Admirals need atomic submarines
Brazil is far from the traditional for the world stories theaters of war, at least in our European understanding of it. And its history as an independent state cannot be compared with the countries of the Old World. The country gained independence only in 1822 year, and before that it was ruled by the Portuguese crown. However, all this did not prevent Brazil from becoming one of the leading naval powers of Latin America, whose fleet in the Western Hemisphere is second only to the US Navy in terms of combat potential. In addition, today Brazil is the only Latin American country that implements a large-scale program to create modern submarine forces, and in the future - a nuclear submarine.
AND INCLUDING SPECIAL FORCE
The Navy is currently one of the three types of Brazilian Armed Forces and organizationally includes a fleet, Aviation, marines, as well as units and units of special purpose, rear, etc.
The Brazilian Navy is headed by the Minister of Navy, who oversees the national Navy through the headquarters of the Navy, command of maritime operations and general command of the marines. The main headquarters of the Navy is located in Brasilia. The headquarters includes the Admiralty, the Department of Hydrography and Navigation, the research and development department, the personnel department, the logistics department and the general secretariat.
The command of maritime operations includes the command of the surface fleet, submarine forces, naval aviation, as well as control of maritime shipping and naval areas.
It should be noted that the division of the special operations forces is subordinate to the head of the command of the submarine forces - a separate elite squad of GRUMEC combat swimmers (Grupamento de Mergulhadores de Combate, the official creation date is December 12 of 1997). This is a Brazilian naval special forces, whose personnel was prepared by American and French military instructors. The training of personnel of this squad is carried out at special 6-month training courses at the Center of the Underwater Systems of the Brazilian Navy, located in the basement of Niteroi. The main part of the teachers and instructors of the center today are the French military. The training program for Brazilian combat swimmers includes preparation for conducting any type of reconnaissance and sabotage operations (actions). The detachment has a special “capture and rescue” special group (GERR / MEC) numbering about 50 people, designed to carry out operations to rescue hostages held by sea, river vessels or in the jungle, as well as to free oil platforms, ships, etc. P.
FOCUSED ON GERMAN GENIUS
Submarine forces are among the most numerous, modern and efficient in Latin America. The main base of the Brazilian submariners is the Admiral Castro e Silva naval base near Rio de Janeiro. There are five non-nuclear submarines in combat, including four Tupi type diesel-electric submarines and one Tikuna type diesel-electric submarines (Tikuna, an improved version of the Tupi type submarines), which are modifications of the famous German project 209 Type (respectively Type 209 / 1400 and Type 209 / 1400Mod).
The Tupi-type head submarine (S30) was built by the German HDW shipyard in Kiel in 1989, and the remaining three Tamoyo (S31), Timber (S32) and Tapayo (S33) ships were built in 1994– 1999 years already at the Brazilian shipyard in Rio de Janeiro (Arsenal Navy) from materials and kits obtained from Germany. It is worth noting that under the original contract from 1984 of the year to the end of 1990-s it was planned to build four submarines of the Tupi type in Brazil, and then two more on an improved project. As a result, only three submarines of the Tupi type and one submarine of the improved project - of the Tikun type (project SNAC-1) were built. The latter was laid by the shipyards in 1997, launched in April 2000, and subsequently transferred to the fleet.
The advanced Tikun (S34) differs from the basic project by an increased displacement (above-water - by 600 t more, underwater - by almost 1 kt. More), by increased dimensions (length - by 6 m more, width - by 2 m), increased up to 300 m depth, as well as expanded weapons - new torpedoes "Bofors-2000", anti-ship missiles "Exocet" or "Sub-Harpoon", the total 16 ammunition missiles and torpedoes (or up to 32 min type MCF-01 / 100 instead of torpedoes) torpedoes), and the new shipboard fire control system of the ISUS 83-13 type.
The second submarine of this type, the Tapuya (S 35), was never built (initially it was planned to introduce it into the fleet's combat strength in the 2005 year). The preference was given to the purchase of a batch of submarines of the type "Scorpena".
As part of the MODSUB program, Tupi-type submarines were upgraded: the contract worth 35 million dollars, issued to 29 in January 2008, is performed by Lockheed Martin. As part of the modernization, it is planned to install a new automated combat control system (ASBU) type AN / BYG-501 Mod. 1D (Lockheed Martin), as well as the improvement of auxiliary mechanisms, sonar and electronic weapons, weapons control systems, self-defense and navigation.
OSI Geospatial Inc. supplies the ECPINS navigation system for the submarines, which will be integrated with the BIUS / ASBU and will replace the similar Calypso III system from Thomson-CSF, while the KAFS-A10 automated data processing system will be replaced by the SUBTICS ASBU developed by UDS International, a division of DCNS. In addition, the submarines will receive new side antennas of the GUS, and the Mk. 24 Tigerfish (Tigerfish) from Marconi Underwater Systems Ltd are being replaced by Raytheon’s Mk48 Mod6AT. Work on the first Tapayo submarine (S 33) was completed in 2011. The contract provides for an appropriate modernization of the onshore training center of submarine forces.
FRENCH ASSISTANCE
29 January 2008 Brazil entered into a large-scale military-technical cooperation agreement with France, under which 23 December 2008 was signed preliminary, and 3 September 2009 was the final, more detailed contract on the provision of assistance to France in upgrading the Brazilian naval forces (cost contracts - about 6,7 billion euros).
