In particular, we are talking about a single electric power plant using submerged main electric motors placed in propeller-steering columns (of the Azipod type). Such a propulsion complex provides ease and speed of maneuvering. But he has serious drawbacks. First of all, this is a low speed (18 nodes compared to 22 – 24 nodes in universal landing craft of the US and Spanish Navy) and high cost. Finally, the operation of such an installation will require frequent docking for inspection of the main electric motors. A dock for such ships in Russia, especially in the Pacific, there is a very limited number. That is why it is necessary to replace the power plant and propulsion units with more powerful and simple ones.

It is unlikely that French firms will be able to eliminate these far from all the listed disadvantages of the basic project. Therefore, we have to be content with cosmetic alterations.

We are not saying that the “Mistral” is not able to withstand the load in the conditions of the use of nuclear weapons. And in general, “a cross between a truck and an oil tanker,” created according to the standards of civil shipbuilding, is not able to withstand a hydrodynamic impact during a close underwater explosion. Meanwhile, both of these regulatory requirements are mandatory when designing ships for the Russian Navy.

Much has already been said about the weak armament of the French helicopter carrier, or rather, about its almost complete absence. In the base case, it consists of two twin turret systems with Simbad MANPADS with a maximum range of 4,5 – 5 km, two 30-mm Breda-Mauser automatic cannons and four Browning 12,7-mm machine guns designed to scare off terrorist ports and harbors. That is, even the means of self-defense on the “Mistrals” are very modest, if not conditional. It is explainable. The French fleet is able to provide helicopter carriers with a reliable escort of missile destroyers and frigates. By that time, when the Russian “Mistrals” will be commissioned, there will be almost no ships of such classes in the Russian Navy. And it will be necessary to accompany the UDC to collect from the world by thread.

The planned increase in the armament of helicopter carriers is self-deception. What can be placed on them? One or two 100-mm guns, one or two launchers of the air defense system of the near-boundary defense and three or four duets. This is a maximum that will inevitably result in a decrease in metacentric height and lead to a deterioration in stability. Meanwhile, the Mistrals are excellent targets for missile boats and submarines, not to mention aviation.

A few words about what changes the Russian UDC of French origin will undergo. According to Vedomosti, two-triple cabins for the crew and marines will be replaced by less comfortable cabin. After all, simple sailors and more is not required!

So, the Mistrals are not armed, but very dangerous for the crews serving them. Considering the high risks of sailing on them, contract sailors employed in the fleet, it is fit to demand when drawing up the relevant documents to include a clause on the refusal to serve on these UDCs or to receive special insurance poles guaranteeing high payments in case of accidents, fires and other damage to the servicemen themselves, and in case of their death to members of families burnt or drowned. And the fate of the seamen-conscripts should be taken care of in advance by activists from the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers.

HOW A Plywood OVER PARIS

On the night of July 29, last year, on the Sennaya Square of St. Petersburg, the 18-meter Peace Tower, which was donated by France to the city on the Neva River on the occasion of its 300 anniversary, was quietly dismantled. The original architectural design of glass, stainless steel and concrete, after standing for seven years in conditions of sudden changes in temperature, began to crumble, creating a threat to citizens. That is why the St. Petersburg authorities considered it to be demolished.

The seas around Russia differ from the northern capital in even more adverse weather conditions. There are severe frosts with impassable ice, and violent storms. This was again confirmed by the recent rescue operation in the Sakhalin Bay, where several vessels were stuck in ice captivity. And it is possible that the UDC will suffer the same fate as the Tower of Peace. Only this architectural monument - a gift, but for the "Mistral" will have to pay. And a lot. And Russia will fly with the French ships, like plywood over Paris.

Of course, competent fleet commanders will find a way out. Put "Mistral" in some quiet coves. And when the Moscow bosses visit them, they will drive out the tinted “overseas miracle” to the raid, build the crews along the side with shouts of “hurray”, lift helicopters into the sky. And here it is, a celebration of the strength and power of the national fleet! And then these UDC, you see, they will safely rust and will be sent for scrapping.