“There are 66 countries with more than one million [naval] mines”, US Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Gary Roughead stated at a June 2009 mine warfare caucus. “The cost to produce and lay a mine is ten percent of the cost to sweep and neutralise a mine. Mines continue to be a cost-effective threat for our enemies, and we continue to take them seriously.”

On the occasion of a visit to NAVANTIA’s Cartagena Shipyard, NAVAL FORCES Programme Manager Navies Hartmut Manseck talked to Mr. Manuel Filgueira Ameneiros, Director of NAVANTIA’s Cartagena Shipyard, about NAVANTIA’s innovative S 80 hybrid submarine, its state-of-the-art construction, and its outstanding characteristics.

Dr. Viktor Ilyukhin/Sergey Gubkin: Submarine Crew Rescue: International Cooperation from a Russian Perspective

Cooperation between Russia and NATO in search and rescue at sea began in 1996 as one of the areas of activities of the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council (PJC). However, no practical steps were taken in that area prior to 2000.

Midget submarines, like their fully-grown brethren, provide an essential element of stealth to naval Special Forces operations, offering a capability by which other ships, shore and submerged objectives can be reached furtively. The versatility of these vessels has not been lost on many nations around the world. While the midget submarine may conjure images of heroic derring-do during the WW2, they are as relevant to modern combat operations as they were to the conflicts of yesteryear. The article looks at nations operating and building this species of stealthy submarines and illuminates problems encountered by some.

The article describes the evolution from rudimentary early steps in underwater communications from just before WW1 – most nations had established their submarine forces established only in the middle of the first decade of the last century – up to the advent of digital underwater communications becoming available. The author Iain Shepherd is the Marine Systems Director of MARCOM Defence; he served in the Royal Navy from 1972 – 1993 and has been widely published in International Forums on a wide variety of maritime topics, from Surface Ship Torpedo Defence to Maritime Security and Safety, and of course Underwater Communications. He is also a regular Chair and Speaker at International and European Conferences. Iain is currently involved in developing the next generation of ‘Emergency Underwater Communications’.

James Patton: The ‘Better’ Diesel-electric Submarine: New Options for and new Problems of Modern Non-nuclear Submarines

In the mid-80s, this author compiled a list comprising of just how many nations (less those operating nuclear submarines) were then operating diesel-electric or ‘conventional’ submarines. The results then were that about 40 nations were operating about 400 submarines. A current list addressing the same issue results in essentially identical numbers. What have dramatically changed today, however, are the ‘demographics’ associated with those 400 submarines. Many of these have, in many respects, changed more dramatically than have nuclear submarines during the same period of time. Improvements and technological advances in stealth technology, submerged endurance, sensors, weapons, Fire Control Systems, and connectivity have generated not only major modifications in tactical employment of modern diesel-electric submarine assets, but also significant changes regarding options for their strategic deployment.

This article completes the Anti-Torpedo Systems Survey Sensors and Effectors published in NAVAL FORCES IV/2007 where surface ship torpedo defence systems were introduced. The traditional submarine torpedo defence tactic consists of tube-launched, open loop decoys or jammers, left in the boat's wake, combined with tactical evading manoeuvres. This behaviour has, however, the disadvantage of compromising the boat's stealth and rapidly draining its battery, leading to re-detection and follow-on attacks. More sophisticated methods and equipment were required to ‘out-manoeuvre’ modern torpedoes. Modern anti-submarine weapons are either light-weight homing or wire-guided heavy-weight torpedoes with high speeds, long endurance, high performance sonars with long acquisition ranges and modern counter-counter measure (CCM) techniques such as echo discrimination (Doppler, elongation, highlights), range gates, and multiple beam horizontal and vertical coverage. All of these are characterised by a wide horizontal coverage, gained by special sonar characteristics and search patterns. Their vertical coverage is, however, limited, a necessity dictated by shallow waters conditions where surface and bottom reverberations can affect a wide vertical beam. To avoid these false target acquisition phenomena modern anti-submarine torpedoes carry out spiral depth-search patterns to locate a targets at an unknown depth, which is a general problem. This peculiarity is used in some soft-kill ATS for submarines in the so-called vertical separation concept.

Wolfgang Legien: The Polish Navy: Difficult Balancing Act Between Cuts in Defence Expenditure and Rising Requirements

On the occasion of the BaltMilitaryExpo 2010 NAVAL FORCES Editor-in-Chief had planned to interview the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Navy, Vize Admiral Andrzej Karweta, who had agreed to provide the Welcome Letter for BaltMilitaryExpo and the interview when approached during DIMDEX in Doha. Unfortunately the admiral was one of the victims of the tragic plane crash in which the Polish President and many of the political and military leaderships of the country were killed (see Orbituary on 3rd Cover). On April 15th 2010, the Speaker of the Sejm, Bronislaw Komorowski, performing the duties of the President of the Republic of Poland, posthumously promoted Vice Admiral Andrzej Karweta to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet. As understandably such an interview cannot be a priority for the Polish Navy staff under the prevailing circumstances, an attempt is made to illuminate from open sources the Polish Navy’s recent achievements, which signify the Navy taking over increased responsibility within the Alliance in the demanding framework of budget constraints and additional burdens from the world-wide economic crisis.

