IDAS Submarine Launched Surface to Air Missile System

Diehl Defense from Germany is back at the Singapore Airshow promoting a number of defense systems which are of high value to customers in Asia. Particularly interesting is the IDAS (Interactive Defence and Attack System for Submarines). This unique submarine launched anti-helicopter weapon is designed to protect attack submarines from anti-submarine helicopters, as they become vulnerable hovering low above water, dipping their sonar in search of enemy submarines. This subsonic missile is optimized to seek out such slow targets, which pose significant risk to a submarine operating at littoral, ‘brown’ waters.

Four missiles will be stored in a magazine that fits into a standard 21″ torpedo tube. The missiles are ejected from the magazine into the water, extract their wings and separate quietly from the submarine, where they ignite the rocket and transition to airborne flight, propelled by the weapon’s rocket motor.

One of the development challenges was the propulsion system. 

The same rocket was required to provide thrust for both underwater and airborne flight. The rocket was designed to sustain the missile’s at optimal velocity in submerged flight, and accelerate to subsonic flight while airborne, reaching effective range of 20 km. Another concern was sustaining the optical-fiber through the transit below and above water. Diehl’s engineers were concerned how the fiberoptic bobbins will behave in the different environments (below and above water) the test provided clear evidence this will not be an issue.

 Diehl initially considered using the IRST seeker for IDAS, however,it became evident that the high performance and all aspect capabilities of this seeker will not be required for the new weapon, and a relatively simple seeker will be sufficient to pick up the target, provided with passive cuing from by the submarine sonar. The submarine can acquire ASW helicopter when submerged, by localizing the ripple effect created by the rotor downwash. According to Diehl, the accuracy of such cuing system is adequate to provide bearing and range, bringing the missile seeker to autonomously acquire the target with high level of confidence. The fiber optical link would then be used by the crew to verify the target, confirm the intercept and perform battle damage assessment.

 

IDAS was originally developed for the German Type 212 submarines but the program has since frozen due to German defense budget cuts. Originally the missile was planned to become operational in 2014 but this timetable is now unlikely as the German Navy acquisition programs have stalled recently due to lack of funding. Diehl is currently talking to international partners seeking bridging funding for the program, to sustain the development through the next stage.In few years, Diehl is confident the high interest in the program will turn into formal endorsement by foreign navies that have already expressed much interest in the program.

For the missile development Diehl has teamed with Submarine builder HDW,, which is now part of the Thyssen-Krupp Marine Systems (TKMS). Originally the weapon was designed to be integrated in the HDW Type 212 submarine but, according to Diehl, it can be integrated with other submarines as well, though the obvious interest of HDW is still to ‘own’ this weapon as their submarine’s unique advantage.

IDAS is formally still in the proof of concept phase, which culminated four years ago in a submarine launch performed by the German Navy U33 Type 212 submarine in 2008. This test examined the underwater launch system, with the missile ejected from the torpedo tube, igniting the rocket under water, separating from the submarine without leaving significant signature (avoiding exposure of the submarine location). Following this maneuver IDAS performed a course change under the water, streaking vertically into the air. Back in 2008 the test focused on this transition phase, with future tests, to be performed when funding is available, would continue with full flight, target acquisition, guidance and battle damage assessment.

USA - Portsmouth Naval Shipyard touts speedy submarine fix

PORTSMOUTH — Workers at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard completed repairs on a nuclear submarine ahead of schedule this month, according to a shipyard spokesperson, allowing the vessel to return to service earlier than expected.

Repairs on the USS San Juan, a 23-year-old fast attack submarine, concluded on Saturday. The repairs were scheduled to last 20 months and three weeks, but the ship arrived at its home port in Groton, Conn., a full eight days ahead of the scheduled delivery date, according to Shipyard Commander Captain Bryant Fuller.

"It's wonderful to be back in Groton after successfully completing our maintenance overhaul early," Commanding Officer Ollie Lewis said in a statement.

"(This) is a tribute to the dedication of both Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and the USS San Juan crew."

Repairing and modernizing aging submarines is the "bread and butter," of the shipyard, according to Fuller, who said most Los Angeles-class submarines like the San Juan undergo routine maintenance every 20 years. The San Juan was commissioned on Aug. 6, 1988.

When the San Juan arrived in Portsmouth in April 2010, project overseers made speed and quality repair work their priorities.

"We did some things differently on San Juan and it paid off," Project Superintendent DK Horne said in a statement.

"We made more progress in her availability before undocking than any engineered overhaul the shipyard has performed in the past."

The repair work included sealing the exterior of the ship, replacing outdated parts, and refurbishing others that have deteriorated. At the height of the repair work, approximately 700 shipyard workers were engaged in the project, according to Fuller.

