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.”

Indian Navy Opting for Additional Scorpenes Order

The Indian Navy is considering buying additional Scorpene submarines to top an earlier six-vessel order, Indian Navy Chief Adm. Robin Dhowan said at an annual news conference here Thursday.

The Scorpene submarine Kalvari is escorted by tugboats as it cruises into the dockyard in Mumbai on Oct. 29. India may order an additional three Scorpenes.

Though he did not give any details on the number of additional French-made Scorpene diesel-electric attack submarines being considered, a senior Indian Navy official said, there is a requirement for three additional Scorpenes. A formal note to request the additional submarines has not been submitted to the Ministry of Defence.

The Navy's Scorpene project itself is behind schedule by more than four years.

Under the 2005 deal, the first submarine was to have been inducted in 2012 but now has been delayed until December 2016. Earlier, the Indian government had threatened to impose penalties if the submarines were not inducted on a schedule, with the first one to be inducted in August 2015 and the remaining five every six months following.

In 2011, then-Defence Minister A.K. Antony told the Indian Parliament that under the contract signed with MDL, the first submarine was scheduled to be delivered in December 2012, and thereafter one each year until December 2017.

The first French Scorpene submarine built by Mumbai-based Mazagon Docks Ltd. (MDL) under technology transfer from DCNS was launched in April 2015.

Indian Navy sources now say the last of the six Scorpenes will be delivered by 2022.

Delays in delivery have increased the cost of the submarine project by more than $1 billion.

The operational strength of the Navy's submarine fleet has fallen from 21 in 1986 to four, which includes Russian Kilo-class submarines acquired between 1980 and 2000, four aging HDW-class submarines and one nuclear submarine bought on lease from Russia two years ago.

Navy officials say only half of the submarines are functional as the rest remain grounded on account of maintenance and upgrades.

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.

Indian Navy's Floating Coffins!

According to the News report by India’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the submarine fleet revealed that the operational availability of the existing boats was “as low as 48% .The CAG report also warned that more than 50% of submarines have completed three-fourths of their operational life and some are already beyond their maximum service life, compelling the navy to deal with the challenges of handling an increasingly obsolete fleet safely.

 

An Indian navy submarine Sindhurakshak with about 18 sailors on board caught fire after an explosion.While the exact cause of the explosion on-board Sindhurakshak is still to be determined, but it puts a spotlight on the spate of incidents involving naval vessels. Since 2005, at least 10 serious incidents have been reported. Among them five are related to the Sindhughosh-class of submarines, of which Sindhurakshak is the one. Like in April 2006 INS Prahar Naval Patrol vessel, which was on return journey to Mumbai from Goa, sank at a Distance of 20 nautical miles from the coast.

In January 2008 INS Sindhu-gosh, with a large foreign-owned cargo ship in the Arabian Sea last could have meant a cold watery grave for the 53 sailors on board the underwater vessel. The 16-year-old Russian-made submarine, INS Sindhurakshak, also suffered an explosion in 2010 that killed one sailor and injured two others. The Indian navy said that accident was caused by a faulty battery valve that leaked hydrogen, causing an explosion in the vessel’s battery compartment.

While these incidents may reflect training and safety lapses coupled with an ageing fleet. Safety is, doubtless, a paramount concern not only in the running of conventionally armed submarines, which presently operate out of bases surrounded by densely populated cities and even more so in the case of the nuclear-armed submarine. If there were to be a similar incident with the nuclear-tipped missiles, it would be catastrophic not only for the crew but for the nearby population centers as well.

Greece To Ask U.S. for Two Arleigh-Burke Destroyers: A News From Last Decade

Less than three years after the retirement of the Themistoclis, the last Charles F. Adams-class guided missile destroyer, the Hellenic Navy is ready to officially request two newer vessels from the U.S. Navy. 

 

Navy officials have prepared and will soon send a letter of request for a pair of used Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers under a government-to-government agreement, said Navy Capt. Stefanos Gikas, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense here. Details about schedule, cost, transfer conditions and weapons would need to be worked out.

“The response of the U.S. administration in the letter of request will be the decisive factor for the implementation of the program,” a high-level Hellenic Navy official said. “What can be said at this initial stage is that the number of the ships should eventually increase to three or four; only at this force level would the introduction of a highly capable and complicated weapon system be worth the initial investment.”

Greece also is asking the United States for four Osprey-class mine-warfare ships and a number of P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft. “All these requests will be managed in the framework of the Greek-U.S. Defense and Industrial Cooperation agreement, which governs the military relations of the two allies,” Gikas said.

The destroyers, which carry the Aegis weapons system, are far more capable than anything in Greece’s current fleet. Adm. Panagiotis Chinofotis, chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff, said the Burkes would improve Greek and NATO capabilities by:

• Increasing the interoperability of the Greek military and NATO allies.

