US Navy: More Can Be Done If Risks Are Accepted

The effort to put more weapons on more ships and find more ways to attack an enemy — and get it done in a timely manner — is key to “distributed lethality,” a concept being championed by Vice Adm. Tom Rowden, the US Navy’s commander of surface forces.

A Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile was fired from a US Navy littoral combat ship in September 2014. The Norweigan-built missile, along with the US-made Harpoon, is being fitted to LCSs without first going through a rigorous testing program.

But an ancient obstacle remains: bureaucracy. And it’s no secret that Navy officials have chafed under competing requirements to identify and field new capabilities faster while complying with layers of evaluation and testing authorities that often slow things up.

“How do we deliver the capabilities going forward, what does it take to do that?” John Burrow, the Navy’s top civilian official for research, test and evaluation, asked a professional audience in Washington on Tuesday. “It takes investment, a willingness to take on risk, a willingness to fail.”

Efforts that fail in their immediate goals can still provide information, Burrow noted.

“I’ve never seen a project that we pushed forward that even if we didn’t deliver a capability, that we learned a lot from,” he said to an audience at an American Society of Naval Engineers symposium. “From an engineering point of view — a science point of view — if we don’t push the envelope, take it to the outer edge, we’re not going to achieve the capabilities we need.”

Without pointing to specific entities, Burrow decried critics who focus on defects.

“We need to be willing to go off road, to change direction,” he said, noting that it’s not always apparent at the beginning of a program what eventually will be needed.

“I don’t think we can get a group of people to deliver a requirements package that’s perfect,” he said, “and then at the end we have trouble with cost and schedule. I submit that with that linear process, we shouldn’t be surprised that we have problems at the end.”

A recent demonstration by the Russians in launching cruise missiles from small warships in the Caspian Sea to strike targets about 1,000 miles away in Syria is widely seen as an example of distributed lethality.

Rear Adm. Pete Fanta, the director of surface warfare at the Pentagon, was blunt in responding to a question about why the US can’t seem to field similar capabilities in a timely manner.

“We can get there, but get the hell out of my way,” Fanta declared, speaking to the bureaucratic obstacles. “I can get there fast, I can get with the same capability, I can get it on the ships, but I can’t do it in a risk-averse, fear-centric organization.

“That’s not you folks,” he said to the civilians in the room, “that’s us wearing the uniform. I’m willing to go be the chew toy for Congress if I fail. You let me go try it, I’ll go do it. You let me bolt it on, I’ll take the risk. I’ll find a [commanding officer] out there that’s willing to point it in a direction and fire it” and understand the risks.

“I can’t do it in an organization that spends three times as much on proving it might or might not work perfectly every single time, as I can if I just go do it. Every success we’ve had we just went and did. Every major failure we’ve had has been an opinion on the level of failure by someone else.

That may be a little too blunt, but it’s the truth,” Fanta said. “We need to get out of this risk-averse culture.”

Fanta was asked if the Navy is developing a new long-range anti-ship missile.

“We still have a requirement for a Tomahawk cruise missile to attack surface ships sitting on the books. In fact it’s been reiterated for the past 15 years,” Fanta noted.

The Navy in the 1980s developed an active radar-homing anti-ship version of the Tomahawk land-attack weapon, but dropped it in the 1990s.

“We know what Tomahawk is capable of,” Fanta said. “The reason we got rid of it was because our sensors were not long-range enough to keep up with the range of Tomahawk.

Now, he noted, “our sensors have evolved to where we can track and target things out to the range of Tomahawk. So now we have a need for something Tomahawk-esque to reach out that far.”

“We’re talking about evolving the capabilities that we have,” he said. “I got a great truck” — the Tomahawk. “It’s a big missile, it’s sitting inside my [vertical launch system] cells right now. What other things can we put on it or make it do, whether with a seeker, without a seeker, dumb seekers, smart sensors? We’re looking at all of that.

“This missile is going to be around until the mid-2040s,” Fanta noted. “I think I better figure out more things to do with it than just hit a spot on the beach.”

China Military in Talks for Logistics "Facilities" in Djibouti

China's military is in talks with the Horn of Africa country Djibouti to build logistics "facilities" to support Chinese peacekeeping and anti-piracy missions, the foreign and defence ministries said on Thursday.

In May, Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh told French media his government was in talks with China about a military base, adding Beijing's presence would be welcome in the former French colony, which borders Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the facilities would mainly provide logistics services to resolve issues related to fuelling, rest and reorganisation of troops and food supplies.

