The German company Diehl Defense presented a unique anti-aircraft missile system IDAS, with the help of which submarines will be able to hit air targets while under water.
The unique IDAS (Interactive Defense and Attack System for Submarines) will close the current gap in the defense of submarines. The IDAS missile will make it possible to destroy a dangerous, and until that time invulnerable to submarines, air enemy. Optimizations have been made to allow subsonic missiles to hit slow targets, such as anti-submarine helicopters, which have increased vulnerability when flying at low altitudes with sonar deployed. The transport and launch container contains four IDAS missiles. The container itself is located in a standard torpedo tube. After launching from it, the rocket pierces the water column and takes off above its surface, expanding its wings and launching the rocket engine.
The creators of IDAS were able to solve a key problem - the functioning of the power plant in various environments. During the tests, the rocket showed a fairly stable operation of its engines, rapid acceleration to subsonic speed with a firing range of up to twenty kilometers. Another problem is the preservation of the fiber-optic channel for controlling the missile at the moment it leaves the water. Initially, the possibility of using an autonomous infrared homing head was considered, but the fiber-optic channel has greater reliability and firing accuracy, allowing for target identification and assessment of the tactical situation. However, the use of other systems is not excluded, such as passive sonar of a submarine, which will allow detecting helicopters, localizing the ripple effect of their propellers.
Adopting anti-aircraft missile submarines will change the alignment of naval forces. Until now, submarines had only conditional protection against air threats - a great depth or several portable anti-aircraft missile systems. This made it possible to conduct an unpunished search for submarines at low altitudes, hitting them on the surface, without fear of retaliation.