• Giving Greece a tactical ballistic missile defense capability, thereby allowing the country to participate more actively in similar allied efforts.

• Strengthening NATO’s southeast region, where hot spots and increasing asymmetric threats have drawn more and more alliance attention over the last decade.

• Helping Greece participate in allied missions overseas.

Chinofotis emphasized that “the transfer will also signal the expansion of the Hellenic-U.S. cooperation in the armaments field and the strengthening of the bonds between the two navies, which are more than 100 years old,” he said.

The transfer of the Burkes also may affect the Hellenic Navy’s effort to buy new frigates, the service’s largest program. A proposal to buy one ship with an option for a second is being included in the preliminary drafts of the next five-year unified armaments procurement plan — known as the 2006-10 EMPAE.

The frigate effort will replace the corvette program that was canceled because of excessive costs in November 2002. Some 588 million euros ($722 million) had been planned for the corvettes in 2006-10.

“The picture will become less obscure when the formal process for the 2006-10 EMPAE starts,” the Navy official said. “Until then, everything is a matter of speculation and alternate options.” But he said Greece was determined to maintain a fleet of 14 major surface combatants.

The Navy now operates four Hydra-class (German MEKO-200HN) and 10 Elli-class (Dutch Standard) multipurpose frigates. Six of the Ellis are getting a midlife upgrade under a 386 million euro contract awarded in 2003 to Thales Naval Nederland, Hengelo, the Netherlands, and Hellenic Shipyards, Skaramanga, Greece. A midlife upgrade for the Hydras will begin in 2010. •

The point is...

Are these good or bad news?

More 5 Mi-171sh Attack Helicopter for Bangladesh Air Force

Bangladesh Ministry of Defense concluded with the company "Rosoboronexport" contract for the supply of five military transport helicopters Mi- 171SH . On this, as reported by ITAR - TASS news agency, said the director of the Special Assignments "Rosoboronexport" Nikolai Dimidyuk . Transaction amount is not specified. Supply helicopters will be on account of export credit in the amount of a billion dollars , issued by Bangladesh Russia .

 

A Mi-171Sh aircraft similar to those to be delivered to the Bangladesh Navy by 2015.

Agreement to provide export credit Bangladesh signed in January 2013. On account of the same transaction will be delivered to Bangladesh combat training aircraft Yak-130. Their transfer to the customer , according to Dimidyuk begin in the second half of 2015 . In total, the Bangladeshi military should get 15 Russian aircraft.

Early last year , when it signed an agreement on the allocation of export credit Bangladesh , Russia also agreed to provide the country $ 500 million for the first phase of construction of nuclear power plants " Ruppur ." It began last fall.

Specification & Performance data of Bangladesh Navy Ordered Two Type 056 Corvette

Armaments options the Bangladesh Navy could possibly select:

1 - 76 mm AK-176 (Main gun)
2 - OTO 40 mm (CIWS)
3 - C-802 or C-803 (SSM)
4 - No VLS? (VLS)
5 - FM-90N/Crotale (SHORAD)
6 - STOP 25/30/35 mm (Auto-cannon)
7 - STAMP 12.7 mm (RCWS-MG)
8 - Yu-7 or Mu-90 (Torpedo)
9 - Z-9EC (ASW Helicopter)

Type 056 would be extended by 10 m to accommodate a helicopter hanger.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

Type 056 corvette

Class overview

Builders: Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard
Huangpu Shipyard
Operators: People’s Liberation Army Navy
Preceded by: Type 053H3 frigate

General characteristics

Type: Corvette
Displacement: 1300 tons(empty),1800 tons max
Length: 90m(waterline),95m overall
Beam: 10m
Draft: 4.4m
Speed: 28 kts

Armament:

2× 2-cell YJ-83 (C-803) anti-ship missiles, amidships (200km range)

1× FL-3000N 8-round SAM launcher, aft(9km range)

2 x 30mm remote weapon systems , amidships

1× AK-176 main gun, forward

The Type 056 corvette is a Chinese light warship that entered service with the People’s Liberation Army Navy in 2012 as a replacement for the Jianghu class frigate and the Type 037 series of patrol vessels.

2 new corvettes from South Korea for Bangladesh Navy

Interview: Vice-Admiral Zahir Uddin Ahmed, Chief of the Bangladesh Navy

................................................................................................
Author:Guy Toremans, Brussels
INTERVIEWCountry:Bangladesh
Last posted:2012-Dec-12

Vice-Admiral Zahir Uddin Ahmed, Chief of Staff of the Bangladesh Navy. (G Toremans) With the growing complexity of maritime scenarios calling for flexibility, the Bangladesh Navy (BN) is modernising its fleet and at the same time developing a sustainable local shipbuilding capability.

"To effectively meet the growing challenges we need a three-dimensional naval force capable to support fleet, area, combined and joint operations," Vice Admiral Zahir Uddin Ahmed, Chief of Staff of the Bangladesh Navy, stated.