"The construction of the relevant facilities will help China's navy and army further participate in UN peacekeeping operations, carry out escort missions in the waters near Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, and provide humanitarian assistance," he told a daily news briefing.

"It will help China's military further carry out its international responsibilities to safeguard global and regional peace and stability."

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian, speaking at a monthly news conference, largely repeated the foreign ministry comments, but added China wanted to play a greater role in ensuring regional peace and stability.

"Maintaining regional peace and stability accords with the interests of both countries," Wu said.

He did not provide any other details.

Earlier this month, a senior Chinese military officer visited Djibouti where he inspected a Chinese warship participating in anti-piracy patrols.

The United States and France both already have bases in the country and its port has been used by foreign navies, including China's, participating in the fight against Somali pirates.

In an effort to dampen fears about Chinese plans connected to its increasingly modern and confident military, Beijing has repeatedly said it does not want military bases abroad.

In 2009, Chinese officials distanced themselves from comments by a rear admiral, Wu Shengli, who urged the nation to set up navy supply bases overseas for the anti-piracy fight. Wu is now China's naval chief.

Chinese ships have undertaken anti-piracy operations off Somalia since late 2008, and in early 2010 Beijing agreed to join the multi-nation effort to protect shipping in the Gulf of Aden and nearby stretches of the Indian Ocean.

Experts have said China is likely one day to have to overcome its discomfort about overseas military bases, as its forces are drawn into protecting the growing interests of the world's second-largest economy.

Submarines: Underwater Game Changers

The United States builds, arguably, the world’s most capable submarines. But at about $2 billion apiece, there are only so many subs the US Navy will acquire, and it’s widely recognized the supply will never meet the demand.

Meanwhile, building and acquiring modern submarines is a worldwide growth industry. Russia, China and even India are designing and building multiple new classes of subs, armed and fit with a growing variety of weapons and sensors — and a number of nations are building or purchasing foreign-designed undersea craft.

Retired Vice Adm. Michael Connor, a former commander of the US Navy’s submarine forces, explained this activity in a recent hearing on Capitol Hill.

“The undersea arena is the most opaque of all warfighting domains,” Connor said during an Oct. 27 hearingat the House Seapower subcommittee. “It is easier to track a small object in space than it is to track a large submarine, with tremendous fire power under the water. That is why countries with the technical wherewithal to operate in this domain are pursuing advanced capability. The two countries that present the biggest challenge in the undersea are Russia and China, with Russia being the more capable of the two.”

Rather than simply building more submarines, Connor and others are urging more sustained development of weapons and sensors to increase the power of US undersea forces. Among Connor’s top recommendations is the desire to extend the striking range of submarine-launched weapons.

“This multiplies the impact of each submarine and multiplies the search challenge that each submarine presents to a potential foe,” he said.

Connor specifically wants torpedoes with ranges of more than 100 miles.

“This is definitely doable with chemical-based propulsion systems and will likely soon be achievable with battery systems,” he said. Such a range also will need better command-and-control systems, including the ability to communicate with the torpedo, perhaps via manned or unmanned aircraft or by satellite, he said.

“The torpedo will come to be considered along the line of a slow-moving missile,” he said, “with the advantage that it is more difficult to detect, carries a much larger explosive charge and strikes the enemy beneath the waterline, where the impact is most severe.”

Connor also wants the US “to get back into the business of submarine-launched anti-ship missiles” with the ability to “confidently attack a specific target at sea at a range of about 1,000 miles. We should be pursuing this more aggressively than we are.”

Connor also wants better and more-capable undersea vehicles.

“We need to improve the endurance of the vehicles, expand the payload set, and get to the point where any submarine can recover the mission data, if not the vehicle. We need to do this while keeping the cost of the vehicle down. The cost should be low enough such that, while we would always like to get the vehicles back, it is not a crisis if we don’t. The value is in the data, not the vehicle.”

Bryan Clark, a naval analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, appeared alongside Connor and urged greater development in undersea sensors — onboard submarines, unmanned vehicles and weapons, as well as deployed in the water and fixed on the seabed.

To coordinate the development and fielding of underwater systems, Clark said the Navy should “make its undersea warfare resource sponsor and acquisition organizations responsible for all undersea vehicles and systems once they transition out of research and development.”

Clark urged continued development in a wide range of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV), including looking at ways to arm some. He pointed to the compact, very lightweight torpedo — now under development — as having potential not only as a defensive, anti-torpedo weapon but also as a weapon that could be carried and launched by larger UUVs.

