From JMR Dec 2005
Vanguard prepares to rejoin UK Royal Navy Trident fleet
The UK Royal Navy (RN) nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine (SSBN) Vanguard successfully launched an unarmed Trident II D5 ballistic missile at the end of its Demonstration and Shakedown Operations (DASO) phase.
Undertaken in the Atlantic on 10 October 2005, the firing was the final stage of the re-qualification of Vanguard and its crew. The eighth Trident firing from the RN’s four Vanguard-class SSBNs, it clears the vessel for its return to operational service after a Long Overhaul Period (Refuel). Known as an LOP(R), this refit was completed in late 2004. Another goal of the firing was to provide reliability and accuracy data to confirm the effectiveness of the weapon system.
Following the test, Admiral Sir Alan West, Chief of Naval Staff and First Sea Lord, who was on board Vanguard for the DASO, said: “This firing demonstrates that the UK’s nuclear deterrent remains highly effective and capable and that the boat’s crew have met the stringent safety requirements for handling, maintaining and operating the system.” Vanguard would soon be ready for operational deployment, he said, but the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) refuses to specify exactly when the vessel will resume patrols.
Vanguard is the first of the RN’s Trident-class submarines to complete an LOP, a process that took longer than anticipated. Sister boat Victorious is currently in an LOP(R) at Devonport, so the operational force currently consists of the remaining two members of the class – Vigilant and Vengeance.
While Vanguard’s return to service will end the current phase of two-boat availability (2BA), the latter situation will return at intervals until the early part of the next decade as Vigilant and Vengeance undergo an LOP(R).
An MoD spokesman told Jane’s that a fleet of four submarines was needed “to guarantee one boat at sea at all times” while another was in deep overhaul. Under normal circumstances, the two remaining submarines would be undergoing maintenance, trials, training and work-up periods, but would retain the ability to “regenerate to a higher state of readiness”.
In practice, periods of 2BA make the patrol cycle more susceptible to unforeseen contingencies. When the UK first adopted a submarine-based deterrent force in the early 1960s, a five-boat fleet was considered. With the election of a Labour government in 1964, the fifth vessel was cancelled in order to save money.
France, the other European nation to operate SSBNs, also relies on a four-boat fleet. This is made up of three Le Triomphant-class boats, plus l’Inflexible, the last example of an earlier class. The latter will be paid off when Le Terrible, the final Le Triomphant-class submarine, enters service in 2010.
China has a nominal SSBN force in the shape of a single Xia-class submarine. Although a second vessel was reported launched in 1982, an unconfirmed report suggests that one of the two was lost in an accident in 1985. Two Type 094-class boats are expected to commission in 2008-10.
Vanguard was the lead boat of its class and was commissioned on 14 August 1993. Youngest of the class is Vengeance, which commissioned on 27 November 1999. Unless given a life extension, the force would have to be replaced starting in the early 2020s if the UK wished to deploy a follow-on nuclear force.
The existing RN Trident force required about 15 years between programme go-ahead and first deployment, so a decision on any replacement is expected around 2008. On 4 July 2005, UK Secretary of State for Defence John Reid told the House of Commons: “Decisions on any replacement of the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent are likely to be necessary in the lifetime of the current parliament.”
By: matt - 23rd December 2005 at 10:48
MOD Responds to HCDC Report on Future Aircraft Carriers
(Source: UK Ministry of Defence; issued Dec. 21, 2005)
The Ministry of Defence has this week responded to a report on the planned future aircraft carriers, and the aircraft that will operate from them, published by the House of Commons Defence Committee.
Many of the issues raised in the report were dealt with directly in an announcement made by Secretary of State for Defence, John Reid last week which outlined significant progress on the project, including:
–The current carrier Alliance team of MoD, BAE Systems, Thales and KBR, is to be joined by VT Group and Babcock.
–Plans for the construction and assembly of the ships at Alliance members’ yards have been agreed.
–MoD is to spend some £300M to develop the design of the ships to the point at which manufacturing can begin.
MOD will now work with industry to finalise the programme budget, set a construction timetable and to establish in-service dates. When we have completed this work we can then commit to the manufacture of the project with the highest degree of confidence in our plans.
The tenets of Smart Procurement, and common sense, dictate that we deal with all potential issues and risk in a project before we leap into huge investment decisions and announce project timescales. This approach – spending more time and money upfront – improves our confidence that the manufacturing of this important defence capability will better kept to budget and time. As John Reid has made clear, the overall cost of the project and the target in service dates will not be announced until the main investment point is reached.
The MOD recognises the importance of technology transfer in ensuring that the UK has the sovereign capability to operate, programme, maintain and upgrade the proposed Joint Strike Fighter throughout its planned life. The UK already has the information it needs at this stage of programme, and has made the US aware of the progress that needs to be made ahead of the next milestone on the project, a memorandum of understanding on production, sustainment and follow-on development, due in 2006.
The MOD refutes any suggestion that the new carrier programme means that the Royal Navy will have less-capable ships in the interim. We believe our in-service equipment is already world-class and, as John Reid said as part of the announcement on the new carriers last week:
“Alongside this, I am announcing our intention of asking the alliance to put forward one integrated plan: not only to maintain the new carriers but to look after the existing carriers until they go out of service. By getting the same people to commit to maintain the existing carriers until the new ones are ready to go we will ensure there is a continuity of capability for the Royal Navy.”
