Free Republic

Great update on current anti-ship missile’s… And how they basically make all naval platforms obsolete. Will it take a massacre of our forces before we “get it“…? “Unlike Harpoon, LRASM fits in both the Mk. 41 vertical launch system silos of the Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Burke destroyers and the Mk. 57 silos on the new Zumwalt-class destroyers. This will allow individual ships to carry many more anti-ship missiles than ever before, although this will impact the number of other missiles, such as the SM-6 surface-to-air missile and ASROC anti-submarine rockets, in the ship’s overall inventory. After decades of rapid innovation,...

At 9am on the coming Monday, India’s new defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman will oversee her first warship commissioning ceremony. At the naval dockyard in Visakhapatnam, she will flag into service the INS Kiltan, India’s third Project 28 anti-submarine warfare (ASW) corvette. But there’s a significant difference between the Kiltan, and the two class types — INS Kamorta and INS Kadmatt — that came before her. A 100-tonne difference. While the Kamorta and Kadmatt are built entirely of steel (DMR249A special grade high-tensile steel developed by SAIL in India), the Kiltan’s entire superstructure has been constructed with carbon fiber reinforced plastic...

Based on Japanese ship spotters pictures, the Asahi destroyer (25DD-class), the latest surface combatant designed for the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF), started sea trials. 19DD Asahi Destroyer 25DD class JMSDF Japan 125DD-class ASW Destroyer Asahi (hull number 119) during its first sea trials off MHI Nagasaki shipyard. Picture via ship spotter colleague @tamotaro The images and video show the new first-of-class vessel during its initial sea trials which reportedly started July 6th and ended July 26th off Nagasaki in Southern Japan. The two vessels of the 25DD-class are built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) in the Nagasaki shipyard....

At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union had so many hundreds of deadly submarines at sea that Western war planners willing to try almost any possible countermeasure, however goofy sounding. Some seemingly crazy ideas proved actually worthwhile, such as the underwater Sound Surveillance System—a vast chain of seafloor microphones that patiently listened for Soviet subs … and remains in use today. Other less elegant anti-submarine tools survive only as anecdotes. In his book Hunter Killers, naval writer Iain Ballantyne recalls one of the zanier ideas — air-dropped “floppy-magnets” meant to foul up Soviet undersea boats, making them...

Splav, a Tula, Russia-based company specializing in multiple rocket launcher systems for land and naval applications, has unveiled a new guided projectile for the RPK-8 Zapad ('West') anti-submarine rocket launcher system. Independent Russian military analyst Vladimir Tuchkov explains the ins and outs of the upgraded rocket. The new rocket, designated the 90R1, is being featured at the St. Petersburg International Maritime Defense Show, which wraps up Sunday. Earlier this week, Splav's press office confirmed that the projectile had already been put into production, and is starting to enter service aboard Russian Navy ships. Splav also showed off another system, the...

DURING war games played off the coast of Florida last year, a nuclear-powered French attack submarine, Saphir, eluded America’s sub-hunting aircraft and vessels with enough stealth to sink (fictitiously) a newly overhauled American aircraft-carrier, Theodore Roosevelt, and most of her escort. An account of the drill on a French defence-ministry website was promptly deleted, but too late for it to go unnoticed. Nor was this French victory a fluke. In 2006, in what was very far from being a war game, a Chinese diesel-electric submarine surfaced near Okinawa within torpedo range of another American carrier, Kitty Hawk, without having been...

Adding range and smart guidance to existing munitions, via a kit, is the backbone of America’s “smart weapon” revolution. Laser guided bombs, GPS guided JDAMs, and Wind Corrected Munitions Dispensers are all bolt-on kits that drastically increase the capability of existing air-dropped weapons. Now, the Mark 54 light-weight torpedo is getting this same treatment via the High Altitude Anti-Submarine Warfare Weapon Capability (HAAWC for short). The HAAWC concept is relatively straightforward. The folding-wing kit contains a flight control computer and GPS, and attaches via a set of collars to a Mark 54 torpedo. Once launched, HAAWC's wings spring out and...

Russia's Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau (member of United Shipbuilding Corporation OCK) unveiled the new Project 23420 small anti submarine warfare (ASW) ship. The vessel features a futuristic design with very sleek lines. Project 23420 small anti submarine warfare (ASW) ship. Picture: Almaz According to Almaz, the small ASW ship is designed for conducting combat operations against underwater, surface and air adversaries, for guarding naval bases, for engaging enemy shore installations with artillery fire, for patrolling the state sea border and EEZ. The Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau, founded in 1949, is a leading design and engineering organization in the...

Early in 2015, a curious and disturbing report surfaced briefly and then disappeared—almost without a trace. The report, apparently published and then quickly retracted, had been posted by the French Ministry of Defense and concerned the successful operations of the French nuclear submarine Safir in an exercise pitting it against the U.S. Navy’s Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier battle group. The somewhat shocking content of the report—that the French submarine had succeeded in sinking “half the battle group” during the exercise—may explain its rapid purging from the internet. After all, close brothers in arms may demonstrate their tactical and operational prowess...