Connor and Clark said Congress could aid these efforts by providing funding not tied to specific programs of record. “Programs should be defined broadly so that they can incorporate innovation without recreating the program,” Connor said.

The failure of some efforts, he said, should not necessarily be taken as a negative thing. He said Silicon Valley failure rates sometimes approach 90 percent.

“If we are innovating aggressively enough, perhaps half of our initiatives will fail,” he said.

Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., chairman of the subcommittee, agreed with many of the recommendations.

“There’s a recognition that if we’re going to keep up with undersea dominance, it’s not just about creating more platforms, but we have to create relatively sophisticated systems of systems with the ability to multiply capability but not just adding a platform,” he said in a post-hearing interview.

“We can create a platform to last 20, 30, 40 years,” he said, noting that many systems will be developed over that time. “So it’s important to find the process or architecture to create innovation and put it out in three to four year cycles.

“What I’m excited about,” he said, “is we’ve got people in the Pentagon, the private sector and in policy sectors who understand this and can create partnerships to actually get them done.”

Z-18F Anti-Submarine Warfare and Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW) Helicopter, PLAN's New Weapons System For Submarine Hunt

New graphic image of Next Generation Chinese Z-18F Anti-Submarine Warfare and Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW) helicopter has appeared on Chinese internet. Z-18F ASuW helicopter is designed to independent as well as coordinated Anti-Submarine Warfare missions by finding, tracking and destroying enemy submarines.

It is outfitted with Sonobuoy launcher, forward looking infrared radar (FLIR) system mounted to starboard side, multi-mode 360° surveillance radar mounted under nose, a dipping sonar, and four weapon stations to carry anti-submarine torpedoes, depth charges and air-to-surface missiles.

PLAN Commissioned Y-8GX6 (Y-8Q) ASW Aircraft (High New 6) with the North Sea Fleet

To some, the lacking of a dedicated turboprop anti-submarine like the US P-3 Orion is the area of greatest deficiency for the PLAN, especially in the neighborhood filled with advanced nuke and AIP equipped subs. If High New 6 platform is proven to be successful, we expect to see more of them in the future. After all, the PLAN has three fleets and they can all use additional ASW assets. 

 

Class overview and general characteristics of the "Type 055 Advanced Destroyer" of PLAN!

 

Source: Wikipedia

The Type 055 Destroyer: A True Multi-Role Surface Combatant For Peoples Liberation Army Navy

The Type 055 destroyer is a class of guided missile destroyers being developed in China for the People's Liberation Army Navy Surface Force. There have been two versions of the Type 055, the first one was a much earlier proposed destroyer design that was eventually cancelled, and the other is a modern design using the same "Type 055" designation according to many internet claims, which has yet to be verified by official or independent sources.

Computer Generated Graphics of Type 055 destroyer.

The Type 055 was originally a proposed project in the late 1960s order titled “Recommendations on Building Oceanic Escort Ships”, but its progress was seriously delayed due to political turmoil in China at the time, namely, the Cultural Revolution. It was not until more than half a decade later in 1976, the year the Cultural Revolution ended, was the requirement of the ship finally completed and issued. At the time of its appearance until its final cancellation, the Type 055 was the second air defence ship of PLAN, after the Type 053K Jiangdong class frigate. The standard displacement of Type 055 design was in excess of 8000 tons.

Even as the requirement was completed, it was flawed with unrealistic standards that were way beyond the scientific, technical, and industrial capabilities of China at the time due to the influence of the Cultural Revolution. For example, the sea-keeping requirement mandated that the ship should be able to navigate anywhere in the world except polar regions, but this conflicted with combat requirement: China lacked the capability to develop any multifunctional radar, so separate radars were needed for different tasks. The Type 518 radar was needed for long range early warning / surveillance, the Type 381 radar was needed for 3-D air search / track, and each gun and missile needed its own fire control radars. In addition, there was need for navigation, surface search, and helicopter control radars as well. The Type 518 radar itself would effectively negate any possibility of meeting the sea-keeping requirement because its antenna of 8.5 meter diameter weighed 4.5 ton, and must be installed on a mast of at least 25 meters, thus severely restricting wind scale and sea state allowed for safe navigation of the ship. However, reducing the weight of radar antenna would lead to the great decrease in performance, thus not meeting the combat effectiveness requirement.

