By Kalyan Kumar, au.ibtimes.com, Jan 12
The new generation submarines of the U.S. Navy will have sophisticated technological features such as advanced, long duration autonomous underwater and surface drones and robots. They are being built under the programme "Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle" with the prototype machines boasting critical technologies to enable UUVs to operate and survive in the littorals for more than 70 days.
According to the Sea Power magazine, the UUV Stalker could be launched and retrieved by the dry-deck shelter of an Ohio-class guided-missile submarine. Being powered by lithium battery they will have an endurance of seven to 10 days to loiter offshore for collecting intelligence with antenna masts that can transmit and receive information through an Iridium satellite
Since 2006, the Navy has been working on a submarine-deployable UUV having payload capability, greater than a submarine's 21-inch-diameter torpedo tube. The Sea Stalker UUV has been developed out of the Sea Horse UUV built by the Pennsylvania State University's Applied Research Laboratory.
The US Navy's LDUUV is pier- launched and is a recoverable UUV with the capability to transmit in the open ocean and conduct over-the-horizon missions in littoral waters. This will work as an extension for Navy's platform sensing capability over the horizon with expanded influence. The U.S. Navy considers UUV as a significant force multiplier that can close war fighter gaps. The goal of U.S. Navy has been to "acquire, deliver and maintain operationally effective Unmanned Maritime Systems as integrated systems for the war fighter and direct UMS experimentation and technology maturation to develop future UMS capability", adds the Seapower magazine report.
Meanwhile, Russia is also working hard on its fifth generation nuclear submarines, which will be armed with robots and underwater drones besides conventional weaponry. "The fifth generation submarines will be equipped with both contemporary weapons and new weapons," explained Nikolay Novoselov, deputy CEO of the Malakhit design engineering bureau. The RIA-Novosti quoted Novoselov saying that battle robots will be released by the submarine alongside underwater drones, reported Next Big Future news. At present, Russia is building Fourth generation Yasen-class submarines. Within it, Severodvinsk is the flagship of the Yasen-class submarines and is being reckoned as the backbone of the Russian Navy's conventional submarine force.
Cruise Missiles
According to the Russian official, besides 533mm torpedoes, Yasen-class submarines will carry the capability to fire cruise missiles from eight of its vertical launching systems. Supersonic anti-ship missiles such as Onyx and Kalibr will also be enabled.
The Russian design expert noted that the robots would be disposable or returnable and will be tasked with military and surveillance purposes. "They will be released by the submarine and stay offline before being remotely activated on command. It will give the submarine the time to leave the area, with the drone remaining in place as a decoy to maintain a semblance that the submarine is still there," Novoselov said. Clearly, a great leap in hi-tech submarine technologies is on display.
Monday, January 12, 2015
New Virginia-Class Sub To Be Named For Rickover
By Hugh Lessig, Daily Press, Jan 9
An upcoming Virginia-class attack submarine will be named for the late Hyman G. Rickover.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced Friday that an upcoming Virginia-class attack submarine will be named for the late Hyman G. Rickover, the admiral known as the father of the nuclear Navy.
Virginia class submarines are built in a teaming arrangement between General Dynamics Electric Boat of Groton, Conn. and Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries. The two yards take turns delivering them to the Navy.
The Hyman G. Rickover will be delivered by Newport News.
It will be the second Virginia-class boat named for an individual. The first is the John Warner, named for the former Virginia senator. It was christened in September at Newport News.
Although Virginia-class submarines are being built at a rate of two per year, Rickover won't make an appearance for several years.
After the John Warner, the next Virginia-class submarine will be the Illinois. That will be followed by Washington, a boat that marked a keel-laying at Newport News in November.
According to Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington will be followed by the Colorado, Indiana, South Dakota, Delaware, Vermont, Oregon, a submarine with an as-yet-undetermined name, then the Rickover.
A previous submarine has carried the Rickover name, and is familiar to the region's Navy community.
The Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine, USS Hyman G. Rickover (SSN-709) was commissioned in July 1984 and was home-ported in Norfolk. It was was inactivated in December 2006.
Navy developing sub reactors than can last 40 years
From today's Breaking Defense publication
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.,
WASHINGTON NAVY YARD – One of the most secretive agencies in the Navy didn’t just invite reporters to its headquarters today: It offered them cookies and cake.
The agency? The Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program. The occasion? The 60th anniversary of the first submarine ever to sail under nuclear power. But there’s a lot more going on at “Naval Reactors” than nostalgia, an edible USS Nautilus, and affectionate jokes about the late Admiral Hyman Rickover, the notoriously tough founder of NR in whose honor the Navy is naming its next sub. As soon as the celebration’s done, Rickover’s heirs have to get right back to work on the design that will carry the force through the next 60 years: the Ohio Replacement.
