Among all the talk about the purchase of French Mistral-class ships by Russia, a completely obvious and logical thought is very rare. Its essence is that this cooperation, among other things, speaks of a fairly good development of French shipbuilding. However, for some reason, the debaters choose not to mention it. And, I must admit, France really does not lag behind the rating of countries that are building their own warships. Moreover, the Fifth Republic does not forget about promising projects. Of these works, the most interesting are two ships, which will now be discussed.
SMX-25: submarine frigate
In the military-technical environment, from time to time there are some bursts of activity on the basis of universalism. So, for example, the same fighter-bombers appeared. But the "unifiers" did not bypass their attention and the fleet, although the first experiments were not entirely successful. The British submarine X1, which entered service in 1925, had a very serious armament for its class. These were six torpedo tubes and four 132 mm cannons. In the 29th, the French launched their "Surkuf", equipped with 12 (!) Torpedo tubes and two 203 mm cannons, not counting the anti-aircraft "trifle". Nevertheless, both revolutionary projects were not successful, if only because it is more convenient to fight surface ships with the help of guns, and submarines must work with torpedoes and not be seen by the enemy. As a result, X1 in the 36th went “on pins and needles”, and “Surkuf” in the 42nd went to the bottom. Even before cutting up their boat, the British abandoned the idea of a "combined" surface-submarine ship. The French also did not develop the concept, but only for the time being.
Since the mid-2000s, information began to appear in various sources that France intends to return to the concept of surface submarines, albeit with an amendment to current technologies. All this remained only rumors until the Euronaval-2010 exhibition: at it DCNS presented a model of its "hybrid", called the SMX-25. This wonderful ship with a length of almost 110 meters and with an underwater displacement of about three thousand tons, according to the idea of the creators, should combine all the best qualities of surface ships and submarines. Probably, you can sneer a little and say something like "somewhere and once we have already heard this." At the same time, it must be admitted that the declared characteristics of the ship look quite plausible. The designers claim that the new powerful gas turbine power plant with three water cannons should accelerate the SMX-25 on the surface to 35-38 knots (quite at the level of modern surface ships) and up to 10 knots underwater (much less than modern submarines). The promised cruising range is two thousand nautical miles. This year, at the LIMA-2011 exhibition, the updated characteristics of the ship were announced. The chassis remained almost the same, but the displacement changed. Now it is about 2850 tons surfaced and 4500 tons submerged.
The exterior of the SMX-25 is very, very futuristic. It combines a slim, streamlined hull that facilitates underwater movement and a developed superstructure. The latter houses the command post, all the necessary antennas of various systems, as well as 16 missile launchers. According to DCNS, vertical silos can contain both anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles - whatever the customer wishes. However, a specific "menu" from which you can choose the composition of weapons has not yet been published. Most likely, the developer himself has not yet decided on it, although this may be a hint of the ship's compatibility with all available and available types of missiles. The torpedoes, which are classic for submarines, have not been forgotten either - four torpedo tubes are provided for them in the bow.
Tactically, according to DCNS, their ship should occupy the niches of frigates and submarines, "hunters". At the same time, the SMX-25 can be used to transport troops, even if only ten people in full gear. In this case, the ship will be forced to approach the coast at the minimum possible distance, and then once again it will be useful for stealth for enemy radars. It is the stealth that explains the specific contours of the superstructure. In addition to patrolling or attacking enemy ships, the SMX-25 can perform reconnaissance: for this, drones can be used from it. True, their exact number and available types have not been disclosed yet.
At the moment, no country has yet become so interested in the project as to conclude contracts. DCNS, in turn, from the very presentation of the ship to the public, constantly speaks about the relatively low cost of the SMX-25. Firstly, the authors of the project argue, this ship uses not some transcendental, but exclusively existing and industrialized technologies. Secondly, one submarine frigate will cost significantly less than one separate frigate and one separate submarine. As for the usual reductions of "applied" data for such universalism, DCNS is silent on this score with French courtesy. One can, of course, assume what they could say on this score, but educated people do not try to get into other people's heads.