The shipyard is outfitted with three dry docks, and typically services two or three submarines concurrently. Shipyard staffers perform most of the repair work that requires heavy machinery, but crew members are also expected to contribute to the maintenance. Crew members also undergo training to learn about new systems.

Fuller said having a "really good plan" and "great teamwork" were the factors that allowed the shipyard to finish repairs ahead of schedule.

"Anytime the ship is at sea, or able to go to sea and operate, then that's just another day that they can be operating instead of sitting in the shipyard and getting maintenance." In total, the country's naval fleet includes about 50 fast-attack submarines. Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is one of four remaining naval shipyards in the country, according to the shipyard's website. It employs approximately 4,500 workers.

"The operational demand for our submarine force is of vital importance," he said in a statement. "Thanks to the team effort put forth by San Juan's crew and the skilled craftsmen and women of the shipyard, we have successfully returned eight days of operational time to the fleet — that cannot be overstated."

The fate of the shipyard fell into jeopardy last month, when U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta asked Congress to authorize a new round of base closures under a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process.

During the last BRAC process in 2005, the Pentagon's recommendation to close the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard was ultimately overturned by a BRAC commission. The state's congressional delegation has vigorously opposed changes that would affect the shipyard.

Canada - Our submarines will 'live up to the challenge,' navy says

The Royal Canadian Navy has defended its battered submarine program, saying leaked photos of the gaping hole in the bow of HMCS Corner Brook after its grounding make the damage look worse than it is.

Capt. Luc Cassivi, deputy commander of Canadian Fleet Pacific, headed the board of inquiry that investigated what caused the submarine to strike the rocky ocean bottom in Nootka Sound on June 4. He said the review did not focus on the level of damage.

"From what we can see, there is some damage to the sonar rays that are in the bow and there is some leakage of water to the No. 1 main ballast tank, which is external to the pressure hull," he said.

Cassivi said the crash does not appear to have damaged the pressure hull, the crucial heart of the ship that keeps submariners alive under hundreds of metres of water.

"What really is stunning for people is that hole in the sonar dome. It is fibreglass and it took most of what it is supposed to do," Cassivi said. "The submarine is constructed to absorb some of that shock."

Cassivi compared the gash to a cut on a person's forehead, which bleeds a lot and looks very severe even if it is a superficial wound.

Cassivi said the navy was not trying to hide the damaged submarine from the public.

Navy divers had assessed the damage underwater and, because there was no leak to the hull, the boat could stay in the water alongside Esquimalt Harbour until it was moved onto a floating barge Jan.

18. The submarine was moved from the dockyard to the Seaspan careen at Ogden Point on Jan. 18 between 4 a.m. that morning and 9 p.m. so it was in plain view for much of that, Cassivi said.

Now that the submarine is out of the water, an assessment over the next few months will determine the level of damage and the cost of fixing it, Cassivi said.

Cassivi's report into the crash said it was "avoidable" and blamed an inexperienced commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. Paul Sutherland, for having the boat 450 metres away from its intended position.

Sutherland has since been relieved of his command and reassigned.

Cassivi said the crew reacted exactly as they should to the grounding, activating the alarms, checking for leaks or fires and assessing the equipment. The boat was able to make its way back to port.

Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, former head of the Senate defence committee, has said Canada should stop sinking money into the used boats and invest in new ones to protect the country's vast coastline. The government has spent $900 million repairing the boats since they were bought from Britain for $750 million in 1998.

Cassivi said once the submarines are fully operational, they will be crucial in allowing Canada to effectively patrol our waters.

HMCS Victoria and HMCS Windsor are expected to be fully certified and equipped with torpedoes by 2013, at which point they will patrol the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. HMCS Chicoutimi will be fully certified by 2014 and HMCS Corner Brook is set to be in extended maintenance that will see it docked until 2016.

Cassivi acknowledged that Canadians' confidence has been shaken as they watch the submarine project putter along.

"We fully acknowledge it has been a challenge moving this project forward," he said.

"They are submarines that will live up to the challenge that we have in our bodies of waters. We look forward to proving that very shortly to everyone and putting the speculation and the negative outlook that, unfortunately, the delays in getting to steady state have provided."

Russia faced major nuclear disaster in 2011: report

A view shows Russia's nuclear-powered submarine Yekaterinburg at a Russian navy base in Murmansk region, March 16, 2011

 

(Reuters) - Russia came close to nuclear disaster in late December when a blaze engulfed a nuclear-powered submarine carrying atomic weapons, a leading Russian magazine reported, contradicting official assurances that it was not armed.

Russian officials said at the time that all nuclear weapons aboard the Yekaterinburg nuclear submarine had been unloaded well before a fire engulfed the 167-metre (550 feet) vessel and there had been no risk of a radiation leak.