In particular, the Brazilian government entered into a contract with French shipbuilders for the supply of four “Scorpene” type naval subs (Scorpene, modified in Scorpene S-BR), specially modified to meet the requirements of the Brazilian Navy. The new submarines are categorized as Riachuelo, and they plan to include the Exocset SM39 Block 2 Mod 2 into their armament. Submarines will also receive ASBU SUBTICS, S-CUBE hydro-acoustic complex from Thales Underwater Systems (TUS) and Sagem lifting-mast devices.
The contractor is the BSC company (Baia de Sepetiba Consortium), a joint venture of the French DCNS and the Brazilian Odebrecht Defesa e Technologia (Odebrecht Defense and Technology), and the actual construction of the submarines is carried out at the ICN shipyard (Itaguai Construcoes Navais), which became the founders of the DCT, which became the founders of the company, and Odebrecht Defesa e Technologia and NUCLEP (Nuclebras Equipamentos Pesados S / A). The latter specializes in nuclear technology. It is assumed that these submarines will be included in the combat structure of the submarine forces of the Brazilian Navy in the period starting with 2016 – 2017, with an interval of two years and will be named after Brazilian geographic objects: “Rihuuello” (S40, 2016 – 2017), “Humaita ”(Humaita, S41, 2018), Tonelero (Tonelero, S42, 2020) and Angostura (Angostura, S43, 2022).
ALL FORCES - AT ATTIC
Brazil’s military-political leadership pays special attention to the extremely ambitious submarine shipbuilding program — developing and building on its own, but not without the help of foreign experts, a multi-purpose nuclear submarine displacing about 6 KT (received the designation SN-BR), which is in the budget It is planned to allocate about 1,4 billion dollars. Moreover, the project to create its own nuclear submarine, the first steps on which in Brazil were taken in 1979 year, today is part of a more complex of the PROSUB program, which provides for the construction of a large number of submarines of various classes and types for the Brazilian Navy.
From Brazil, COGESN, which has its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro and has an annual budget of $ 250 million, manages the nuclear-powered shipbuilding program.
Under the terms of the agreements and contracts signed in 2008 – 2009, the French side committed to assist Brazil in building a new naval base - the home base of future Brazilian submarines - and a modern shipyard in the city of Sepétiba Bay in the Rio region de janeiro. Here it is planned to build a nuclear head multipurpose submarine, as well as four modified submarines of the "Skorpen" type. Metal for the first submarine began to cut 2011 of the year in June, and its laying took place in 2013 year. The main submarine "Riachuelo" was originally laid in 2010 year at the shipyard in Cherbourg and will be completed in Brazil.
The new shipyard was solemnly inaugurated by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in March 2013. In addition, French specialists provide substantial assistance in the design of nuclear submarines, in which, as stated, many of the solutions implemented in the Barracuda multipurpose nuclear submarine project, as well as some of the most important systems, including the nuclear power plant, will be implemented.
In addition to the above, in the framework of the agreement, the French side has pledged to fulfill a number of other conditions: to carry out technology transfer; equip training facilities and prepare the necessary personnel; supply 30 “heavy” torpedoes from F21 developed by DCNS, Thales Underwater Systems and ATLAS Elektronik GmbH, 50 underwater target simulators CANTO (Terma and DCNS); assistance in the construction of the complex as a part of the submarine forces and shipbuilding complex (EBN); construction in Brazil of a specialized manufacturing complex for the production of metal structures (Manufacturing Unit for Metal Structures - UFEM), etc.
We add that the agreement on military-technical cooperation from 2008 of the year also provides for the supply of Brazilian Navy 50 helicopters in the amount of 1,9 billion dollars.
The first national nuclear-powered vessel is to be deployed in the fleet in the 2023 – 2025 years (originally planned to be in the 2010 year). However, the Brazilian specialists, before embarking on the active phase of the nuclear-powered icebreaker program, decided to test their forces in a less complex version - to develop and build a non-nuclear submarine on their own. It was assumed that in case of successful implementation of this project, two tasks will be solved: first, replacing outdated Tupi-type submarines in the fleet's combat fleet will increase the combat potential of the Brazilian naval submarine forces, and secondly, it will give Brazilian ships an invaluable experience in designing and building modern submarine warships.
In the form of such a pilot effort, the project SNAC-1 (Ticuna-type naval submarines), developed by the Brazilian Navy engineering department as a transition to the creation of the first national submarine (the SNAC-2 project), became. Subsequently, however, the Brazilian admirals decided to change their partner in the national submarine shipbuilding program: instead of Germany, as we see, today the emphasis is on cooperation with France.
The results of this, we learn only a few years. So far, in specialized media, information has been made public that the national atomic submarine shipbuilding program has made a significant step forward due to very serious advances in creating a prototype national nuclear reactor. As is known, a PWR-type nuclear reactor (water-cooled nuclear reactor) is being developed as part of the IPEN / MB-1 project at the Aramar Technology Center, which entered service in the São Paulo region in 1988. In accordance with the approved plans, a nuclear reactor with a capacity of 50 MW designed for a promising Brazilian submarine nuclear-powered vessel will ensure the submarine speed to 25 knots and should have been prepared for installation on the nuclear-powered ship in the 2004 year, however, for a number of reasons, plans were postponed for a longer period .
In conclusion, according to the plans made public in 2012, before the 2031 year, the Brazilian fleet should receive a significant number of warships and auxiliary vessels, including nuclear and non-nuclear submarines, frigates and URF corvettes, ocean-class patrol (patrol) ships, landing ships, etc. As a result, by the 2034, the Brazilian admirals expect to have a submarine fleet consisting of at least 15 non-nuclear and six atomic multi-purpose submarines.
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