The problem is further exasperated by the problem of the ship being top heavy: due to the fact each electronic system was single function only, numerous of them were needed to meet the original requirement, resulting in a total of 22 radars and 33 communication gears, which in addition to heavy weight, also generated the problem of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) problem, so bad was the EMC problem that the missile control system could not function properly when everything was turned on, potentially causing missiles to be accidentally launched.

After the Cultural Revolution ended, the strenuous design requirements of the Type 055 that was settled during the Cultural Revolution went through re-evaluation, as with most projects of that period, and difficulties revealed in the design requirement review caused the criteria to be drastically revised and scaled back. There was later a modernisation plan to adopt British subsystems including combat data system, Sea Dart surface-to-air missiles (SAM), and Rolls-Royce Olympus TM3B high-speed gas turbines propulsion system used on the Type 42 destroyer. However efforts to incorporate British systems did not materialize, and just like the Type 051S destroyer, the Type 055 project was finally cancelled in the early 1980s, under the order of then commander of PLAN Liu Huaqing.

Since late 2012, Chinese internet websites circulated discussion of a new class of PLAN destroyers was being designed as the successor of the highly successful Type 052D destroyer, using the same "Type 055" designation as the cancelled project from the 1960s.

Photos appearing on Chinese websites in 2014, revealed that a Type 055 shore integration facility was being constructed at the Ship Design and Research Center (701 Institute) of CSIC at the Wuhan University of Science and Technology. The mock-up facility has been extensively used for testing of electronics and systems for the destroyer program, and shown to be integrated with a Type 346/348 series radar and an enclosed mast similar to Advanced Enclosed Mast/Sensor on European ships. There is speculation that the Type 055 may also have an L-band radar installed on the aft section of the ship similar to the SMART-L system. The class is expected to be armed with 112 to 128 vertical launch missile cells that can fire antiship missiles, ASW missiles, land-attack cruise missiles or SAMs.

In late December 2014, a photograph appeared on the internet indicated the first cut of steel ceremony at a Chinese shipyard. If the image is accurate, construction of the first unit has begun.

U.S. media sources have speculated that the Type 055's power and strength could make it on-par with the latest U.S. Navy Aegis warships. Some U.S. sources predict the Type 055 could carry 128 missiles, be able to carry out in-depth strikes through cruise missiles to protect its task force's airspace, and might be equipped with electromagnetic railguns and laser weapons in the future. The semi-official PLA Daily, published an article however stating the class is not a "game changing" vessel as it's not much larger than contemporary Russian, Japanese, or American destroyers, and will only be equivalent to the U.S. Arleigh Burke-class destroyer or Japanese Atago-class destroyer.

 

Source: Wikipedia

Chinese PLAN Type 055 Destroyer

Land based mock-up of Chinese Type 055 Destroyer, which is used for extensive study & research located in the construction at Wuhan.

Is China Developing A STOVL Fighter Fro PLAN?

Many believes that Chinese military authority already gained measurable achievement due to the research for an all-weather STOVL platform for its Navy. Although there's no loud voice against this claim but some news and info are floating in the internet suggests that "it might be". Here the original rumors(!). 

AVIC - new VSTOL fighter,

Nation starts research on naval jet

http://english.chinamil.com.cn/news-channels/china-military-news/2015-05/13/content_6488606.htm

(Source: China Daily) 2015-05-13

　　Move addresses gap in PLA's equipment and will further strengthen combat capability

　　China's aviation industry is working on the development of aircraft with short takeoff and vertical landing capabilities needed for an important role in the Chinese navy's future operations, military experts said.

　　"Research and development on components of STOVL aircraft, such as the engine, have started," Wang Ya'nan, deputy editor-in-chief of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told China Daily.

　　"The aircraft's principles are not new. They have been known for more than 40 years, so our aircraft designers should be able to develop the plane on their own," Wang said.

　　In late March, the Aviation Industry Corp of China, the country's leading aircraft maker, announced on its website that two of its subsidiaries - AVIC Chengdu Engine Group and China Aviation Engine Establishment - have signed a cooperation agreement on the development of the STOVL aircraft's engine. The statement said the STOVL aircraft project aims to strengthen the People's Liberation Army navy's amphibious combat capability and address the absence of such a weapon in the PLA's arsenal.

　　Compared with conventional fixed-wing aircraft, a STOVL plane can be readied for action in a shorter period of time and occupies less space in a hangar bay or on the deck of a ship. These features have made it a popular choice for naval powers since late 1960s, when Britain's subsonic Hawker Siddeley Harrier became the first STOVL aircraft to be put in service.