David Cameron and George Osborne will be persuaded to part with the cash to buy a fleet of jets to hunt Vladimir Putin's nuclear submarines, which have regularly been patrolling the coast of Britain in recent months. Often the Russian underwater vessels have only been discovered after colliding with private boats and now Government ministers are eager to plug the gap in defences with aircraft to track them. Around a dozen top of the range planes will be bought for the RAF over the next two years. These are likely to include the US developed Boeing Poseidon P8, designed for...

The Russian Navy is seeking to re-acquire at least “100 nuclear-capable Mi-14 anti-submarine helicopters for deployment within the Black and Northern Sea Fleets over the next two – five years”, according to sources in the Russian Ministry of Defense. The Mil Mi-14 is a shore-based amphibious helicopter armed with (optionally) a torpedo, twelve 64kg or eight 120kg depth bombs. This submarine killer also has a very special ammo in its arsenal: a 1 kiloton nuclear antisubmarine bomb weighting 1,600kg, capable of scuttling any underwater target within a radius of 800 meters. The helicopter not only has a unique capability of...

Stockholm (AFP) - A Swedish peace group said Tuesday it has lowered a sonar device into the Baltic Sea off Stockholm to deter Russian submarines, emitting the message "This Way if You Are Gay". The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society's (SPAS) cheeky device emits the message in Morse code and is designed to scare off subs from Russia, which does not share Sweden's acceptance of homosexuality. The so-called Singing Sailor also features a flashing pink neon outline of a seaman clad only in white underpants and a boater's hat, gyrating his hips above the text "Welcome to Sweden -- Gay...

The US Navy is set to unleash an army of 'ghost drones' to scour the coasts for enemy submarines. They hope to end the growing threat of quiet, diesel powered enemy submarines enters American waters undetected. The robot boats will go to sea for us to three months at a time.

China has installed 17 sets of submerged buoys in "key marine areas" of the western Pacific Ocean, state media said, a move that could exacerbate territorial tensions in the region. The mission carried out by the Chinese research vessel Kexue "marks the first time that China has put an array of submerged buoys on such a big scale", the official Xinhua news agency reported late Tuesday.

The US army has built a fake city designed to be used during combat training exercises. The 300 acre 'town' includes a five story embassy, a bank, a school, an underground subway and train station, a mosque, a football stadium, and a helicopter landing zone. Located in Virginia, the realistic subway station comes complete with subway carriages and the train station has real train carriages. The subway carriages even carry the same logo as the carriages in Washington DC. There are also bridges and several other structures which can be transformed into different scenarios. The $96 million is designed to...

A3SM: A True Game Changer for Submarine Self Defence against Threats from the Sky As part of the Paris Air Show Navy Recognition was invited by DCNS to visit their factory located near Angoulême in southwestern France. The 260 year old site used to manufacture guns for the "French Royal Navy". It now specializes in the production of submarine equipment such as torpedo tubes and torpedo handling systems. It is also the place where the FREMM frigates' vertical launch systems are produced. The focus of the visit however was the A3SM, a new anti-air defence weapon system for submarine currently...

Northrop Grumman has been selected by the Office of Naval Research to develop a new cost-effective atom-based magnetic sensor, or magnetometer, for antisubmarine warfare operations. The highly sensitive magnetometer will be part of a magnetic anomaly detection system mounted on helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles or submarines. Whether in the air above the ocean or underwater as part of a towed array, the magnetometer will sense disturbances in the earth's magnetic field due to metallic objects in the vicinity, indicating a nearby submarine. Under a three-year $1.75 million contract, Northrop Grumman is being tasked to develop a magnetometer that is smaller,...

Seoul to Deploy Sub-Killer Torpedoes The Navy will deploy Korean-made Hongsangeo (Red Shark) "submarine-killer" torpedoes on the Navy's top-end Aegis destroyer this month, it emerged on Sunday. "The Navy installed a torpedo launch system on the King Sejong the Great late last month and began the final sea acceptance test on Aug. 8," a military source said. "The tests are going well, so it'll be possible to deploy the torpedoes on the destroyer sometime late this month." The Hongsangeo is an anti-submarine missile that is launched vertically to avoid detection by enemy submarines and to increase its range. It is...

India to get anti-submarine torpedoes from US Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, June 28, 2011 India will get lightweight anti-submarines torpedoes to arm the eight P-8I maritime patrol aircraft it is buying from the US, with the Obama administration notifying the potential sale to the US Congress on Tuesday. The news was welcomed by the US embassy in New Delhi, which said the sale of Mk -54 torpedoes reflects the mutual benefits of the India-US security relationship. The Pentagon has "officially notified" the potential sale of Mk-54 lightweight torpedoes to the Indian Navy. The Mk-54 is the most advanced lightweight...

Pakistan has now lost two of its three Orion aircraft Sabir Shah Monday, May 23, 2011 LAHORE: Of just the three P-3 series Orion anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft that Pakistan had acquired from the United States in 1996, two have now been lost. According to the website of the Pakistan Navy, one of these planes (bearing serial number 83) was lost due to an accident while carrying out routine exercises over the coastal waters of Pasni (Balochistan) on October 29, 1999. This was one of the 46 Pakistani aircraft that had crashed between 1996 and 2000, and one of...