Dispute between two bald ones over a comb
Among the naval forces of all countries of the world, Her Majesty's fleet occupies a special place, because British sailors are the only ones who have experience in modern warfare at sea [1]. The chain of naval battles during the Falklands Conflict became the main test for new ideas and concepts implemented in the navy in the second half of the twentieth century. There was a successful torpedo attack by a nuclear submarine that sank the Argentine cruiser Admiral Belgrano. There were successful missile attacks by naval aircraft (the sinking of the destroyer Sheffield and the ersatz helicopter carrier Atlantic Conveyor), and there was no less exciting firing of anti-ship missiles from British helicopters. Destroyer Coventry, frigates Ardent and Antilope fell under Argentine bombs. Despite the loss of the landing ship Sir Galahad, the British Marines occupied the islands lost in the ocean, thus putting an end to the undeclared war. Her Majesty's fleet won a victory 12,000 km from its native shores.
The main embarrassment of the Falklands was the inglorious death of Her Majesty's destroyer "Sheffield" - the ship sank from the impact of only one anti-ship missile, which, moreover, did not explode! More about this story -
The events of May 4, 1982 gave rise to numerous speculations about the need for booking: indeed, if the Sheffield had 60 … 100 mm armor protection, the Exocet would have crashed against its side like an empty nut. On the other hand, if Sheffield is sheathed with thick sheets of steel, the total displacement of the destroyer will increase from a minimum of 4,500 tons to … it's hard to give an exact figure without knowing the exact booking scheme and the values of the curves that form the hull lines. But a quite natural result will be a significant increase in the ship's displacement. To maintain the original running characteristics, the "armored Sheffield" will need a more powerful main power plant, which will again lead to an increase in the booked volume of the hull. Ultimately, the cost of the ship will become prohibitive, and the weapons will remain the same. In addition, the main enemy of Her Majesty's fleet in those years was not the Argentine aviation with non-explosive Exocets, but the Soviet Navy: no 100 mm armor would have saved British ships from being hit by the P-500 Basalt anti-ship missile system flying on 2, 5 speeds of sound.
Great Britain barely mastered the construction of 14 small destroyers of type 42 (by modern standards - frigates) and could not afford to build expensive "battleships" with dubious combat qualities in principle. It seems unreasonable to lay down larger and more expensive ships by reducing the number of series units. Great Britain is a maritime power, and it still has interests on the overseas shores. The "workhorses" of the fleet must constantly declare their presence simultaneously in different regions of the world's oceans.
At a time when the world press was savoring the sinking of the Sheffield, British sailors were well aware that the ship was accidentally killed by negligence. This story should be started not with the unexploded warhead of the Exocet anti-ship missile system, but with the fact that the crew turned off the search radar in the combat zone. And how often do they remember that the Sheffield (as well as the rest of the lost ships) did not have any self-defense systems like the domestic AK-630 or the American Phalanx? The ancient "Oerlikon" with manual control - that's all that was then from the means of close combat among the British sailors.
On the distant frontiers, the British squadron was doing no better - the British had a wonderful shipborne air defense system "Sea Dart" (during the war in the Persian Gulf, the "Sea Dart" became the first air defense system to intercept an anti-ship missile in combat conditions [2]). But the eternal problem with the radio horizon made it impossible to shoot down Argentine planes on the way - they made a hill, fired missiles and immediately went to an extremely low altitude, disappearing from the screens of British radars. “Sea Dart” was left to shoot down completely insolent attack aircraft going into a frontal attack with unguided bombs.
Usually, in such cases, carrier-based aircraft serves as a panacea - combat patrols, constantly patrolling in the air, can detect a threat much earlier than ship radars and completely suppress enemy attempts. The British had 2 light aircraft carriers and three dozen Sea Harrier VTOL carrier-based fighters. In numerous battles with Argentine Air Force aircraft, British pilots scored 20 aerial victories without a single loss on their own side. Amazing result for a clumsy subsonic aircraft! The British have always recognized that without air support, their losses would have been even more terrible and they would hardly have been able to gain a foothold on the islands.
