Posted on 07/02/2017 5:06:42 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
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 Magnesit-MN, at the defense show. That rocket, also fired by the RPK-8, features hydro-acoustic elements providing surface ships with protection against homing torpedoes.
Commenting on the capabilities the new rockets will provide the Russian Navy, independent military analyst and Svobodnaya Pressa contributor Vladimir Tuchkov wrote that it's important to note, first of all, that they are wedded the RPK-8, an anti-submarine warfare system with a long and proud history. "The RPK-8 is a relatively new antisubmarine weapons system, adopted in 1991," the expert recalled. "The system was a deep modernization of Smerch-2, developed three decades earlier. The effectiveness of Smerch-2 as a means of anti-submarine warfare…was not very high. It was used mainly to repel enemy torpedo attacks, since it was equipped not with self-guided torpedoes, but depth charge bombs. Smerch-2 was created by the well-known Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering, which would subsequently go on to develop the Topol mobile land-based ICBM carrier."
CC BY-SA 4.0 / HUNINI / RBU-6000
The RBU-6000 anti-submarine rocket launcher
The Splav Scientific Production Concern adopted from Smerch-2 its twelve 212mm launch barrels to create the RBU-6000 anti-submarine rocket launcher. That system featured a new, remotely directed fire control system, and more importantly, rocket projectiles instead of depth charge bombs. The upgrade did not lead to a loss of functionality, however, and both the RBU-6000 and its RPK-8 upgrade are capable of launching Smerch-2's RGB-60 depth charge bomb rounds.
The RPK-8's 90R and its 90R1 upgrade's rockets consist of two parts: the rocket itself, plus a separating gravitational diving projectile.
Tuchkov explains: "The rocket is aimed at its target (vessel or torpedo) using information about its location received from the ship's sonar station. After splashdown, the gravitational projectile separates and, with the aid of an acoustic homing head, finds its target and directs itself toward it. The 90R has a contact fuse." The 90R1, meanwhile, features an inductive noncontact fuse what goes off when the projectile reaches a certain predetermined distance from its target, thus further improving its efficiency.
According to the expert, the 90R and 90R1 guided rounds increase the ASW system's effectiveness 8-10 times compared to its Smerch-2 predecessor, "whose bombs were launched, figuratively speaking, by blind luck." The 90R has a range between 600 m and 4.3 km, and a depth of up to one km. The range of its acoustic homing head is 130 m. The 90R1 is believed to feature improved range, although these have yet to be revealed in open sources. In any case, Tuchkov noted that "it can be assumed that designers did not increase its depth characteristics, since 1,000 m is beyond the limits of any NATO submarine or torpedo."
The analyst writes: "The 90R has advantages over traditional torpedoes in use against submarines. Because its gravitational projectiles lack an engine, they can move without being tracked by enemy sonar. They can be detected with the help of active sonar, but this mode of operation by an enemy vessel gives away its location even further. Moreover, it doesn't make much sense anyway: As a rule, major underwater targets are targeted by volleys of twelve rounds at once, and due to the reflection of the sonar waves from all twelve projectiles, a complex interference pattern is obtained, making it impossible to accurately determine the position of attacking warheads."
The RPK-8 has a response time is 15 seconds, with a single-salvo kill probability of 0.8. A single 90R projectile weighs 112.5 kg, including its 67 kg gravitational projectile, and 19.5 kg warhead.
The same missile casing is used on the Magnesit-MN. That system is tasked with creating false targets for acoustic-guided enemy torpedoes. It has the same 4.3 km range, and weighs 115 kg. Its acoustics systems were developed by the St. Petersburg-based Akvamarin Corporation.
Tuchkov writes: "After splashdown, the projectile sinks to a depth of 25 meters, and produces interference for a period of eight minutes, enough time to counter an enemy torpedo attack. The Magnesit-MN is capable of operating in two modes – as a generator of interference for guided torpedos, and as an imitator of acoustic signals typical for surface ships. In the first case, enemy torpedoes are disoriented; in the second, they rush to a false target –i.e., to the Magnesit-MN."
Furthermore, the analyst explained that the Magnesit-MN's interference-generating systems can be used without the missile shell, dropped into the water by helicopter, for example. Ultimately, Tuchkov emphasized that at their core, the RPK-8 and its 90R, 90R1 and Magnesit-MN projectiles are a ship defense system designed for close-quarters combat.
"However, offensive weapons designed to destroy subs at great distances also exist, and can be based on a variety of platforms, including ships, subs, and aircraft," the analyst added. Among them is the 91R1 Kalibr, launched from a submerged position from depths of up to 150 m.
"The rocket is fired from a standard 533 mm torpedo tube. Its exits the water using a solid propellant accelerator. Then the main engine is turned on. The missile is guarded to its target using an inertial guidance system. In its anti-submarine missile capacity, its payload is carried in a mini-torpedo. When the missile reaches the point specified in its flight program, the torpedo disconnects and parachutes down to sea level, turns on its engine and begins its search for the target with the aid of sonar."