At an estimated $95 billion for 10 ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), the program faces daunting technological, schedule, and fiscal challenges. So what’s foremost on the mind of NR’s director, Adm. John Richardson?
“You’ve heard a couple of people mention today the ’40-year core,'” Richardson told reporters as the festivities wound down. The current Ohio subs and the nuclear Nimitz aircraft carriers require an expensive, lengthy mid-life overhaul to replace their reactor cores after 15 to 25 years of service. The new Virginia attack subs have cores designed to last the life of the sub, 33 years, although none of them is that old yet. The Ohio Replacement reactor core is supposed to last an unprecedented four decades.
“That has tremendous implications,” said Adm. Richardson, “about a $40 billion saving over the life of the program…but that’s by no means a done deal.”
Bypassing the multi-year mid-life overhaul means each submarine can spend more of its service life at sea, instead of in the shipyard. The Navy calculates the 40-year-core will allow 12 Ohio Replacement submarines to do the work of the current 14 Ohios. It will also save on maintenance funds, spare parts, and more. But it’s also making a huge bet on the core’s reliability.
“You’re talking about putting something into a reactor plant and leaving it there for 40 years at high pressure, high temperature, [and] radiation flux — all the things that come with nuclear power,” Richardson said. “Doing that safely and reliably [is] not a trivial matter. So each step, each move along that path, takes a tremendous amount of attention to detail.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.,
WASHINGTON NAVY YARD – One of the most secretive agencies in the Navy didn’t just invite reporters to its headquarters today: It offered them cookies and cake.
The agency? The Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program. The occasion? The 60th anniversary of the first submarine ever to sail under nuclear power. But there’s a lot more going on at “Naval Reactors” than nostalgia, an edible USS Nautilus, and affectionate jokes about the late Admiral Hyman Rickover, the notoriously tough founder of NR in whose honor the Navy is naming its next sub. As soon as the celebration’s done, Rickover’s heirs have to get right back to work on the design that will carry the force through the next 60 years: the Ohio Replacement.
At an estimated $95 billion for 10 ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), the program faces daunting technological, schedule, and fiscal challenges. So what’s foremost on the mind of NR’s director, Adm. John Richardson?
“You’ve heard a couple of people mention today the ’40-year core,'” Richardson told reporters as the festivities wound down. The current Ohio subs and the nuclear Nimitz aircraft carriers require an expensive, lengthy mid-life overhaul to replace their reactor cores after 15 to 25 years of service. The new Virginia attack subs have cores designed to last the life of the sub, 33 years, although none of them is that old yet. The Ohio Replacement reactor core is supposed to last an unprecedented four decades.
“That has tremendous implications,” said Adm. Richardson, “about a $40 billion saving over the life of the program…but that’s by no means a done deal.”
Bypassing the multi-year mid-life overhaul means each submarine can spend more of its service life at sea, instead of in the shipyard. The Navy calculates the 40-year-core will allow 12 Ohio Replacement submarines to do the work of the current 14 Ohios. It will also save on maintenance funds, spare parts, and more. But it’s also making a huge bet on the core’s reliability.
“You’re talking about putting something into a reactor plant and leaving it there for 40 years at high pressure, high temperature, [and] radiation flux — all the things that come with nuclear power,” Richardson said. “Doing that safely and reliably [is] not a trivial matter. So each step, each move along that path, takes a tremendous amount of attention to detail.”
Saturday, January 10, 2015
A life filled with miracles
Talked to Lorraine Naquin Tyler today who would like me to work with her on a biography of her father, Rear Admiral Oliver Naquin who miraculously survived harrowing tales at sea. I wrote about him in my first book as captain of the ill-fated Squalus submarine that sank off the New England coast in 1939, An unprecedented rescue saved the captain and most of his crew from 240 feet down. The manner in which Naquin cared for his men in the many hours trapped helped spare them. Naquin went on to service on the USS California battleship and was attached when sunk at Pearl Harbor. What followed was service on the cruiser New Orleans which suffered incredible damage in battle, with its bow blown off. He was called on to save the ship and through incredible skill enabled it to voyage more than 1,000 miles without a bow to safe haven in Australia in WWII. This is just a taste of the incredible life of Oliver Naquin.
We'll see where this goes. I'm expecting materials from Lorraine soon. More to come.
We'll see where this goes. I'm expecting materials from Lorraine soon. More to come.