A critical drawback of British light aircraft carriers of the Invincible class was the lack of early warning aircraft - the Sea Harrier radar could in no way replace the classic AWACS aircraft. To put it simply: the British carrier-based aviation was inferior and could not fulfill its tasks of early detection of the enemy. Argentine aircraft unnoticed broke through the fighter barrier and a bloody mess began - according to some reports, a third of British ships were hit by aerial bombs (half of which, fortunately for the sailors, did not explode).
Going back to the odd demise of Sheffield, the aluminum superstructure and synthetic finishes were clearly a bad idea. At the same time, there is a similar naval history with a completely different result - in 1987 the US Navy frigate Stark, similar in size to Sheffield, received two direct hits from the Exocet anti-ship missile system: the warhead of one of the missiles still worked properly mode, killing 37 sailors and completely incapacitating the ship. But, despite the outbreak of a fire and a superstructure made of aluminum-magnesium alloys, "Stark" refused to sink and was returned to service a year later.
And an absolutely incredible incident happened off the coast of Lebanon in 2006 - a small corvette "Hanit" of the Israeli Navy received from the coast an anti-ship missile "Yingzi" YJ-82 made in China (warhead weight - 165 kg, like "Exoset"). 4 sailors were killed, and the corvette with a displacement of only 1200 tons did not receive any serious damage at all. Cause? The anti-ship missile hit the helipad - the Israelis, to put it simply, were lucky. Well, what prevented the Yingji from getting into the Hanita superstructure?
The fate of each ship depends only on the position of the stars in the sky.
Her Majesty's Battle Dragons
Battleships and battleships in the British navy are still absent, and instead of them there appeared really relevant and necessary ships - type 45 air defense destroyers (sometimes they are called type "D") with the beautiful names "Daring", "Dontless", "Diamond", Dragon, Defender and Duncan. The most modern large warships, built at the beginning of the 21st century, Britain is at the forefront of progress.
The total displacement of the destroyers is about 8,000 tons. The main task is the air defense of ship formations. The electronic equipment of the destroyers looks really impressive - the SAMPSON general detection radar with an active phased array under good conditions of radio wave propagation is able to detect a pigeon (target with an EPR of 0, 008) at a distance of 100 km. If, of course, pigeons fly so high, nobody canceled the radio horizon rule. It is in vain to believe that Daring can shoot down enemy aircraft that have just taken off from the airfield - at a distance of 100 km, its super-radar cannot see targets at an altitude below 600 meters. The energy properties of the radar make it possible to distinguish air targets even at a distance of 400 km from the destroyer, but this applies only to objects in the stratosphere above 10 km above the ocean surface.
In addition to the SAMPSON radar, the destroyers are equipped with the S1850M three-dimensional airborne early warning radar. The unit is capable of automatically detecting and selecting 1000 targets within a radius of 400 km.
The new British ships have everything from an onboard helicopter to a 70-bed hospital. But, by a strange coincidence, there are no anti-ship weapons and operational-tactical missiles. The destroyers' armament looks very weak against the background of the famous "Arleigh Burke": with a similar displacement, the "American" carries 56 Tomahawk cruise missiles. The artillery of the British "Daring" also does not shine - only one 4, 5 inch naval gun (caliber 114 mm).
The only serious weapon of Her Majesty's destroyer is the PAAMS anti-aircraft missile system. 48 vertical launchers for firing anti-aircraft missiles of the Aster family. Not enough too. But what's the catch? SAM Aster-15 and Aster-30 have an active radar homing head! British scientists (I'm not kidding here at all) went on an intensive path of development - instead of increasing the ammunition load, they created the world's best anti-aircraft missiles and excellent detection equipment.
Thanks to state-of-the-art electronics, missiles with an active seeker and a well-positioned radar, the British Type 45 destroyers have the best anti-ship missile capabilities in the world, surpassing even the legendary Arleigh Burke in this respect.