By: danrh - 22nd December 2005 at 02:12
From JNI Dec 2005
UK study outlines Type 45’s potential as BMD platform
Nick Brown
The UK Royal Navy’s new Type 45 destroyer could form the basis of a new ballistic missile defence platform.* Trials show the Type 45’s existing Sampson radar can detect and track ballistic missile targets with minimal system upgrades.
A UK/US study has articulated a three-step path to the UK fielding a ballistic missile defence (BMD) platform based on the Royal Navy’s (RN’s) Type 45 destroyer.
Although the RN currently has no defined BMD requirement, the study was carried out by BAE Systems’ Insyte under the auspices of the joint Ministry of Defence and industry-run Missile Defence Centre in partnership with Lockheed Martin as part of the US Sea-based Ballistic Missile Defense (SBMD) programme.
It concluded that the Type 45’s Sampson radar ‘as is’ can feasibly detect and track ballistic missile targets with minimal software upgrades. A second-phase study looking at a heavily upgraded version of the radar is due to begin imminently, and a future third step would be to investigate developing a mid-course interceptor for the vessel.
David Jones, Insyte’s strategy and business development executive, presented the report at the Royal United Services Institute’s seventh Missile Defence Conference in London on 3 November. He explained that the study was an attempt to develop “stepping stones to how the UK can get involved with SBMD in a not too expensive way”.
As such, the study focused on an incremental approach, exploiting the Type 45’s Sampson solid-state active S-Band radar and overlaying that data onto a generic threat map. Jones stated that the Type 45’s combat management system can already accept external cueing and that a software upgrade to the existing phased array radar could enable ‘stop and stare’, long pulses, ‘fence search’ and BMD track algorithms.
In this new fence search function, the radar would enter a staring mode with a single-beam azimuth scan to pick up climbing missiles, which would then be passed to a new BMD tracking mode to monitor the missile’s path with a narrow beam while maintaining the fence search, long-range surveillance.
Integrating this into the US SBMD setting, the first phase study advocated using the Type 45 in a deployed sensor trip-wire mode, passing the data back to US assets for the shoot phase. This investigated providing cue and launch data between the Type 45 and Aegis vessels over the Link 16 datalink, with the Aegis ship completing the engagement on its own organic sensor data and also via engage-on-remote modes, with kill vehicles launched and guided in purely on external sensor tracks from the Type 45.
In conclusion, the study noted that the Sampson ‘as is’ outfit provided 1,500 km coverage, demonstrating “significant stand-alone capability to detect and track launched missiles and cue mid-course sensors” in a forward Sector Cue role, with sufficient capability to also cue them, in a Forward Single Beam Cue role.
Furthermore, it is “capable of initiating and refining track from a single beam cue” from external mid-course sensors.
The next study phase proposes revisiting Sampson’s capabilities, adding a hardware upgrade in the 2015 timeframe – transitioning the radar’s apertures from the existing 8 sq ft (2.4 m2) to around 12 sq ft (3.6 m2). Jones believes this could translate into expanded performance in excess of 2,000 km.
It will also expand to cover target discrimination in a cluttered environment and advanced engagement support, including modelling radar-missile combinations.
Jones told JNI that the second phase of the study is being funded by Lockheed Martin and is due to receive funding – subject to US government approval – and begin on 1 December, or early in 2006 at the latest.
BAE Systems prepares bid for next Astute
Richard Scott
BAE Systems Submarines expects to submit a bid to the UK Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) in mid-2006 for the build of the fourth Astute-class nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN), with the company looking to start manufacture work at its Barrow-in-Furness facility in November 2006.
Three Astute-class boats are currently being built for the UK Royal Navy under a contract placed in early 1997. First-of-class HMS Astute was originally due for handover in mid-2005. However, problems in detailed design, which led to significant cost and schedule overruns, resulted in the original prime contract award being substantially renegotiated.
A contract amendment re-baselining the programme was signed in late 2003. Astute is now planned for handover in August 2008, with sister boats Ambush and Artful to follow in 2010 and 2011 respectively.
A total of seven Astute-class SSNs are presently funded under the Ministry of Defence’s current equipment programme, with production transitioning to a two-year ‘drumbeat’ cycle from boat four onwards. Some long-lead items for a fourth submarine have already been placed in order to sustain critical parts of the industrial supply chain and ensure production continuity. According to BAE Systems’ in-house naval business magazine Wavelength: “the key issue for the programme is finding an affordable solution for boat four onwards”, and “the main driver for that is the growth in material costs that is being anticipated”.
BAE Systems expects to submit its commercial proposal to the DPA by June 2006, with work already in progress to ascertain pricing and technical specifications from across the industrial base. Studies are also in hand to assess the health of the supply chain, and to identify mitigation strategies in areas where legacy suppliers are no longer available.
This means that all previous assumptions about the manufacture of specific components or structures are being revisited. Dome manufacture is one example, with production being brought into Barrow because the previous source of supply is no longer available.
Further work is examining the product build strategy in order to identify a more affordable design and to factor in anticipated evolution between boat four and projected follow-on submarines through to Astute boat seven. Furthermore, while the proposal will focus on boat four, BAE Systems Submarines is considering the potential for part of the bid to offer pricing on a batch of four boats in order to offer savings from batch construction.
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December 22, 2005 at 2:12 am