Friday, January 9, 2015
North Korea pushing for missile sub capability
Rick Gladstone, New York Times, Jan 9
North Korea has displayed its cyberattack capabilities and advances toward making nuclear warheads, the country’s adversaries say. Now, the North appears to have shown progress in fitting submarines with missile launchers.
A report posted Thursday on the website of 38north, a prominent research group that focuses on North Korea, said commercial satellite imagery of a North Korean submarine, taken less than a month ago, indicates the vessel may have one or two vertical launching tubes for either ballistic or cruise missiles.
The submarine, first seen in July, could be a test bed for underwater missile launching, which would be harder to detect than land-based launchers, the report said. It was written by Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., an arms expert and authority on North Korea’s defense capabilities.
Mr. Bermudez cautioned, as have other Western defense experts, that North Korea is not believed to have the ability to launch missiles from submarines.
“Moreover, an effort by Pyongyang to develop an operational, missile-carrying submarine would be an expensive and time-consuming endeavor with no guarantee of success,” Mr. Bermudez wrote in the report.
Nonetheless, he wrote, “North Korea’s development of a submarine-launched missile capability would eventually expand Pyongyang’s threat to South Korea, Japan and U.S. bases in East Asia, also complicating regional missile defense planning, deployment and operations.”
The hunt for Red October
From my morning sub news briefing:
Steph Cockroft For Mailonline, Jan 9
Ministry of Defence forced to ask US for help in search for Russian submarine thought to be lurking off North Atlantic coast
American P3 Orion planes deployed this week on trail of mystery vessel Aircraft carrying out patrols alongside Royal Navy Frigate, HMS Somerset Sighting said to be linked to Vanguard submarine's exit from Faslane base Experts say planes bridge 'gaping chasm' in UK anti-submarine capability RAF scrapped Nimrod in 2010, amid warning it would weaken UK defences
The Ministry of Defence has been forced to ask the US for help as it hunts for a suspected Russian submarine believed to be lurking off the coast of Scotland.
Two U.S Navy aircraft were this week drafted in to carry out patrols in the North Atlantic in a bid to bridge the 'gaping chasm' in Britain's anti-submarine capability.
It comes after the RAF's £4bn fleet of 'spy-in-the-sky' Nimrod surveillance aircraft was controversially scrapped in 2010, amid warning it would weaken Britain's defences.
Experts said the latest request for assistance raises questions about the UK's ability to adequately protect its nuclear submarines.
And Angus Robertson, the Scottish National Party's defence spokesman, said the deployment showed Britain had resorted to going to its allies with a 'begging bowl'.
The U.S P3 Orion maritime patrol aeroplanes, which are currently based at RAF Lossiemouth, were deployed on the trail of the mystery vessel this week.
The crews worked alongside the Royal Navy's anti-submarine frigate HMS Somerset, which has been operating off Scotland for a month.
The emergence of the Russian submarine is said to be linked to the alleged departure from Faslane Naval base of one of the Royal Navy's Vanguard-class nuclear submarines, which carries Trident missiles.
The base, at Gare Loch on the River Clyde, is the home of the UK's ballistic missile submarines.
Peter Roberts, a senior fellow of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, told The Independent: 'HMS Somerset is a capable platform and I have no doubt that her deployment alongside these U.S Navy aircraft is related to the reported departure of a Royal Navy Vanguard ballistic missile submarine from Faslane, and the countering of any Russian deployment from over the horizon.'
Steph Cockroft For Mailonline, Jan 9
Ministry of Defence forced to ask US for help in search for Russian submarine thought to be lurking off North Atlantic coast
American P3 Orion planes deployed this week on trail of mystery vessel Aircraft carrying out patrols alongside Royal Navy Frigate, HMS Somerset Sighting said to be linked to Vanguard submarine's exit from Faslane base Experts say planes bridge 'gaping chasm' in UK anti-submarine capability RAF scrapped Nimrod in 2010, amid warning it would weaken UK defences
The Ministry of Defence has been forced to ask the US for help as it hunts for a suspected Russian submarine believed to be lurking off the coast of Scotland.
Two U.S Navy aircraft were this week drafted in to carry out patrols in the North Atlantic in a bid to bridge the 'gaping chasm' in Britain's anti-submarine capability.
It comes after the RAF's £4bn fleet of 'spy-in-the-sky' Nimrod surveillance aircraft was controversially scrapped in 2010, amid warning it would weaken Britain's defences.
Experts said the latest request for assistance raises questions about the UK's ability to adequately protect its nuclear submarines.
