Littoral warfare

Tomahawk (1550miles) is part of the LAW (Land Attack Warfare) doctrine.

mines, submarines, anti-ship missiles from land, sea and air, fast attack boats… If it’s a big valuable ship, bringing it within 100km of the coast just makes a big valuable target.

To start with,

On board a ship:
– AN/WLD-1 remote minehunting system
– AN/AQS-20A sonar mine detecting set

In addition, MH-60R/S helo or a tactical UAV can perfom:
– airborne surface influence sweep
– airborne laser mine detection and
– airborne mine neutralisation

Is this what you were looking for?

In terms of the US capability in the Littoral and what they could do to improve it, can someone confirm that what their mine clearing capability is these days ? I seem to recall reading somewhere that it had been significantly scaled back and may actually be less than that of the RN ? If a country was defending a likely littoral sea combat zone, mines would surely still feature.

Inside the US Navy’s next-generation destroyer

As a result, a ship that can get U.S. missiles close to potential adversaries is high on the Navy’s list of priorities, and the Zumwalt class is designed for just such missions: its stealth capabilities make it ideal for sneaking close to an enemy, at least those that aren’t landlocked.

The DDG 1000, then, is specially designed to “dominate the littoral environment.” That means, Laliberty explained, that if the ship can get close to shore, it can be the U.S. military’s best weapon, and can be a leader in any expeditionary strike force.

At the same time, the DDG 1000 is designed to throw off radar that would try to find it in a number of ways, including its composite materials. Another design is its wave-piercing tumblehome–or hull. Most Navy ships have flared hulls, Laliberty said, but the DDG 1000 was meant to be stealthy, and its tumblehome is angled in such a way that, “if you see it on radar,” Laliberty said, “it comes across as a 45-foot trawler. It doesn’t look like a 680-foot warship.”

As noted above, the DDG 1000 is expected to be deployed in 2015.

For now, there are three Zumwalts in the pipeline. After the DDG 1000 is deployed, another one will come 18 months later, and then the third 18 months after that. In total, the U.S. government has appropriated $11 billion for the program.

Source

Figures; the USN is the first to finally operationalise this much-discussed technology. 😎

But I’m not convinced of the merits, though. Aren’t these essentially just larger, more expensive, recoverable sonobuoys? What can USVs do to aid in submarine detection that a pair of ASW helos couldn’t?

Stay on datum for 6 hours uninterrupted at a time!. Cue in the pair of embarked ASW choppers to maximise their effectiveness. Reduce loading on the ships flight helping to ensure that the bird isnt in kit form, or low on embarked stores, that one time when a target presents itself.

The French were meant to be looking at something similar with a towed CAPTAS Nano IIRC. That looked pretty useful too!.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3A0is0pXUQ

Please check out columba mikes websit there is another much better video of the USN firing 5 inch, phalanx and the kitchen sink at RIBS and they cant hit a thing.

Stay out at sea and launch your choppers anybody?

If any one can post links to modern ships laying waste to a swarm of fast attack craft (the ship being able to target these RIBS while doing 50mph through a choppy sea) then I’ll be convinced of the idea of LCS.

Figures; the USN is the first to finally operationalise this much-discussed technology. 😎

But I’m not convinced of the merits, though. Aren’t these essentially just larger, more expensive, recoverable sonobuoys? What can USVs do to aid in submarine detection that a pair of ASW helos couldn’t?

General Dynamics Robotic Systems delivered a speedboat to the Navy last year called the Antisubmarine Warfare Unmanned Surface Vehicle, for use with the LCS.

The 36-ft.-long, semi-autonomous platform runs 24 hr. or longer and carries a payload of 5,000 lb. It will operate unmanned dipping sonar, towed array sonar and the Multistatic Off-Board Source low-frequency sonar. Data from the 360-deg. situational awareness these instruments generate will be transmitted to the LCS.

Source

Future options for the US Navy’s ASW USV include a torpedo launcher. Link

The Swedish seem to have a pretty good set up for defending their own littoral, but that is very different to acting in the littoral of another nation somewhere else on the planet.

The USN route of buying Littoral combat ships was a fairly good idea but as always they gold plated what should have been a low end ship and ended up spending an insane amount. They need to look more carefully at what the want/need to act sufficiently in the littoral. I never saw the need for that incredibly high speed that they have for example, or the need for all those stealth features, if you’re in close to shore then reducing RCS makes little difference, a Mk1 eyeball can see you anyway.