Category: Naval

This Ties into My Ballistic “Carrier Killer” Post

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Basically, we have an enthusiastiac endorsement of an unmanned combat air vehicle launched from carrier decks:

Imagine a Navy strike plane launching off the catapult as its carrier begins steaming out of its San Diego naval base. The jet refuels over Hawaii, then again over Guam; it gets updated targeting data from its mother ship 6,000 miles away and launches its strike on an enemy nuclear missile silo in East Asia — all in one sortie.

Sound impossible?

And, oh, it could turn around and land on another carrier in the Red Sea after taking some surveillance photos of a suspected terrorist training camp in Pakistan and beaming them down to commanders in Bagram.

That’s just the half of what a naval unmanned combat drone could potentially do, says a new report from a respected Washington, D.C.-based defense think tank. Why land on the carrier in the Red Sea? Why not tank over the Med, fly up to the Arctic and beam back radio transmissions from an ongoing Russian war game, then fly back to its mother carrier now a few hundred miles from its home port?

Given the increasing effectiveness of conventional submarines and anti-ship missiles, this is one way to ensure that a carrier is able to provide support from relative safety.

Of course, you could do the same thing if you launched that drown from an airfield in San Diego, and it could do the same thing, and not buy the carrier at all.

China Closing In On Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile

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It’s derived from their CSS-5 intermediate range missile and uses technology similar to that of the Pershing II, which had a CEP in the single digit meter range.

The current version has a range around 1800 km and a nuclear warhead that weighs around 600 kg. I imagine an anti-ship (carrier killer) version would have a similar range and a similar weight warhead.

In any case if one of these hits a flight deck at mach 4 or so, the warhead is guilding the lily.

ONR Looking at Jumbo Size Hovercraft

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The Office of Naval Research is looking at a very large hovercraft for amphibious operations.

It would have a 2500 mile range at 20kts, followed by a 250 mile 40+kt dash to the beach, with a 500-750 ton cargo capability, as versus the 70 ton capability with a 200 mile range for the LCAC currently in deployment.

If this runs true to Navy procurement form, we’ll next hear of it when it’s 18 months late and 35% over budget.

The U.S. Navy Seems to Be Without Procurement Vision

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Interesting, it appears that the US Navy, from the CNO on down, is not aggressively pushing more DDG-1000 Zumwalt class destroyers.

At one Congressional hearing, when asked what the DDG-1000 brings to the Navy, CNO Adm. Gary Roughead said, “is an introduction of new technologies that will be very important to how we go forward.”

That is not a sterling endorsement of a ship that will be the largest surface combatant to be fielded in a long time, it’s 80% bigger than the Arleigh Burke Class, and a quick Wiki shows that the last hull of its size was built somewhere around 1950.

If you go read the article, it appears that the Navy has no real clue as to what it wants, with fuzzy thinking on anything, whether it be more Burkes, whether the CG(X) should be nuclear powered, LPD landing ships, maritime patrol aircraft, etc.

For some reason, except for carriers and submarines, the Navy seems completely adrift (pun not intended).

Delusional Navy Budgets

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The navy is looking for $25 billion per year, about double current spending, on its 30 year plan for a 313 ship navy.

The problem is that everyone knows that this is not unsustainable, and their procurement programs are a mess, with the DDG-1000 costing over $5 billion a ship (the Navy claiming “only” $3.3 billion), the Littoral Combat Ship program being a disaster, with costs going from $220 Million/ship to over $500 million/ship, increasing maintenance costs as the Ticonderogas and the Burkes get older, etc.

The article goes into more detail, but it appears increasingly clear that the Navy does not have a clear vision of what it needs to be or to do over the nest 30 years.

Scrapping the Zumwalt

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Gene Taylor (D-MS), hairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s seapower subcommittee, is proposing scrap the Zumwalt class (DDG-1000), and replace it with an additional LPD and two resupply ships. The senior Republican on the subcommittee, Rosco “Neanderthal” Bartlett (R-MD), agrees.

I tend to agree. The Zumwalts are too large, too expensive, and too ambitious. They add nothing in overall capability, their weapons and sensor capability will not differ from their predecessors, so all their size gets is a larger store of weapons, at the cost of reduced coverage, since more smaller ships can cover different areas simultaneously.

They are also both pushing for more nuclear combatants, including a scheme to make the Arleigh Burke’s nuclear powered, which I’m rather dubious of.

Russian Sierra II SSN Back on Patrol

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The Sierra II is arguably the best SSN the Russians have, with all the features of the Akula class, along with a titanium hull and relocated torpedo tubes (they are amidships, as is the manner with US subs to allow for a large sonar array in the nose as may later model Akulas).