Electric ADVANSEA
At the same Euronaval-2010 exhibition, DCNS presented another promising project called ADVANSEA (ADVanced All-electric Networked ship for SEA dominance - an advanced all-electric ship of naval domination). At first glance, this is an ordinary modern ship with a specific stealth appearance, but the most interesting thing is inside. The widespread use of electrical systems in the fleet has long been a surprise. So the ship with a length of 120 meters and a displacement of 4500 tons will be propelled by unsurprising electric motors. However, they will not be powered by a generator connected, for example, to a gas turbine engine, but by batteries. Most likely, these will be batteries with solid polymer electrolyte, although, until it comes to construction, the type of batteries may be changed. In addition, it cannot be ruled out that the batteries, even if they are three times promising, will be removed and replaced with good old engines with generators. DCNS, I must say, announced the approximate power consumption of the ship - about 20 megawatts. Based on this figure, the batteries do not seem to be a very realistic option for a power plant. Unless the French will make some kind of breakthrough in science and technology, or, as they promise, will use the phenomenon of superconductivity in engines.
The appearance of the "Advance", like that of the SMX-25, is quite futuristic, but still more familiar to the eye, although the hull with the superstructure is made in the form of intersecting planes to reduce radar signature. At least from the look of ADVANSEA, you can immediately tell that this is a surface ship. Even the specific shape of the nose does not bother, which, according to the designers, improves driving performance and allows the ship to accelerate (according to a preliminary design) to 28-30 knots.
According to its purpose, the "Advance" is a frigate and has the appropriate armament. The superstructure houses silos for various types of missiles and a small drone hangar with an elevator that will take them to the take-off site at the top of the superstructure. There is another large take-off area at the stern of the ship for helicopters and vertical take-off and landing aircraft, if the customer has one. But the most interesting is the "artillery" ADVANSEA. It is no coincidence that the word is put in quotation marks: the ship will not have the usual barrel armament, of course, in addition to the crew's service weapons. DCNS engineers are going to put laser installations on "Advance" as anti-aircraft guns and machine guns, and electromagnetic "wunderwaffe" as long-range weapons. Which ones - Gauss cannons or railguns - they have not yet specified. DCNS separately notes that such "artillery" will allow to take on board much more shells, because combat electromagnetic boosters do not need gunpowder and, therefore, ammunition with the same efficiency is more compact. And lasers do not need anything other than electricity. But all these things require colossal energy costs. Whether the ship's power plants will cope with them is a big question. Against the background of the above, the multifunctional radar, the unified weapons control system, the new electronic warfare system and other "stuffing" of the ship, promised by the developer, are somehow lost. But all these things directly affect the practical prospects of the project. But apparently DCNS decided to attract a prospect with fantastic things at the moment.
To achieve the planned results, the developer must solve a whole set of problems. DCNS themselves define them as follows:
- engine. With its small dimensions, it must have significant power. To achieve this, engineers plan to introduce new technologies, including those that are still found exclusively in laboratory conditions.
- power plant. The batteries must have the appropriate capacity and power, which becomes especially important given the declared armaments of the ship.
- new control system. ADVANSEA has a radically new architecture of ship systems, which requires an equally new approach to automation and control. The ship's designers believe that this will be the easiest of the tasks facing them.
In the context of the problems faced by Advance, the author of this article considers it important to mention one more thing. In the past few years, there has been some progress in the field of shipborne laser systems. However, with rail guns and other electromagnetic things, things are worse. The first tests of a ship-based railgun are scheduled only for 2018. Will France have time to acquire such weapons of its own by the required date?
When?
With all the high degree of novelty of both projects, it must be admitted that they are of certain interest for countries that want to have a modern fleet, but do not have the ability to build it on their own. However, both ADVANSEA and SMX-25 will not even be tested today or tomorrow. By adapting to existing technologies, the submarine frigate can be built by 2015-17. But the first "Advance" with a full set of equipment, even according to the most optimistic forecasts, will be launched no earlier than the 20th. DCNS themselves intend to do this in 2025. But in order to be in time by this deadline, the developer will have to solve more than one problem. Although, it should be noted, DCNS still has enough time to successfully cope with all the problems.
