No matter how narrow-minded British members of the forum discuss in the global network "clouds" of smoke from 200 thousand, a strong boiler-turbine power plant KVG-4 with four turbo-gear units TV-12-4 of our aircraft-carrying missile cruiser "Admiral Kuznetsov", the main problems of the Royal Naval Navy of Great Britain from this in any way do not dare. And these problems are much more serious than, for example, the most numerous US Navy, or our Navy, which has a pronounced anti-ship configuration, capable of sending any American AUG to the bottom anywhere in the World Ocean.
TWO STRATEGIC PROBLEMS OF THE UK NAVY, WHICH STILL DO NOT ALLOW THE DISTRIBUTION OF FLOATED SHIPS OF DIFFERENT CLASSES TO SEPARATE SHIP STRUCTURES
The first and most tangible trouble for the British Navy was recently raised for public discussion by the head of the parliamentary committee on defense, Julian Lewis, who caused a real panic in the circles of the British establishment, pointing out that 6 air defense missile defense destroyers of the Daring class ("Type 45") and 19 anti-submarine frigates of the "Duke" class ("Type 23") are unable to provide a decent defense of Foggy Albion, and the failure of even one surface ship will lead to unpredictable consequences. Naturally, it was implied, but not voiced, the option of a collision of the British naval strike group with the Russian on the wave of impressions received from the passage of Admiral Kuznetsov with Peter the Great, as well as 2-shock MPS of the third generation, project 971, going on the same course. Pike-B ", the missile and torpedo armament of which would be enough to destroy at least half of the British Navy grouping.
But if the issue of the quantitative crisis of the surface ship structure of the fleet is only half the trouble, and the intensification of production of existing and new projects at the Scotstoun Shipyard can correct the situation, then the problem of interchangeability of ships in terms of the range of tasks performed is a real threat for London. The British Admiralty and the Ministry of Defense are trying to spread about it as rarely as possible, trying to change the situation as soon as possible by developing and adopting the latest Type 26 GCS (Global Combat Ships) class frigate and American long-range LRASM anti-ship missiles as their main armament. But can these multifunctional missile sisterships really change bad trends in the British navy?
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE MAIN CLASSES OF THE BRITISH NAVY SHIPS - TYPE 45 DESTROYERS AND TYPE 23 FREGATES
Considering the most combat-ready surface ships of the British Navy - the Type 45 air and missile defense destroyers of the Daring class, the greatest tactical value can be seen directly in the advanced shipborne PAAMS anti-aircraft missile system and the Aster-30 anti-aircraft interceptor missiles used … "Asters", equipped with a gas-dynamic "belt" of transverse control engines (DPU) in the center of mass of the rocket, are capable of maneuvering with overloads of up to 65 units, striking not only large aerodynamic objects, but also small ballistic targets by the method of kinetic interception (direct hit) "hit -to-kill ". The first solid-propellant launch stage of the bicaliber "Aster-30" accelerates the sustainer stage (180 mm in diameter) to a speed of 5100 km / h, bringing it into the stratosphere, where low aerodynamic drag reduces the deceleration speed down to 50-60 km of the flight trajectory. The effective range is up to 100 km. The range of destruction of a ballistic target approximately corresponds to that of the S-300FM "Fort-M" complex and is 35 km.
"PAAMS" in the "British" version for the better differs from the land version of the "SAMP-T" complex in that target designation is not based on the 10-channel ARABEL radar, but on the 12-channel Sampson AFAR, which has a throughput for reviewing 2000 targets and 500 for maintenance. Two-sided AFAR for 2560 transmit-receive modules with a power of 25 kW has an important distinguishing feature - the absence of a "funnel" when scanning in elevation, which reaches 90 degrees. In this regard, "Sampson" surpasses the antenna posts of the 30N6E type, which are equipped with the S-300FM "Fort-M". Full-fledged protection is provided even for that Daring-class destroyer, which for some reason has moved away from the main KUG: the Samson radar can independently detect and issue target designations for high-precision weapons attacking from above. Here even the American AN / SPY-1 is seriously inferior to the brainchild of BAE Systems.