However, it is impossible to make a direct comparison of the two ships - the American destroyer was created as a multifunctional platform, the Burke can play any role: the ship can shoot at satellites in low-earth orbit and iron the coasts of overseas countries (and not only the coast - the Tomahawk's flight range with Warheads more than 1500 km). Unlike the cheeky American, the Daring is a specialized air defense destroyer, 15 years older than the Burk. technically it should be a much better ship.
Global Warship
The largest maritime power in history, over which the sun never set, still honors its traditions and maintains a large and well-equipped naval force. Who else if not the British know which ships are most needed in the Navy, what threats can lie in wait for a ship in modern naval warfare, and how to deal with them in the most effective way.
In March 2010, the British renowned company BAE Systems received a four-year contract for the development of a new frigate type 26 (Global Combat Ship) for Her Majesty's Royal Navy. The concept of the new frigate is simply and succinctly formulated: the "Global Warship" is designed to control maritime communications and to ensure the commercial and political interests of Great Britain. A brilliant confirmation of the "main warship" theory!
A multifunctional warship, vigilantly following the order in the area of the World Ocean entrusted to it, is a control center for networks of underwater, surface and airborne unmanned vehicles. The new frigate should be able to conduct mine clearance operations, be able to participate in humanitarian and counter-terrorism missions, fight piracy and prevent any provocations. Hence the main requirements are simplicity, low cost and efficiency.
Until now, there is a discussion about the possibility of equipping frigates with strike weapons - supersonic anti-ship missiles and cruise missiles for strikes against ground targets. The stumbling block in this dispute, in addition to technical difficulties, is doubt about the need for such systems: the likelihood of a need for powerful anti-ship weapons is very low - it is usually customary to entrust such work to aviation (deck or base), and striking the coast with a small number of cruise missiles is generally meaningless from a military point of view, during the Desert Storm, the Coalition of International Forces fired 1000 Tomahawk cruise missiles along the coast, which was only … 1% of the amount of ammunition dropped at the positions of Iraqi troops.
Of course, the Tomahawk's accuracy is higher than that of a free-fall bomb, but even this fact is unlikely to cover the 100-fold difference. Well, and, of course, the cost - the price of Tomahawks, depending on the modification, ranges from $ 1,500,000 and above. You can't shoot a lot of them. For comparison - the cost of one hour of flight of the F-16 fighter is $ 7000, the cost of the GBU-12 Paveway laser-guided bomb is about $ 19000. Aviation performs this work faster, better and much cheaper. In addition, the aircraft can carry out strikes from the "air watch" position, and the released Tomahawk cannot be pushed back into the launch container. In short, the need for tactical missile weapons on frigates is rightly questioned.
And yet, the development of the CVS401 Perseus supersonic cruise missile is underway in the UK. In the dreams of the developers, "Perseus" is capable of developing a triple speed of sound, the launch mass of the rocket is 800 kg, and the flight range is up to 300 km. The missile has two flight profiles - low-altitude for anti-ship missions and high-altitude flight when striking ground targets. In addition to the usual warhead weighing 200 kg, an unexpected plot is provided during the missile attack: a few moments before the anti-ship missile hits the target, two more guided munitions weighing 40-50 kg are released from the side compartments of the Perseus … refuse. All these excellent ideas are still far from reality - "Perseus" exists only in the form of computer graphics, and its development, obviously, is not a priority. But on the sketches of the future "Global Warship" presented in 2012, 24 vertical launchers in the bow in front of the superstructure are clearly visible, on the other hand, the design of the "Global Warship" has changed several times already.
Air defense The "global warship" will be represented by a naval version of the "Sea Captor" air defense missile system. This is a more realistic system that exists in metal (the first samples are planned to be installed on Her Majesty's ships in 2016).
A total of 16 vertical launchers are provided for this complex on the promising "Global Warship", with four missiles in each, for a total of 64 missiles. The combat capabilities of the Sea Captor correspond to the Aster-15 anti-aircraft missile. The range of destruction of air targets is 25 km, of the undoubted advantages is an active radar homing head.
