Contemporary politikum offers two geopolitical perspectives on the future. In reality, there is a unipolar world with the sole leader - the United States. The second view presupposes the movement of the world community towards a bipolar (the second pole, led by China, is rapidly developing) or multipolar system of interstate relations. Accordingly, the intensification of rivalry among the leading countries in the political and military-technical fields, especially in the field of arms development, will not stop. The most important thing here is the transition to a new generation of weapons - high-precision and "information", which makes war little or no contact.
Some of the latest examples of conventional weapons have destruction parameters close to nuclear weapons, and the destruction of nuclear power plants, hydroelectric dams, and chemical industry enterprises during hostilities can have catastrophic consequences. Even in the presence of a developed air defense system, modern "smart" weapons leave little chances for the targets of attack to survive.
The theoretical foundations of the use of the latest weapons are also being worked out. Thus, in the United States, two main interrelated strategies were born. The first is the National Missile Defense (NMD). Proceeding from the fact that its territory must be reliably protected from possible missile strikes, it is planned to build an anti-missile dome over the entire territory of the United States. The second is the strategy of fighting at sea. Experts from Western states have dubbed this type of military action "littoral" ("littoral" is a coastal strip of the sea with depths of up to 400 m above the continental shelf). "Littoral" hostilities envisage strikes into the depths of the land from sea directions. By the way, the hostilities against Iraq and Yugoslavia began precisely with the strikes of sea-based Tomahawks with the support of aviation, the events around Libya only confirm this.
Consequently, this is no longer the theory of naval art "fleet against coast", but a qualitative leap in the conduct of military operations. The development of the US Navy shows that it is the "littoral" option that is gaining momentum. Atomic submarines of the Virginia type have been built, which are designed to operate in the "littoral" waters. The task of the submarines is reconnaissance of foreign shores, the destruction of ships and formations in the coastal zone, cruise missile strikes against industrial facilities, and the landing of sabotage groups.
Also, by 2015, it is planned to build 32 promising DD-21 destroyers of the Zamvolt type (estimated cost - $ 30 billion). Each such destroyer can operate from 126 to 256 cruise missile launchers, which will have a range of about 1,500 nautical miles, in fleet-against-shore operations.
What is available and what is needed
Let's analyze the naval weapons in Ukraine, in particular the ship composition. The basis for justifying calculations regarding the quantity and quality of the naval forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is based on the existing and projected threats and interests of the state, primarily from sea areas. Now the Ukrainian Navy can only adequately respond to certain specific threats in the maritime operational zones.
Almost all the ships that are now part of the Ukrainian Navy were received by Ukraine as a result of the division of the Black Sea Fleet of the former USSR. And those that were completed already in the years of independence were designed in the 60-70s of the last century. Ukraine did not get the latest technology from the USSR. So, the naval composition of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is unbalanced, morally and physically obsolete.
There is another extremely negative point: the chronic underfunding of the needs of the Armed Forces over the past two decades has led to non-compliance with the terms of the repair of ships and to the violation of the principle of cyclicality of their use (the sequence of operation and repair for each class and project of the ship), which is the basis of long-term service … Therefore, the question arose not only of modernizing existing ships, but also of building new ones. A decision was made to build a series of the first domestic ships of the "corvette" class. And the state even paid an advance to start construction of one section of the hull of the lead ship in Nikolaev.
Unified and multipurpose
The first feature that distinguishes a warship from civilian ships is its armament.
In the context of changing the priority of the combat missions of the fleet, giving multifunctionality to promising warships is becoming the main direction of the development of the navies of the world's maritime powers. The versatility of the ships provides for a balance of combat capabilities when solving the entire spectrum of combat missions - from anti-submarine defense to strikes against coastal targets. However, most of the leading countries consider strengthening the air defense of ship formations, that is, collective defense, with the subsequent equipping of ships with strike weapons to combat ground targets as a priority task in the development of the fleet.