Developments in the North African navies have taken several steps forward since NAVAL FORCES last surveyed recent trends in the regional navies. Morocco has established both a high-end and low-end acquisition programme, Algerian efforts to begin a high-end acquisition programme have been stalled over the last few months. Libya – like Algeria – is adding two new Russian-built pr 636 KILO type diesel-attack submarines, and both have made efforts at overhauling and modernising some of their ageing Cold War era warships. And, Tunisia has begun a new patrol boat and plans to overhaul another at Bizerte. Finally Egypt will get its AMBASSADOR Mk III fast missile boats building in the US. Despite efforts to improve their conventional maritime forces, all the navies have a serious need to improve their unconventional and EEZ capabilities.

For many years it was apparently inconceivable that a frigate or even a corvette would be built without a sonar and anti-submarine weapons, usually in the form of tubes for lightweight torpedoes. In recent years, however, major navies have built several such ships. Examples include the frigate-sized U.S. Littoral Combat Ship (though a towed-sonar module is apparently being developed), the Swedish “Visby”, and the German “Braunschweig” class corvettes. The U.S. “Zumwalt” class destroyer is explicitly a land-attack ship with minimal ASW capability. What is happening?

The political changes which evolved at the end of the 1980s enabled the former Bundesmarine (Federal German Navy) to continually develop completely new capabilities for world-wide maritime missions while reducing its focus on the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea and NATO’s northern flank. The German Navy’s premier task rapidly shifted from defending against a tangible Warsaw Pact threat to preparing for a broader spectrum of maritime missions and tasks which are distant from German home waters. The shift to an Expeditionary Navy clearly reflects a paradigm change, whereby today’s Deutsche Marine (German Navy) is contributing a broad spectrum of assets, including modern frigates with shipborne helicopters, fast patrol craft and corvettes, submarines, electronic surveillance vessels, mine countermeasures (MCM) vessels, auxiliaries to sustain operations of the surface ships, and maritime patrol aircraft (MPA). While the strength of the naval service has been lowered to some 17,900 men and women, its capabilities have been continually developed to cope with completely new mission requirements, including the fight against the growing international terrorism.

Why are littoral operations so difficult? What is particularly bad about very shallow water (VSW), leading up to and including the surf zone (SZ)? The reference is always to mine countermeasures (MCM) in an amphibious context, because otherwise ships can and should evade really shallow water. MCM close to and on the beach always seem to involve technology very different from what is needed in even slightly deeper water. Many navies otherwise skilled in MCM lack such techniques, because they are concerned mainly with keeping harbours open in the face of enemy mining rather than in supporting amphibious operations. Only a few navies have invested in the ability to land despite resistance, including mines.

Wolfgang Legien: MS2 of Lockheed Martin has all the Ingredients to be a ‘Game Changer’ in the Naval Field

Orlando Carvalho, recently promoted to President of Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems & Sensors (MS2) business, agreed to provide NAVAL FORCES Editor-In-Chief with candid answers to questions about MS2. Here is a short overview of what this important branch of Lockheed Martin has to offer, and a personal look into the ‘crystal ball’ by its leader.

Ted. Hooton/Hartmut Manseck:Ship Profile XXXIII: Type 45 “Daring class Air-Defence Destroyer of the Royal Navy

The news that planning is beginning on the Royal Navy’s next generation of frigates, the Type 26, comes as the Navy at long last begins to replace its ageing Type 42 anti-air warfare force destroyers with the Type 45 or “Daring” class, the largest surface combatants built in British yards for nearly 40 years. Ted Hooton provides a detailed description of this most modern destroyer of the Royal Navy. A planned interview with the CO of HMS “Daring” fell victim to the ship’s busy schedule. We are all the more grateful that the 1SL answered the interview questions of NAVAL FORCES Programme Manager Naval Affairs Hartmut Manseck.

The 12th DSA 2010 Exhibition ranks as Asia’s largest and one of the top defence and security exhibitions in the world and took centre-space at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) in Kuala Lumpur from April 19 – 22, 2010 to show cutting edge defence and security technology and services. This report focuses on the naval and maritime segment of the event that made a portion of approximately 30 percent.

The brand new town of National Harbor, a mere two years old and located just inside Maryland with its impressive Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, was the venue for this year’s Sea-Air-Space exhibition. First impression: Much smaller than in the past, when many predominantly US companies occupied four halls about the same size as the one hall at the Gaylord. Second impression: Sea-Air-Space has now a somewhat stronger international flavour – recognising though that many international brand names were represented by their US subsidiary. Third impression: Many of the small companies one did only see at Sea-Air-Space were absent this year, with the explanation given that for them the event was too expensive. Fourth impression: There was widespread complaint that this venue was too remote from anything else, from D.C., from the Pentagon, and the Gaylord while having a few smaller restaurants on the premises does not offer what was highly appreciated by exhibitors at the former venue – a cosy pub and good restaurant to meet with customers in a relaxed atmosphere. So we heard many times that a shift to Surface Navy was being contemplated for the future – hardly surprising given the fact that with the exception of US (nuclear) submarine builders the other main exhibitors are also found at Surface Navy.

Edward H. Lundquist: Book Reviews: “Navy Strategic Culture: Why the Navy Thinks Differently” by Roger W. Barnett, and “A Tactical Ethic: Moral Conduct in Insurgent Battlespace” by Dick Couch

What the Navy and Marine Corps are and how they act is based upon strategy, doctrine, tactics, values and a culture that direct their course. And at times of decision making, how a unit will respond depends on the moral and ethical fibre of the unit and its leaders. This is not unique to the American experience, but all military organisations, particularly those with some history behind them.