The 91R1 has a maximum flight range of 50 km, and a speed of 700 m/s (top-notch in this class of weapon). Prelaunch preparation time is 10 seconds. One salvo can launch four missiles. The homing sonar is capable of detecting targets at distances up to 2 km. For comparison, Tuchkov noted that the equivalent US anti-submarine missile is the Lockheed Martin RUM-139 VLA, which entered into service in 1996. Installed aboard surface ships, that missile has a range of 28 km, a flight speed of 330 m/s, and uses inertial guidance. The Mk-46 torpedo is its standard warhead – introduced into the Navy in 1964 and upgraded five times since.
"However, all of these upgrades did not bring it up to par with the APR-3 Orel ('Eagle') torpedo used in the Russian 91R1," the analyst wrote. "The maximum speeds are incommensurable – 65 vs. 45 knots. Maximum depth is too – 800 vs 450 m. The Orel also has a higher range. All of this is predetermined by the fact that the 91P1 has a starting weight of 2,100 kg, while that of the RUM-139 VLA is 640 kg."
We? We? Parts of “our” government certainty are.
And the 4th estate has attempted to poison the well, by claiming collusion and Russian driven election fraud. If Trump tries to form any alliance, they’ll scream it’s a reward for their help in getting him elected.
Which “parts” of the government are not? I don’t like it but I know what my taxes are being used for - aiding the globalists in their march to a NWO.
So the country that tried to create NWO 1 is now our savior against NWO 2? I don't trust Putin and the Russians anymore than I trust the NWO types. All governing bodies are opportunistic and will grab power anytime they have an opportunity. Few governments have ever recognized that the power belongs to the people. Our government was perhaps the best at this but it has been corrupted. I don't think that it is irredeemable, though and can still be fixed through reforms.
“Doesn’t matter, we spend 5 times as much as Russia on our military, therefore our weapons are superior.”
I hate Neocons. All of them.
However, this weapons system presupposes that there will be Russian surface combatants that survive 12 hours past general war.
And there will not be any.
“The first missile was MISSED because it tricked by the upgraded Russian flares.”
Dude. You need to study up.
The Sidewinder has already been vulnerable to diversion by flares. It has been for 40 years. It’s a heat seeking/IR missile. And all of them have the same weakness.
Our “smart” missiles shoot from more than 100 miles and are radar homing.
“Upgraded flares”. That’s a hoot right there, I don’t care who you are.
It’s best you not post on the subject of military hardware anymore. Your knowledge gap will take years to close.
Because, according to your astute analysis, we need across the board upgrades, to: “at least put up a reasonable fight”.
Suck me, then. I was recounting an article that I read. It wasn’t ‘my analysis’ and you’re welcome to provide links disproving it (or not, if you don’t want to), but let’s lay off the personal attacks.
By the way, this is article, you should read up a bit:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/news/a27094/su-22-dodge-aim-9x-sidewinder/
And if your pretense was even true, why the hell are we using missiles in combat that have been OBSOLETE for 40 years? Are we trying to get our men shot down, or captured? We were damn lucky the Russians didn’t test their S-400 after that miss.
We use them because they are cheap and plentiful.
They are designed for close-in dogfights.
If the first shot is “diverted”, take another shot. It’s not unlike guns.
Not cool.
Leaving your sophisticated weaponry out on deck semi-enclosed in a launcher-tube and exposed to the elements? Not wise. But Russian surface ships don’t typically spend much time at sea, so I guess that works OK?
Don’t know what you base that on. Putin runs a pretty tight ship full of cronyism. Even if the Russians were not disposed to join the NWO, the guy/gal that replaces Putin might, and Russia would turn on a dime.
“It also has an anti-torpedo variant that provides several minutes of what is termed ‘interference’ in the article. That isn’t something I’m aware an asroc ever provided.”
Missed that first time through. You’re right; at least in my era that was not a feature.
I wonder, though, how well it works.
I don't know who learned more from that encounter, us or the Russians, but both sides learned a lot.
I agree that when our first-line missiles are defeated by their old, export airplanes we are not in nearly as good a position as once thought.
I wonder how long it will take to upgrade our missiles? Is it a software change or do we need to develop new sensors and guidance?
The article that I referenced suspected that we were not keeping up with their upgraded flares, but instead designed our missiles too narrowly, so as to only defeat our flares.
Hopefully we did learn something and hopefully the Neocons will permit us to spend the money needed to fix that issue, before they start WW3.
I had read both that article and other sources that indicated the same thing. We do not know if that is the truth or useful misinformation. Current Russian flares are hard to come by -- they do not sell them to us for obvious reasons.
Maybe we want the Russians to THINK their flares are very, very good, when the real problem was somewhere else. We don't even know for sure that two missiles were required. It could have been one, or it could have been six.
Those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know.
Put me in the second category, LOL!
Good points.
I take it you are ignorant of the missile seeker upgrades that reject targets that are too hot, i.e. burning magnesium, and only home in on targets that are jet engine hot i.e. burning jet fuel hot (not hot enough to melt steel according to that master structural engineer, Rosie O'Donnel).
You are probably also totally unaware that some current flares burn TNT, yes TNT, it can burn without exploding, but I bet you didn't know that either! TNT burns close to jet fuel temperatures and is therefore much harder to distinguish from a magnesium decoy.
Hmmm. Well. Uh. The Post office? That's sorta part of the government...
I’m not sure what that has to do with anything - all that I know is some piece of Syrian crap DEFEATED OUR NEWEST Sidewinder.
My only point is that I really wish you guys would push as hard for us to MODERNIZE our military as you push for a war against Russia.
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