"Consequently we are engaged in purchasing a variety of both new and off-the-shelf vessels from friendly navies - mainly frigate- and corvette-type platforms, helicopters and maritime patrol aircraft - and plan the establishment of a submarine branch.

"When I took the helm of the Bangladesh Navy [in January 2009] my highest priority was the upgrade of our ageing assets," said the admiral, pointing out that over the past three-and-a-half years some degree of progress has already been made.

"The first phase of our recapitalisation efforts was the acquisition of the two ex-Royal Navy [RN] Castle-class offshore patrol vessels," he said. Transferred on 24 September 2011, both ships were re-commissioned into the BN at the end of November 2011

"We also purchased the ex-RN survey ship HMS Roebuck ," the admiral added. "This ship arrived in Bangladesh on 25 July 2010, while in April 2010 the United States donated 16 Defender-class boats, which bolster our counter-terrorism and maritime interdiction capabilities."

Looking to the most recent additions to the fleet, Adm Ahmed said: "The first of two large patrol craft from China under construction at Wuchang Shipyard, launched on 26 August 2012, is scheduled for delivery in late 2012; the second unit will be launched at the end of 2012 as well. The first of five new 50.4 m patrol craft - the first ever indigenously built warship - was launched at the Khulna Shipyard (KSY) on 8 October 2012. We already decommissioned one of our two ex-Royal Navy Type 41 (Leopard-class) frigates and the second will be phased out shortly. Both will be replaced by off-the-shelf units.

"In September 2012 we signed a contract with the Chinese Navy for the transfer of two Jianghu-class frigates, which are expected to be delivered in mid-2013," he continued. "The Type 61 (Salisbury-class) frigate BNS Umar Farooq will be transformed into a training ship. She will be re-engined and her accommodation upgraded in order to keep her in service for another 15 years."

Detailing further planned acquisitions over the medium term, Adm Ahmed said that a contract for the construction of two corvettes has already been signed with South Korea. "These platforms are scheduled to join the fleet in the first quarter of 2016," he confirmed.

Reports also suggest that Bangladesh may receive two modern F-22B frigates from China, which would be based on the Type 053H3 (Jiangwei) class.

The BN's most ambitious project is undoubtedly the establishment of a submarine branch. Adm Ahmed said that he hopes to have this up and running by 2020, but added: "I am well aware of the challenges inherent in commissioning and supporting infrastructure of an entirely new capability. Back in 2010 we started negotiations with the German Navy and government to acquire the Type 206 boats, but this didn't materialise. We've had talks with the Italian Navy about the possible acquisition of their Improved Sauro-class boats, which the Italian Navy plans to decommission by 2016."

Recent years have also seen a push to develop Bangladesh's indigenous shipbuilding sector. "We took over management of the country's two major shipyards, the Khulna and Narayangonj shipyards, and our naval engineers and technicians have gained the expertise to upgrade our units and weapon systems in-country," said Adm Ahmed. "The technical expertise they've gained has helped us start building our first ever modern naval patrol craft and soon they will gain the capacity and expertise to build larger vessels."

The admiral expects that the BN will be capable of building corvette- and frigate-type warships indigenously by 2020, but was keen to point out that the service is also looking to improve the welfare and training of its personnel. "The infrastructure - training establishments, simulators, and other buildings - is being modernised as well," he said, adding that the navy has no problems with recruitment. "The military is a good employer and young people are quite interested in joining the armed forces," he said. "Serving in the navy is a very viable option for our youngsters. Over the past three-and-a-half years the recruitment of officers, petty officers and ratings has almost doubled."

One of the admiral's other goals when he took command was to help improve relations with Bangladesh's neighbours over access to seabed minerals. "You may recall the dispute about oil exploration rights in 2008 with Myanmar," he said. "Consequently we support our Ministry of Foreign Affairs by assigning naval officers as naval attachés to the embassies involved."

Bangladesh's new government, which was elected at the end of 2008, is very supportive towards the modernisation of the navy's fleet to maintain its capability to comply with its national commitments and facilitate interoperability with friendly navies.

Adm Ahmed is conscious of this fact. "Initially it was not that [easy] to start this modernisation programme and quite difficult to convince the people of Bangladesh that their money is being well spent on the much-needed modernising of their navy, [but] the government approved a 10-year plan and recently has approved the budget for the next five-year plan through to 2017. I can say that we are ahead of the 10-year plan because our government is so supportive."

Looking ahead, Adm Ahmed said that, when handing over the helm of the BN in January 2013, he will be a happy man. "I know the navy is well on course to become a truly three-dimensional force," he said. "Flexibility will remain a driving factor for our ongoing innovation process, yet we must take into consideration the global financial crisis, which will certainly influence decisions regarding the further projects. But I am sure the Bangladesh Navy will remain available, adaptive, and affordable."