But the respected Vlast weekly magazine quoted several sources in the Russian navy as saying that throughout the fire on December 29 the submarine was carrying 16 R-29 intercontinental ballistic missiles, each armed with four nuclear warheads.

"Russia, for a day, was on the brink of the biggest catastrophe since the time of Chernobyl," Vlast reported. The 1986 disaster in modern-day Ukraine is regarded as the world's worst nuclear accident.

Neither the Russian Defence Ministry nor the office of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who has responsibility for military matters, would immediately comment on the report. A spokesman for the navy could not be contacted.

SPARKS FLY

The fire started when welding sparks ignited wooden scaffolding around the 18,200-tonne submarine at the Roslyakovo docks, 1,500 km (900 miles) north of Moscow and one of the main shipyards used by Russia's northern fleet.

The rubber covering of the submarine then caught fire, sending flames and black smoke 10 meters (30 feet) above the stricken vessel. Firemen battled the blaze for a day and a night before partially sinking the submarine to douse the flames, according to media reports.

Vlast reported that immediately after the fire the Yekaterinburg sailed to the navy's weapons store, an unusual trip for a damaged submarine supposedly carrying no weapons and casting doubt on assurances that it was not armed.

"K-84 was in dock with rockets and torpedoes on board," the magazine said, adding that apart from the nuclear weapons the submarine was carrying torpedoes and mines as well as its two nuclear reactors.

The magazine said that if one of the torpedoes had exploded it could have threatened the nuclear missiles, leading to an extremely dangerous nuclear accident.

Media reports of what happened at the time of the fire were contradictory and foreign journalists were unable to gain access to the high security zone.

Russia's worst post-Soviet submarine disaster was in August 2000 when the nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea killing all 118 crewmen aboard.

The Submarine That Goes Down – Not So Revolutionary Egyptians in Iran

The Following are excerpts from an article author Sharif Abdolghani wrote in Qatari Al-Arab Newspaper.  It has been translated from Arabic.

It was almost midnight when the phone rang.  The calling number was mysterious. I answered despite my normal practice with late night calls.  It was a woman on the phone. She sounded familiar.

- “I am … your journalist colleague calling from Tehran,” she said speaking in Arabic.

- “Hope all is well, what are you doing there?” I asked.

- “I participated in the revolution,” she said.

- “What?  There has been a revolution in Iran?” I asked.

- “No,” she said adding, “I represent Egyptian revolution in a Conference in Tehran.”  You consider this that she has never been involved in the revolution and in fact she is not really a journalist.

- “Which revolution? 1952?” so I asked.

- “No, the youth revolution.” She replied.

- “Ok seriously, what are you doing?” I asked.

The conversation took about one hour and the lady journalist kept on talking about how generous the Iranians are and there was no need for her to worry about the cost of the phone call as it is all paid for. All participants in the conference were able to use this possibility, she said.

She continued to explain that how her trip and stay in Tehran and her multiple trips were complementary and she even spoke of an envelope filled with cash that was given to her to be spent on buying stuff for her kidson her return.  She also explained about the conference in Tehran which was about “Arab Spring Revolutions and the Islamic Awakenings took after Khomeini’s experience” in which about 2000 people had participated from all Arab Spring nations except of course “Syria” which is the target of “western conspiracy.”

Interesting for me was the presence of Egyptians who had attended the conference.  You could say they were no one of consequence. A discredited radio announcer who supported Mubarak; the son of an Islamic figure who was thrown out of Tahrir square just recently, who was sent to Tehran by his father, and so on.

When my friend and colleague came back from Tehran, she told me her story.

She was introduced to someone who took journalists to the Iranian Embassy in Cairo to be sent to Iran on the condition that they would share the money they received from the Embassy with him.

Interestingly, she had managed to escape the control of Iranian security forces during her stay in Iran and reached inside city areas witnessing firsthand the poverty that the Iranian regime tries so much to cover up.  She explained how an Iranian worker complained to her that prices had doubled during the past two months.

She also found out regarding freedom in using internet that most internet sites are filtered in Iran, and that security teams are searching for satellite dishes on rooftops and on top of all that, arbitrary arrests for fabricated allegations.

While Iranian leaders spend millions on conferences such as the one my friend has gone, the Iranian people themselves have to live in such poverty.

A Lebanese journalist wrote once that when many years back he went to Iran to find out about that country’s military capabilities, he was sent to a ceremony to introduce Iran’s first domestically built submarine.  The submarine, for demonstration purposes, submerged in the water, alright, but never came backup.  To explain, the military official told those present that, “It is a submarine you know, that is what it is supposed to do, go down.”