The main means of detecting air targets will be the advanced ARTISAN 3D radar with AFAR. British sailors plan to receive the first radars of this type in 2012. It is noteworthy that this radar is designed to be installed on obsolete Type 23 frigates (Duke type) to extend their service life until the 2020s, when Type 26 frigates (Global Warships) will enter service. For all its undoubted advantages, the capabilities of ARTISAN 3D are inferior to the SAMPSON super-radar installed on British destroyers. The only advantage of ARTISAN 3D is its lower price, which is quite consistent with the concept of "Global Warships" as a ship for colonial wars and control over sea communications.
Artillery systems "Global battleship" include:
- one bow gun with a caliber of 114 to 127 mm, presumably a 5-inch American Mark-45 or 4.5-inch British naval gun.
- two anti-aircraft guns "Falanx" caliber 20 mm. These melee systems appeared only on the latest sketches of the "Global Warship" presented, they were not planned before.
- two automatic cannons DS30M - interesting systems based on the 30 mm Mark-44 "Bushmaster II" cannon. The rate of fire is low - only 200 rds / min, which is compensated for by the accuracy of the fire (the guidance radar and the gun are mounted on the same gun carriage) and the presence of armor-piercing shells with a heat-strengthened core.
- 6 machine guns of rifle caliber, two of which are the odious M134 "Minigun".
As you can see, there is nothing innovative in terms of artillery systems, all the samples presented have been used for many decades on the ships of the Navy in many countries of the world. However, a wide range of systems of different calibers allows us to conclude that a promising ship is not designed for any serious naval duels or artillery support for the landing. The tasks of the artillery are quite common - shooting the boats of Somali pirates or a warning shot under the bow of the violating vessel (poacher, smuggler).
About anti-submarine weapons Little is known about the future frigate - obviously, it will be the standard for the British 324 mm light homing torpedo Stingray (launch from a ship or from an anti-submarine helicopter). The main means of detecting underwater targets will be GAS Sonar 2087 with a towed antenna.
Aircraft armament of the frigate - a spacious helipad capable of accommodating even a huge transport CH-47 Chinook, a hangar for storing aircraft and one helicopter, probably a light Lynx or Merlin. Machines of both types have long been used in the navy - the ugly Lynx set a flight speed record among serial helicopters (400 km / h) and is the champion in the number of sunken ships (during the Falklands War, Lynx was sunk using Sea Skua anti-ship missiles an Argentine submarine and a patrol ship, and in Iraq in the winter of 1991 they destroyed a T-43 minesweeper, 4 border boats, a landing ship and a missile boat). The heavy "Merlin" with a take-off weight of more than 14 tons is often used as an amphibious assault, rescue, ambulance or multipurpose helicopter.
As usual, Stingray anti-submarine torpedoes and Sea Skua anti-ship missiles will remain in service [3]. As for the latter, the British sailors are confident that shooting at small surface targets is very likely in the course of any local conflict. To release heavy supersonic anti-ship missiles on boats is irrational and too wasteful. It is much easier to shoot any idiot who happened to be in the wrong place and at the wrong moment with miniature rockets from a helicopter, especially since the helicopter flies high and sees much further than the best ship's radar. This has been proven many times in practice. By the way, we have already mentioned that the functions of combating surface targets will be performed much more efficiently by aviation.
Probably, readers will be especially interested to know what special means it is planned to equip the "Global Warship". Firstly, the frigate is equipped with places for the boarding team (36 special forces and combat swimmers). Secondly, according to the BAE Systems website, the frigate will be equipped with unmanned aerial vehicles (for example, the RH-8 Fire Scout helicopter) and automatic surface and underwater vehicles, similar to the already existing Gavia or Pluto.
Miniature bathyscaphes are useful for finding and eliminating mines, maintaining underwater communications (SOSUS systems or deep-sea communication cables), and in the future, they will be able to act as automatic hunters for enemy submarines. The main task here is to teach such a device to work completely offline and to act competently in any force majeure circumstances (for example, in case of an accidental hit in a fishing net).
It is also planned to equip the ship with hydrographic and hydrological equipment, systems of non-lethal weapons (water cannons, sound cannons, searchlights). The cost of the "global warship" is estimated at 250-350 million pounds ($ 400-500 million).