They were dropped by the Soviets in favor of the Akulas because they were too damn expensive.

Truth be told, I’m not sure of the military value now, though one might use it to escort a Russian boomer, and there is always the intelligence value of parking one of these just off the coast of an area of interest and either listening to signals, or inserting operatives.

New Chinese Boomer Deploys to Hainan Island

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The Chinese appear to aggressively moving towards some sort of submarine based deterrent according to this report by the Federation of American Scientists.

They have a satellite picture (commercial resolution) of one of the boomers at a dock:

There appears to be significant development at the Yulin naval base to accommodate this, including tunnels and a demagnetization facility.

The reports that the island is very near the edge of the continental shelf, which means that the subs could get into deep water quickly, which is typically where you want a boomer, except, of course for the fact that US boats have been doing deep water for the past 50 years.

If China gets a meaningful SSBN deterrent, it represents a threat to US military power, though it is probably a stabalizing factor, because it prevents a nut like Lynne Cheney from going postal on a nuclear level on them with nuclear weapons.

Brazil, France, and Argentina In Cooperation for Development of Nuclear Submarines

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The interest in developing a nuclear submarine, is being driven by a desire to prevent US, and in the case of Argentina UK, CV battle groups from being able to deploy forces off the Atlantic coast of Latin America.

The picture below is from France’s DCNS Barracuda Class SSN. I’m not sure how accurate it is, but the lack of forward bow planes, and the nose mounted torpedo tubes are of interest.

In most SSNs, the torpedoes are located amidships, to allow for a larger sonar array in the nose.

France would have no involvement in the reactor design, which would be a Brazil-Argentina joint venture.

Navy Looking at C-2 Replacements…Not Gonna Happen

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This report (paid subscription required) says that the Navy wants to start replacing the C-2 in 2017, with a complete replacement by 2026.

They are planning to let out the contract in 2011.

It’s not going to happen. Big defense cuts are on the way, and the 6 year time frame for designing what has to be a from scratch replacement (carrier landings, folding wings) given the ponderous nature of defense procurement.

Further Indian Problems With Russian Arms Deals

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While the Indian military has had a long history of using Soviet, and later Russian weapons systems, on the naval side things have been strained lately, with delays, under-performance, and cost overruns being the rule rather than the exception, with the Admiral Gorshokov/Vikramaditya fiasco being most prominent.

Now the Indian Navy has
rejected the recently upgraded Kilo class submarines.

This appears to have been driven by integration issues with the Klub-S 3M-54E1 (SS-N-27 Sizzler) anti-ship/land attack missiles, which failed to strike the targets in tests.

I’m not sure if this will effect the massive medium fighter buy planned by the Indian AF, as the problems at this point seem to be limited to naval equipment.

Straights of Hormuz, Gulf of Tonkin, It’s All the Same

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This report sounds very familiar, a bunch of small boats, “threatening” US naval vessels.

While I have no doubt that the Iranians have detailed plans for an assault of US Naval forces, this is not how they would do it.

On Black Monday in 1987, the US and Iranians engaged in the largest surface engagement since the battle of Leyte Gulf, which resulted in the destruction of half the Iranian surface fleet.

It didn’t get much coverage because of the stock market crash that day.

The Iranians have a very good idea of how much they are over matched, even in littoral waters like the Persian Gulf.

They won’t be broadcasting threats on the radio and broadcasting, “Your ships will explode in a couple of minutes”.

Any attack will be conducted in small boats, launched from a number of different locations, and it will be conducted in radio silence.

There was no attack, or any provocation, just some testosterone laden maneuvering.

Brazil Looking at Nuclear Sub Force

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Brazil hasallocated $540 million in R&D on the submarine and on enrichment.

They believe that they can build a submarine for $1.2 billion.

They already have the enrichment technology down.

The justification is the newly discovered offshore Tupi field and its 5 billion to 8 billion barrels of oil reserves.

Truth be told, if all they want is an air-independent coastal defense boat, there are options out there, both with stored LOX, and the idea of using a smaller nuke plant, to provide underwater endurance, but not the higher underwater transit speeds of the US fleet submarines.

Proving Once Again That There are But Two Types of Surface Combatants, Submarines, and Targets

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A US Navy Carrier Battle Group was conducting exercises between Japan and Taiwan, and a Chinese Song class submarine surfaced within visual range of the carrier, the proverbial turd in the punch bowl.

Not only was there a full balttle group out there, but also two American SSNs, and the sub got past them all.

I gotta take the Submariners side on this one….(refer to post title)