French military developers have stunned the world with a new warship. The revolutionary weapon is a submersible frigate or, as the designers themselves call it, a surface submarine.
At the European naval show EURONAVALE-2010, which opened on October 25 in the Paris suburb of Le Bourget, many projects of promising warships for the near future were presented. Experts clearly distinguish two trends: the creation of missile defense ships and ships specially designed for the basing of unmanned aerial vehicles. Among them there are both conventional surface ships and very futuristic projects like the SSX-25 "submersible frigate" proposed by the French concern DCNS.
The French themselves call the unusual ship a "surface submarine": this is how the French name Sous-marin de surface can be translated into Russian. The ship is 109 meters long and has a semi-submerged underwater hull optimized for high moves on the surface. For this purpose, especially powerful gas turbines are installed in the elongated knife-like hull of the ship, which drive three water-jet propellers, while the "surface submarine" will be able to travel at least 2,000 nautical miles in a 38-knot course.
Turbines and underwater diesel engines are located on a single base in a massive deck superstructure. Upon arrival in the combat area, the ship makes a "dive", partially turning into a submarine.
At the same time, the air intakes of the turbines and exhaust devices are closed with special dampers, "snorkels" (devices for underwater supply of diesel engines with air) move out from the superstructure, azipods from the central part of the ship, and the rudders in the bow. When submerged, the ship has a displacement of 4,800 tons and is capable of moving at a speed of up to 10 knots.
To observe the surface, a special retractable mast like a periscope, equipped with a radar and various kinds of optical sensors, can be used.
The company does not say whether the ship is capable of operating in a fully submerged state, that is, without retractable devices for intake of atmospheric air, only on electric propulsion. The company emphasizes that their diving ship is not optimized for dealing with underwater targets, however, it has eight torpedoes in bow torpedo tubes for self-defense.
The main armament of the ship is 16 universal vertical launchers to accommodate both cruise (including anti-ship) and anti-aircraft missiles.
Thus, as a promising ship, French designers propose a hybrid of a URO frigate (high speed, seaworthiness, a powerful missile system) and an attack submarine (stealth, the ability to attack targets from a submerged position). The submerged hull will provide the hybrid ship with less vulnerability to rolling, making it a stable launch platform, and the developed superstructure will partially get rid of such a submarine drawback as crampedness. Moreover, the submerged case is also less noticeable in all ranges and high efficiency due to less resistance to movement at the border of the media.
In addition, as experts note, the developed superstructure allows it to accommodate various rather comfortable rooms for special forces and its specific equipment - an advantage that special purpose submarines are deprived of. In the superstructure, of course, a special hangar for UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) can also be arranged; vertical take-off rotorcraft are especially attractive in this regard. Such robotic helicopters can be stored in automated racks on the sides of a hangar with a retractable roof that will open to release and receive UAVs.
Obviously, in this configuration, the ship should be considered, first of all, as a reconnaissance agent designed for covert and long-term collection of information in any coastal area, for one reason or another, not accessible to space or aeronautical reconnaissance. Another possible purpose of such a ship is to clear a bridgehead for commandos, covert attacks on coastal targets, and clear beaches before the arrival of the main landing force. It is clear that it will be most valuable against an enemy that does not have modern anti-submarine warfare means.
One should not think that the French have invented something fundamentally new. Diving and semi-submersible submarines have been known since the century before last, some of these ships were even used in battle. So, the British squadron boats of the K class during the First World War, equipped (due to the lack of powerful diesel engines) with steam turbine installations, were actually diving ships and in clashes operated from a semi-submerged position, hoping for the protection of the hull by a layer of water. The famous "Monitor" can also be considered a semi-submersible ship: the first self-propelled iron screw artillery ship used by the northerners during the American Civil War to shell the Hempleton raid.
You can also recall the German mini-submarines like "Seehunde" and "Seeteufel": the first was an attempt to create a kind of naval analogue of a single-seat fighter aircraft, and the second - a sabotage vessel with the ability to land using tracks.
Various projects of diving ships were also created in the USSR. These were actually the early Soviet submarines of the Pravda type. To achieve a high surface speed, designer Andrei Asafov tried to give the submarine the outlines of the destroyer - the fastest of the surface ships at that time. But destroyers are characterized by the ratio of length to width and width to draft, which is absolutely not characteristic of submarines. As a result, in a submerged state, the ship was poorly controlled, and a high buoyancy margin extremely slowed down the dive.
The project of the 1231 "Dolphin" diving torpedo boat also looked extremely original. The idea was submitted personally by Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. Once examining the speedboats of the TsKB-19 and TsKB-5 projects at the naval base in Balaklava and observing the submarines based there, he expressed the idea that in order to ensure the secrecy of the fleet's actions, which is especially important in conditions of an atomic war, it is necessary strive to "submerge" the fleet under water, and suggested to begin with "submerge" a missile boat.
In accordance with the TTZ, the project 1231 ship was intended to deliver surprise missile strikes on warships and transport in narrow places, on the approaches to enemy naval bases and ports, to participate in the defense of the coast, fleet basing areas and coastal flanks of land forces, in repelling the landing landing forces and disruption of enemy sea communications, as well as for carrying hydroacoustic and radar patrols in the areas of dispersed basing of the fleet. It was assumed that when solving these tasks, a group of such ships should be deployed in a given area and for a long time in a submerged position in a waiting position or approach the enemy also in a submerged position, maintaining contact with him by hydroacoustic means.
Having approached, the missile carriers surfaced, at high speed reached the line of a missile salvo, fired missiles, then sank again or broke away from the enemy at maximum speed when on the surface. The presence of missile carriers in a submerged position and a high speed during an attack were supposed to reduce the time they were under enemy fire, including air attack weapons.
The project developed quite successfully from 1959 until the resignation of Khrushchev in 1964, when it was frozen and later closed.
The only application in which diving ships have justified themselves is in high-speed semi-submersible landing boats, used, for example, by North Korean saboteurs, and for some time now by their Iranian counterparts. Colombian drug traffickers use the same type of court, but already "self-made", to deliver their goods to the United States. These are low-sitting boats up to 25 meters long, the surface of the boats protrudes above the surface to a height of no more than 45 centimeters, they can take on board up to 10 tons of cocaine. The US military and law enforcement agencies call them Self-Propelled Semi-Submersibles (SPSS). Locating such boats is extremely difficult, even for a well-equipped service like the US Coast Guard.
Apparently, this is what the French designers are guided by: some Somali pirates will most likely not really notice a large semi-submersible or diving ship. But is it worth the candle? Will it not turn out that a ship of this class will be more expensive than a frigate and a submarine combined, and in terms of efficiency - worse than each separately? It is clear that at the moment no one can answer this question, but still it seems that the future belongs to less exotic ships.
