Underwater lighting systems. Current issues and press disputes
In addition to new military facilities in the northern regions of the country, components of the Unified Arctic Lighting System should appear. Using this system, it is planned to monitor the air, surface and underwater conditions, which will allow timely notice of emerging threats and take the necessary measures. One of the main elements of the new complex should be the so-called. The Unified State System for Lighting of the Surface and Underwater Conditions (EGSSONPO), which will work in the interests of the naval fleet. Its main task will be to collect information about the situation in the northern seas, as well as search for various ships, submarines and other potentially dangerous objects.
It should be noted that the development of EGSONPO started a long time ago - the corresponding order appeared at the beginning of the two thousandth years. However, to date, only some individual elements of such a system have been created, and the beginning of the operation of a full-fledged complex still belongs to the foreseeable future. Such features of the project can not but cause concern of the military department, specialists and the interested public. In recent weeks, the national press has even developed a real discussion on the prospects for monitoring the Arctic.
11 February, the newspaper “Military Industrial Courier” published an article “Homeless Arctic” authored by Rear Admiral of the Institute Atoll, Rear Admiral Sergei Zhandarov. In this publication, S. Zhandarov once again raised the issue of building a system for tracking the situation on the seas surrounding Russia. Earlier, the reserve rear admiral repeatedly addressed this problem: in recent years he has published several articles that revealed the features of the current situation and made certain proposals.
The author began his article “Stray Arctic” with a reminder that the construction of EGSONPO was set by the document “Fundamentals of the Russian Federation policy in the field of naval activities before 2010 of the year” adopted by 15 years ago - 4 of March 2000 of the year. The deadlines indicated in the “Fundamentals of Politics” ended several years ago, but Russia still does not have an EGSONPO defending the northern borders. Currently, work is carried out in accordance with the Strategy for the Development of the Maritime Activity of the Russian Federation before the 2030 Year, adopted at the end of the 2010 year.
S. Zhandarov recalls that the “Strategy” clearly indicates the goals and deadlines for the implementation of the EGSONPO construction project. Thus, the Unified System should cover with its equipment the exclusive economic zone of the country. At the same time, by the year 2012 it was necessary to “close” the Arctic direction by 30%, and by 2020 - by 50%.
Currently, in order to protect the northern borders of the country, the Ministry of Defense is engaged in several projects related to the restoration of existing and construction of new facilities in the Arctic. The main work in this direction is planned to be completed by the end of this year. In addition, a joint strategic command has already been formed, which will be responsible for the actions of the troops in this area, and exercises are being held with the landing of troops on the ice.
In parallel, recalls S. Zhandarov, funding is allocated for the design work. Thus, the federal target program “Development of OPK-2020” for the period 2011-2014 provided for 3,2 a billion rubles to organize the groundwork for the creation of an integrated network-centric underwater observation system. However, such a system still does not exist and does not monitor the situation in a strategically important area.
The author of the publication "Stray Arctic" recalls that from 2000 to 2013, the year in our country was developed and put into service one stationary hydroacoustic complex. However, this system has not yet been installed, and instead of these works, according to S. Zhandarov, the officials of the Ministry of Defense prefer to open new projects, design and development and research.
Illustrating the complexity of the situation, the Rear Admiral of the reserve recalls the events of the past year. According to him, from February 11 to 13, the American submarine USS New Hampshire (SSN 778) monitored the Russian ships in the Barents Sea and revealed the Northern Fleet's strategic containment.
In conclusion of his article, S. Zhandarov noted that for reasons of secrecy he has no right to disclose all the details of the current situation. Nevertheless, he believes that this should be done, since the reports to the military and political leadership of the country have not yet been heard.
The article “Homeless Arctic” by S. Zhandarova raises a major problem: despite several years of work and solid funding, the program to build the Unified State System for Lighting Surface and Underwater Situations is far from complete. Some successes have already been achieved, but construction must continue for quite a long time.