An equally important role in the tasks of early-range radar detection is played by the S1850M radar detector (RLO). In addition to the tracking capacity of 1000 air targets, this radar will be able to take a direct part in the strike operations of the modernized Daring-class destroyers. So, at a distance of 200 km, the S1850M can also detect ground objects, naturally located at an altitude of 1500 m appropriate for an elevation above the radio horizon (in mountainous terrain). In other cases, the range will be shorter. The detection range of aerospace targets of the "BR" type can reach 600 kilometers or more, the development and manufacturing companies Thales and BAE Systems are regularly working to improve the station's visibility.
The advantages of the Type 45 destroyers in terms of air defense and missile defense are non-negotiable, but the anti-ship features of these ships leave much to be desired. As in most of the main classes of surface ships of the NATO fleets, 2x4 Mk 141 launchers with 8 anti-ship missiles of the Harpoon family are envisaged as anti-ship weapons. The missiles have a low flight speed of up to 900 km / h, low maneuverability and EPR of about 0.1 m2, which is why they are very vulnerable to shipborne self-defense air defense systems such as "Kortik", "Pantsir-M", "Dagger" and "Osa- MA ". Moreover, only 8 missiles will not be able to create a powerful effect of a massive strike, and therefore even one combat module (BM) 3M87-1 and the Flexka module will be enough to fully repulse such a threat.
As for the Sylver-VLS A50 universal built-in launchers (UVPU) installed on Daring-class destroyers, the RGM-84L are not unified with them. Only the highly maneuverable missiles of the MICA-VL self-defense anti-aircraft missile system are compatible with the A50. The anti-submarine qualities of the HMS "Daring" class destroyers are provided by the modern sonar station MFS-7000, located in the sound-transparent under-keel fairing (bow bulb) of the ship. The GAS is represented by an acoustic phased array based on several hundred elements, and is capable of detecting sound-contrast and sound-emitting underwater / surface targets in the near and far zones of acoustic illumination.
But the effectiveness of the anti-submarine destroyer complex as a whole has not been confirmed by anything, since officially there are no anti-submarine missiles (PLUR) on the Type 45. Such a huge disadvantage is due to the imperfect doctrine of the Royal Navy of Great Britain, where the role of anti-submarine ships is assigned to the Duke-class Type 23 frigates (also known as the Norfolk), equipped with 2 paired 324-mm anti-submarine torpedo tubes complex little short-range MTLS. The main armament of the complex - 324-mm torpedoes "Stingray" with a range of 8 km. The torpedo is equipped with a powerful water-jet propulsion unit, as well as a highly sensitive active-passive acoustic homing head, and is a universal combat element, since its carrier can be anti-submarine helicopters, and patrol aircraft such as Nimrod, Atlantique ATL3, P-3C Orion ", As well as the P-8A" Poseidon ". "Stingray" is capable of hitting an enemy submarine at a depth of 800 m using a powerful 45-kilogram cumulative warhead. The Duke frigates are more prepared for anti-submarine defense than the Daringi: in addition to the under-keel (bulb) GAS Type 2050, the frigates of the series are also equipped with an active-passive low-frequency sonar system with a flexible extended towed antenna (GPBA) Type 2031 "(British analogue of our" Vignette-EM ").