The main strike weapon of the fleet, apart from the naval forces of nuclear deterrence with intercontinental ballistic missiles, are sea-launched cruise missiles. Thus, now only the American fleet, armed with nuclear modifications of "Tomahawks" (BGM-109C and BGM-109D), meets the new military technologies. The next modification of the "Tomahawk" - Block IV Tactical Tomahawk (tactical "Tomahawk") - added the ability to patrol in the area of the attacked object for two hours for additional reconnaissance and target selection.
In the 90s, the United States began to develop a promising ALAM missile system for use by warships against enemy coastal targets. A further development of this program (2002) was the FLAM (Future Land Attack Missile) project. The complex should occupy a "range niche" between the ERGM artillery missile of the Zamvolt-class destroyers and the Tomahawk cruise missile. It is planned to equip ships of the new generation with them, although the final shape of the rocket has not yet been determined.
Complexes of similar characteristics are being developed by the French-English concern Matra / BAE Dynamics - the Scalp Naval rocket. EADS is developing the KEPD 350 Taurus aircraft cruise missile and the KEPD 150 SL anti-ship missile.
However, the need for the fleet to remain off the coast of the enemy during an air offensive operation, in conditions of active opposition by the enemy by all means of air attack, requires serious measures to ensure the safety of fleet formations from the air. If during the Great Patriotic War the ship's self-defense facilities were concentrated only on enemy aircraft, then such tactics today will definitely lead to the death of the ship.
Modern warships for European fleets were designed as air defense ships in the official classification as frigates. However, this did not mean abandoning strike weapons to combat coastal targets. Arming ships with medium and long-range anti-aircraft missile systems required an increase in the weight and size characteristics of the anti-aircraft missiles themselves, deck launchers and, of course, radar complexes. It is quite natural that attempts to create highly specialized ships ended at the design stage. The only way out for the designers was the desire to create a multipurpose ship due to the universalization of the missile weapons itself, which was always achieved due to the deterioration of combat characteristics in comparison with specialized samples.
Gradually it became obvious that the creation of a ship as a single multipurpose combat system within reasonable dimensions and construction cost is possible subject to the creation of high-precision weapons of increased range and the unification of the overall dimensions of samples of naval weapons for various purposes, which makes it possible to create universal launchers for storing and launching unified samples of guided missile weapons for various purposes.
Palm tree
The United States was the first to create multipurpose warships. The advantages are obvious: the composition of the missile ammunition is no longer determined at the design stage of the ship, but directly during the formulation of a specific combat mission.
For example, the standard ammunition load of the Bunker Hill cruiser (a modification of the Ticonderoga URO cruiser), which in the standard consists of 78 Standard anti-aircraft missiles, 20 Asroc anti-submarine missiles, 6 BGM-109A cruise missiles, 14 BGM-109C SLCMs and 4 anti-ship missiles BGM-109B Tomahawk missiles, was completely replaced by 122 BGM-109C cruise missiles in accordance with the tasks set in the 1991 campaign. That is, the transformation of a multipurpose warship into a highly specialized one, in this case, a purely shock one.
The basis for such a transformation is the Aegis multifunctional weapon system ("Aegis") and the universal under-deck vertical cell-type launcher Mk. 41, which has 14 modifications.
The basis of the Aegis anti-aircraft missile system is the Standard anti-aircraft guided missiles, which have over 25 modifications of anti-aircraft missiles, including the SM-2ER Block IVA modification, on which the anti-missile defense system is being tested.
The development of European fleets is objectively related to similar processes in the US Navy. Moreover, the American approach to the creation of multipurpose ships turned out to be the most rational and fully justified itself.
A move in response
An interesting situation has developed in Russia - the initiator of the creation of supersonic anti-ship missiles and the strategic cruise missile ZM-10 "Granat". However, the Russian fleet today does not have multipurpose ships that would be able to influence the outcome of sixth generation wars. However, Russia has created a missile weapons system, the export version of which is known under the code Club. The system includes the ZM-14E cruise missile, created on the basis of the ZM-14 "Caliber" and ZM-54 "Turquoise" missiles. The system is a multipurpose complex of military hardware, taking into account the physical environment of its use - CLUB-N is designed for surface ships, CLUB-S for submarines. The system includes anti-ship cruise missiles ZM-54E and ZM-54E1, a cruise missile for engaging ground targets ZM-14E and two ballistic anti-submarine missiles 91PE1 and 91PE2.