It should be noted that in the discussions of the article there are different opinions, from the full support of the author to suspicions of bad intentions. Since S. Zhandarov is one of the leaders of the Atoll Research Institute, which develops various systems for the fleet, he is accused of lobbying the interests of his organization and trying to "knock out" a new order for his institute. Nevertheless, one should not forget that in the defense industry the interests of individual enterprises often coincide with the interests of the state in the field of security. In addition, S. Zhandarov, suspected of lobbying, raises an important issue directly related to the security of strategically important regions.
Exactly one month after the “Homeless Arctic”, the newspaper “Military Industrial Courier” published a new material on the development of surveillance systems in the northern regions. The reason for writing a new article "Hydroacoustic sadness" for the authorship of Maxim Klimov, allegedly, was the publication of S. Zhandarov. M. Klimov indicated his agreement with S. Zhandarov on the importance and severity of existing problems, but noted that the content of his article and the proposed solutions to the problem can be argued.
M. Klimov recalled that the technical level of Okepribor OJSC, which is the main developer of new hydroacoustic systems, as well as other enterprises in the industry, is quite high. There is no serious gap in quality between domestic and foreign developments. Nevertheless, Russian specialists are lagging behind their foreign counterparts in the ideology and concept of building hydro-acoustic complexes, which accordingly affects the combat qualities of their developments.
M. Klimov believes that the responsible persons understand the situation and take measures to get out of it. Nevertheless, the course of work and the characteristics of new systems are still affected by negative factors in the form of the problems of the past decades and the late start of attempts to rectify the situation. In addition, the author of the article “Hydroacoustic Sadness” recalled the difference in the methods of project management. Thus, foreign developers conducted large-scale studies, as well as engaged in full-scale testing of new systems, including the involvement of entire ship groups. As a result, foreign experts managed to find the most convenient and sophisticated technical solutions that were later used in practice. For obvious reasons, Russian engineers now cannot use this approach.
The article “Hydroacoustic sorrow” also mentions other features of foreign developments. So, in the fifties of the last century, the United States began the deployment of a strategic underwater lighting system (FOSS) called SOSUS. The various components of this system, distributed across the oceans, made it possible to search for enemy submarines with great efficiency. In the sixties, the US Navy mastered the operation of SOSUS together with a patrol aviation, surface ships and other equipment equipped with sonar systems, which increased the efficiency of the search tasks. Finally, in the eighties, the SURTASS system was built, based on new ideas. The main difference from SOSUS was the creation of a continuous zone of hydroacoustic lighting in the right areas, which are of great importance from the point of view of strategy.
Such an idea, tested in practice and confirmed its advantages, has not yet become widespread among the responsible persons of Russia. Here M. Klimov points to the problems of ideas promoted by S. Zhandarov, namely his proposals for using an upgraded version of the IGC-608 complex or similar systems. According to M. Klimov, such ideas, despite the existing progress, more resemble the SOSUS system than the more modern FOSS. For these reasons, the outdated ideology of the complex should have an impact on the combat capabilities of the complex, including on combat stability. When using modern search tools, the proposed complex can be “neutralized” by detecting and destroying some of its elements.
In addition, M. Klimov strongly disagrees with S. Zhandarov on the feasibility of creating new FOSS on the network-centric principle. He believes that it is this architecture that is capable of creating a highly efficient, stable and relatively inexpensive system. High priority is given to the use of standardized components with an acceptable cost. M. Klimov also proposes in some cases to sacrifice the characteristics of the complex in favor of saving budget funds.
In the matter of organizing underwater lighting systems, there is a specific problem related to the detection of targets and the transfer of information. For certain reasons, a single submarine, discovered using sonar complexes, accounts for a number of objects that are not enemy equipment. Thus, the information collected in full must be processed at the fleet level in order to identify and attack real targets. In addition, this should be followed by the release of information to the National Center for Defense Management, which should receive information only about real targets. It is also necessary to create an integrated FOSS, which will include both stationary systems and hydroacoustic complexes of ships, submarines or anti-submarine aircraft.