But at the same time, the anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense of the Duke-class frigates is much weaker than that of the Daring. Responsible for it is the Sea Wolf shipborne self-defense air defense system of the GWS26 Mod.1 version, which differs from the earlier modifications of the complex (GWS25 Mod.0 and Mod.3) in the type of launcher. It uses a 1x32 VPU (vertical built-in launcher), as well as an upgraded rocket with an additional solid-propellant booster and thrust vector deflection for instant all-aspect declination after launch. This version of "Sea Wolf" has only 2 Type 911 target tracking and guidance radars in the avionics, and therefore the complex is a 2-channel. The situation with low channeling and performance is not resolved even with the help of a vertical launcher and reducing the reaction time to 5 seconds: the complex will not be able to reflect the impact of even 2 or 3 X-41 Mosquito anti-ship missiles, not to mention more advanced 3M55 "Onyx". The reason for this is also the outdated radio command guidance method, as well as a primitive "searchlight" guidance system, where one antenna post with a Ku-band guidance radar is responsible for intercepting only one target. This principle of missile guidance creates significant problems with the effectiveness of the most effective combat information and control system (BIUS) "Aegis" and the SM-3 air defense system attached to it, where the good old single-channel AN / SPG-62 continuous radiation radars continue to participate in the illumination. …
The anti-ship capabilities of the Duke-class frigates correspond to the level of the EM Type 45 and are provided by the same 8 Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The combat use of these types of ships in the existing configuration of weapons and avionics, outside of a single ship / aircraft carrier strike group, can lead either to the rapid destruction of the Type 23 by anti-ship missiles, or to the defeat of the Type 45 by massive use of torpedo weapons, which is exactly what brings the British fleet to its main problem - the lack of full-fledged interchangeability.
Meanwhile, the British Admiralty already clearly knows and is gradually implementing a long-term program to give the fleet an appropriate level of interchangeability between the two main classes of ships of the surface component.
LONDON'S FLEET MODERNIZATION STRATEGY - WIDE BUT NOT IDEAL
So, back in September 2013, the British government and the command of the Navy decided to gradually replace the outdated Sea Wolf air defense systems installed on the Type 23 with promising multi-channel Sea Ceptor self-defense air defense systems, which are quite capable of repelling even a massive raid enemy air assets. If, for example, the "Sea Wolf" air defense missile system had a maximum speed of an interceptor missile of about 2.3M, then the CAMM missile system of the "Sea Captor" complex reaches a speed of about 3680 km / h (1020 m / s). CAMM missiles will have a range of about 25-30 km, and the number of simultaneously fired targets at the "Sea Captor" can range from a few to dozens. From now on, the channelization of targets will depend only on the throughput of the target designation radar and the performance of the ship's BIUS.
If the Sea Wolf anti-aircraft missile system was not designed to destroy high-speed anti-radar missiles or supersonic anti-aircraft missiles performing intensive anti-aircraft maneuvers, then the Sea Ceptor is capable of working against such air targets. Considering the announced range of CAMM missiles (25 km), the maximum target height for the Sea Ceptor can reach 16-18 km, and therefore the complex is no longer a means of self-defense of a small ship warrant, but can be attributed to ship missile defense systems of the middle line.
Another reason why the combat stability of the ship grouping as part of the modernized Type 23 will be higher than the earlier versions with the Sea Wolf complex is the high unification of the CAMM (S) missiles with future aviation versions of these CAMM (A) missiles. modules and frequencies of radio correction from the sides of the Typhoon multipurpose fighters. After all, all three missile modifications (CAMM (S) for the fleet, CAMM (L) for air defense of the air defense and CAMM (A) for tactical aviation) were created within the framework of a single promising project FLAADS ("Future Low-Altitude Air Defense System", "Perspective system low-altitude air defense "). This suggests that the missile's radio command module can be programmed to receive target designation from other units, even if the target is lost for some reason by the antenna post of the Sea Ceptor air defense missile system.
After the Duke-class frigates are updated with the Sea Ceptor complexes, their combat level will become more balanced, meeting new threats, but the anti-ship qualities will still remain at the old level, which does not in any way compete even with such ships as the pr. 11540 frigate "Intrepid". The Kinzhal KZRK and 2 Kortik air defense missile systems, which are in service with this patrol ship, will easily reflect the impact of the Harpoon ammunition from two Duke frigates (16 missiles). The British Navy hopes to resolve the issue with a weak anti-ship arsenal with the help of a new type of frigate "Type 26 GCS".