　　Almost all STOVL aircraft in active service are based on the Harrier design, and they form the backbone of the naval forces of India and Spain.

　　This move is not the first time China has aimed to build a STOVL aircraft. In the late 1960s, the PLA asked the aircraft institutes to develop a fixed-wing plane capable of vertical takeoff and landing. The project was later abandoned due to technical difficulties.

　　The PLA also tried to buy the Hawker Siddeley Harrier in the late 1970s, but dropped the attempt because of cost, according to Western military observers.

　　This time, AVIC appears to have made the right decision at the right time as the PLA navy now needs a STOVL aircraft because it will "significantly supplement and improve its amphibious capabilities", Wang said.

　　"Though the PLA navy now has an aircraft carrier - the CNS Liaoning - it still lacks the experience of developing and manufacturing such a sophisticated naval platform, so there won't be more carriers in the short term," Wang said. "Let's assume that a conflict breaks out between China and another nation in the near future; the PLA navy's limited number of carrier-borne fighter jets, the J-15s, would have to engage in long-distance strikes as well as air defense for the carrier battle group, and they would have to be divided into small groups to perform these tasks simultaneously."

　　If China had STOVL aircraft, they could be deployed on the CNS Liaoning and other ships to defend against incoming enemy aircraft, relieving the burden on the J-15s, which could then focus on long-range operations, Wang said.

　　"Actually, in the foreseeable future, I don't see a high probability of China's involvement in a war far from its shores. Being dragged into limited amphibious conflicts in or near our territorial waters would be more likely. The STOVL aircraft will be the best choice for air support in such conflicts," Wang said, noting that it would be a perfect match for China's future amphibious assault ships.

　　Amphibious tasks

　　In November 2013, Yin Zhuo, director of the PLA navy's Expert Consultation Committee, told China Central Television that China is developing an amphibious assault ship whose displacement will be 1.5 times larger than the Japanese Izumo-class helicopter destroyer's 27,000 metric tons.

　　Liang Tianren, a Hong Kong military observer, wrote in Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper in January that China is building a 50,000-ton amphibious assault ship that can carry 20 helicopters and 12 STOVL aircraft.

　　"The government decided to build amphibious assault ships after the outbreak of Libyan civil war in 2011, in which some Chinese-owned assets were seized or damaged. China then had few military hardware to protect its properties," Liang said.

　　"The situation made the government realize the importance of amphibious assault ships, which can fulfill various naval operations as well as conduct evacuations or humanitarian missions," he said.

　　The first Chinese amphibious assault ship will be built before the end of this year, he said, reporting at least four such vessels will be made.

　　Once the first amphibious assault ship is built, the navy will have to choose a suitable aircraft for it, Wang said.

　　"The comparatively short deck cannot accommodate the fixed-wing J-15, and attack helicopters like the WZ-10 are slow and have a limited choice of weapons. But STOVL aircraft are fast - the maximum speed of the F-35B is nearly 2,000 km/h, and it has strong firepower," he explained.

　　Vasily Kashin, a senior China analyst at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, told Sputnik News Agency, "If the PLA navy's amphibious assault ship is equipped with STOVL jets, it can be used as a light aircraft carrier, further adding to its combat capability."

　　Senior Captain Zhang Junshe, a researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, told China Daily: "The navy can deploy helicopters and STOVL aircraft on the amphibious assault ship, designating helicopters to conduct anti-submarine tasks and using STOVL planes to perform mid-and long-range air defense as well as air-to-surface strikes."

　　Multiple roles

　　The PLA air force will also find potential in STOVL aircraft, Wang said.

　　"Compared with conventional aircraft, STOVL planes are quicker and more convenient to use in contingencies and conflicts because they have few airport or runway condition requirements. Even a poorly equipped airfield or takeoff/landing point can deploy a lot of them," he said. "They would be a good guard for front-line air bases."

　　If the air force's bases were under attack, leading to conventional aircraft being grounded, STOVL fighter jets would still be able to take off to fight, gaining time for repairing the damaged bases and adding resilience to the air force, Wang said.

Sino-French Joint Naval Drill In Pictures

French Mistral-class protection and command (BPC) ship Dixmude arrives at the Wusong naval port in Shanghai, east China, May 9, 2015. A French naval taskforce consisted of the BPC ship Dixmude and the frigate Aconit arrived in Shanghai on Saturday for a 7-day visit & drill.

Type 052D (Luyang-III) Multirole Destroyer: PLAN's Prime Surface Combatant