Unfortunately, several proposals concerning the introduction of new ideas, including those “peeped” in foreign developments, have not yet come to consideration. The defense industry and fleet command abandoned these ideas for organizational reasons. So, M. Klimov recalls the proposal to test the Irbis hydroacoustic complex, installed on the Nerpa submarine with illumination from external emitters. This proposal was not implemented due to the negative reaction of the management of the Amur Shipbuilding Plant.
M. Klimov refers to the article “Are there modern sonar weapons in Russia?” By well-known hydroacoustics specialists Valentin and Viktor Leksin. They wrote that to create an EGSONPO, modern, efficient and non-unmasking equipment is needed. At the same time, however, the fulfillment of the military requirements for 2020 is impossible when using only hydroacoustic complexes of submarines and similar stationary accommodation systems, since their number is limited and affects the combat capabilities of the entire FOSS. Lexins believe that a promising underwater lighting system should be built on the basis of compact passive stationary sonar systems with a network of remote receivers suitable for rapid deployment in the desired area.
Such an FOSS architecture imposes the corresponding requirements on the equipment used. For example, the main "raw material" for the construction of such a system may become radio acoustic buoys. In addition, small equipment is required that is easy to maintain and repair. Thus, to create highly efficient underwater lighting systems, it is necessary to use integrated circuits and other small-sized equipment. In this area there is a big lag behind foreign developments, which is required to be considered when creating new systems.
On the whole, M. Klimov agrees with Lexins, however, he believes that modern FOSS needs not only passive, but also active mode, i.e. sonar. Such a regime can improve the characteristics of the system, as well as ensure the use of the hydroacoustic complex for other purposes, for example, for sound-guided communication. In addition, sonar is an effective tool for detecting targets in a combat environment.
The publication Hydroacoustic Grief also addresses a specific issue related to FOSS support systems. According to M. Klimov, one should reject the idea of installing sonar systems using special cable vessels or underwater lighting ships. Such vessels can be detected and identified by the enemy, after which the destruction of the hydroacoustic complex becomes not too complicated.
Therefore, the navy needs a number of appropriate equipment and special equipment. Thus, in the installation of FOSS, the surface fleet can be represented by corvettes of the protection of water areas with a set of special equipment, with the help of which they will be able to install the necessary equipment or use various uninhabited and non-crewed vehicles. Submarines, in turn, can be equipped with special containers for transportation and installation of FOSS elements.
According to M. Klimov, remotely controlled equipment is of great interest in the context of EGSONPO and FOSS. Unmanned underwater or unmanned surface vehicles can be used for various purposes, including as carriers of a low-frequency radiator, which will work in conjunction with the ship's sonar system or submarine carrier. Due to the possibility of remotely controlled technology to the optimum position, you can increase the range or depth of target detection, as well as increase the system's resistance to interference.
From the two articles, “Stray Arctic” and “Hydroacoustic Grief”, it follows that our country has quite serious problems with the construction of new surveillance systems for underwater and surface situations. However, there are some developments in this direction. On the basis of existing ideas and projects, some of which, for obvious reasons, are classified, in the foreseeable future, the construction of EGSONPO, set by the current “Development Strategy of the Maritime Activity of the Russian Federation to 2020 of the Year”, will continue. At the same time, during the development of new systems, it is necessary to use not only existing own developments, but also time-tested ideas borrowed from foreign projects.
The current situation around EGSONPO in general and prospective FOSS in particular has one curious feature. The most important topic in the context of protecting the northern frontiers is discussed by experts not only in the closed regime, but also in the press. In this way, it is possible to draw public attention to existing problems, as well as start a full-scale discussion with the participation of a wide range of competent individuals. The result of this should be the formation of a full-fledged appearance of promising systems that fully meet the requirements of the customer and are almost free from any shortcomings. Nevertheless, the program of construction of EGSONPO in the Arctic is far from complete. Scientists, designers and the military will have to make considerable efforts to complete all the necessary work and build a modern system for detecting enemy ships and submarines.
On the materials of the sites:
http://vpk-news.ru/
http://svpressa.ru/
http://vpk.name/
Articles "Stray Arctic" and "hydroacoustic sadness":
http://vpk-news.ru/articles/23788
http://vpk-news.ru/articles/24184
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