And Angus Robertson, the Scottish National Party's defence spokesman, said the deployment showed Britain had resorted to going to its allies with a 'begging bowl'.
The U.S P3 Orion maritime patrol aeroplanes, which are currently based at RAF Lossiemouth, were deployed on the trail of the mystery vessel this week.
The crews worked alongside the Royal Navy's anti-submarine frigate HMS Somerset, which has been operating off Scotland for a month.
The emergence of the Russian submarine is said to be linked to the alleged departure from Faslane Naval base of one of the Royal Navy's Vanguard-class nuclear submarines, which carries Trident missiles.
The base, at Gare Loch on the River Clyde, is the home of the UK's ballistic missile submarines.
Peter Roberts, a senior fellow of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, told The Independent: 'HMS Somerset is a capable platform and I have no doubt that her deployment alongside these U.S Navy aircraft is related to the reported departure of a Royal Navy Vanguard ballistic missile submarine from Faslane, and the countering of any Russian deployment from over the horizon.'
Thursday, January 8, 2015
British official warns of coming Cold War with Russia
From my daily submarine briefing comes this item from a British newspaper:
West 'Must Rearm For New Cold War'
belfasttelegraph.co.uk, Jan 8
The West must rearm to take part in a new Cold War with Russia, a senior Conservative has said.
Lord Spicer, a former minister and chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbench MPs, said that economic sanctions against Vladimir Putin had not worked.
His comments came as former head of the Royal Navy Lord West of Spithead warned Russia was building up its weapons and in a way that would have made people "terrified" during the Cold War.
Lord Spicer hit out at question time in the House of Lords at the effectiveness of the response to Russia's occupation of Crimea.
"Is not the stark reality that so far diplomacy has failed, that economic sanctions have made Mr Putin more aggressive than less and that the West will have to be prepared to engage in a cold war with Russia and to rearm accordingly?" he asked Foreign Office minister Baroness Anelay of St Johns
Lady Anelay told him: "I don't adopt your route to rearming and I'm not as pessimistic.
"Perhaps it is because I am ever hopeful and I am clearly impressed by the diplomacy delivered by our own Foreign and Commonwealth Office and by our colleagues throughout the European Union and the United Nations and the Commonwealth all of whom have a common view.
"Yesterday the Prime Minister met with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and in his press release has made it clear we continue to stand by Ukraine."
Labour peer Lord West, who was chief of defence intelligence from 1997 to 2001, and First Sea Lord from 2002 to 2006, said there had been a "huge increase in Russian defence expenditure".
"In particular this whole nuclear triad, with brand new ballistic missiles, submarines, a brand new attack submarine with a new cruise nuclear weapon," he said.
"It is running its nuclear trains again. All of the indicators that during the Cold War would have had me terrified as chief of defence intelligence."
He said Mr Putin's policy of de-escalation was in fact a policy of "nuclear escalation".
belfasttelegraph.co.uk, Jan 8
The West must rearm to take part in a new Cold War with Russia, a senior Conservative has said.
Lord Spicer, a former minister and chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbench MPs, said that economic sanctions against Vladimir Putin had not worked.
His comments came as former head of the Royal Navy Lord West of Spithead warned Russia was building up its weapons and in a way that would have made people "terrified" during the Cold War.
Lord Spicer hit out at question time in the House of Lords at the effectiveness of the response to Russia's occupation of Crimea.
"Is not the stark reality that so far diplomacy has failed, that economic sanctions have made Mr Putin more aggressive than less and that the West will have to be prepared to engage in a cold war with Russia and to rearm accordingly?" he asked Foreign Office minister Baroness Anelay of St Johns
Lady Anelay told him: "I don't adopt your route to rearming and I'm not as pessimistic.
"Perhaps it is because I am ever hopeful and I am clearly impressed by the diplomacy delivered by our own Foreign and Commonwealth Office and by our colleagues throughout the European Union and the United Nations and the Commonwealth all of whom have a common view.
"Yesterday the Prime Minister met with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and in his press release has made it clear we continue to stand by Ukraine."
Labour peer Lord West, who was chief of defence intelligence from 1997 to 2001, and First Sea Lord from 2002 to 2006, said there had been a "huge increase in Russian defence expenditure".
"In particular this whole nuclear triad, with brand new ballistic missiles, submarines, a brand new attack submarine with a new cruise nuclear weapon," he said.
"It is running its nuclear trains again. All of the indicators that during the Cold War would have had me terrified as chief of defence intelligence."
He said Mr Putin's policy of de-escalation was in fact a policy of "nuclear escalation".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