Despite the information in the Russian media about the development of high-precision and small-sized anti-aircraft missiles for the fleet, the Club system lacks anti-aircraft weapons, which is a significant disadvantage of using it for the development of a multipurpose ship.
In addition, there is information about the development by the Northern PKB of the project of an export destroyer with the Rif-M anti-aircraft complex and the CLUB-N missile system with the ZS14 universal vertical launcher. a new supersonic anti-ship missile ZM55 Onyx / P-800 Yakhont created at NPO Mashinostroyenia.
Such a multipurpose missile system, but with other missile names, can serve as a basis for creating a multifunctional surface ship for the Russian Navy, and one of the first such ships could be the Project 1144 Admiral Nakhimov heavy nuclear cruiser, which is modernizing the Northern Machine-Building Enterprise.
Project 58250 - corvette "Gaiduk" is the future of the Ukrainian Navy
Any country that considers itself a maritime power is obliged to constantly re-equip its ships and build new ones in order to protect its own interests at sea and remain a member of various international programs in which the naval forces are involved.
After several years of uncertainty with the Ukrainian Corvette program, it was finally decided what it should be. For three years the project was developed by the Nikolaev enterprise "Research and Design Center of Shipbuilding".
This ambitious project is the desire of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to take real steps towards the ability of the Navy to ensure the national security of the state and its interests at sea, because today, given the insufficient number and narrow specialization of the available warships, it is extremely difficult to perform these tasks. There is only one conclusion - it is necessary to provide the Ukrainian Naval Forces with universal warships as soon as possible.
According to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Mikhail Yezhel, the construction of ships of the "corvette" class remains one of the priority directions.
Construction of the first corvette will begin this year. The ship was named "Gaiduk". The cost of the "main" ship of the series is estimated at 250 million euros, but the predicted price for other corvettes will fluctuate within the range of 200-210 million euros. The corvettes will be built by the Black Sea Shipbuilding Plant (Nikolaev).
A number of completely new Ukrainian promising developments are planned to be installed on the corvette: a diesel-gas turbine installation, a communications complex, a new radar station, a hydroacoustic complex, and refrigeration machines. By the way, 60% of the corvette's equipment will also be made in Ukraine.
The body of the new corvette "Gaiduk" (project 58250) will be made of high-alloy steel. The superstructure of the ship will be made of a durable alloy, resistant to corrosion, and the mast and bulwark will be built from composite materials. The main feature of the corvette's silhouette should be the almost complete absence of sharp corners, the inclination of the edges of the deck superstructures. In addition, the entire surface of the corvette will be painted with radio-absorbing paint. It is expected that these design features will significantly reduce the warship's radar visibility. The corvette "Haiduk" can be operated at sea waves up to 6 points inclusive; for this, an active stabilizer will be installed in the hold.
It is planned that the maximum cruising speed of the new ship should be 32 knots. In order to reduce the emission of underwater noise, in fact, most will be installed using a two-stage damping system (springs). In addition, the main diesel engines as well as diesel generators will be covered with special soundproofing material. Also, the corvette under construction will not have a standard chimney, which will reduce the thermal visibility of the warship.
For the detection and destruction of submarines, the "Gaiduk" provides for the basing of a medium-class naval helicopter and two torpedo tubes. To identify and recognize various surface and air targets, establish their coordinates and obtain other data about them, missile guidance, the warship will be equipped with Ukrainian-made radar stations. Also, a combat information-controlled system will be mounted on the corvette to automate the processes of combat control.
The implementation of the 58250 project will allow Ukraine to offer competitive ships and related samples of weapons and military equipment on the international arms market.
