Internationale ontwikkelingen op onderzeebootgebied.

[Reinier]

https://navalpost.com/brazils-submarine-riachuelo-flooded-with-salt-water/?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Gebouwd door DCNS in Frankrijk....

[Harald]

US Navy plans to buy 120 submarine-launched Blackwing UAVs

The US Navy plans to acquire up to 120 AeroVironment Blackwing unmanned air vehicles (UAV) for its submarines.



The first drone is expected to be delivered as early as August 2021, says the service in a sole source notice it posted online on 9 March. The last UAV is scheduled to be delivered by May 2023.

The Blackwing can be launched into the air via a submerged submarine. The UAV is packed into a canister that is ejected from an underwater submarine, the canister then floats to the surface and shoots the Blackwing into the air.

In order to fit inside a canister, the small UAV has two pop-out wing sets. It has a wingspan of 68.6cm (27in) and is powered by an electric motor-driven pusher propeller. On its nose, the UAV carries electro-optical and infrared sensors. It also carries GPS and inertial navigation systems. Those sensors combined with a tactical data link allow the UAV to pass back targeting information to a submarine.

The service has been experimenting with the Blackwing for several years. After several demonstrations in 2019 and 2020, initial operational capability for the Blackwing was declared in September, said Rear Admiral Dave Goggins, programme executive officer for submarines, reported Seapower magazine last November. The USN has demonstrated launching the Blackwing from the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Annapolis, he said.

As part of those tests, the service practiced launching the UAV from periscope depth, and controlling the drone out to "tactically significant ranges – well beyond the line of sight", Goggins said. "By doing so she was able to target and conduct a rapid simulated torpedo attack against a participating surface ship, in this case the USS Charleston, pretty much at near-maximum effective range of that torpedo, by flying that UAV to obtain a fire-point solution after gaining that initial sonar gain."

Using UAVs to find and target ships helps submarines avoid detection and attack by remaining further away from an adversary. AeroVironment has not disclosed the range of the Blackwing. However, it is based on the Switchblade 300 loitering munition, which has a range of 5.4nm (10km).

https://www.flightglobal.com/military-uavs/us-navy-plans-to-buy-120-submarine-launched-blackwing-uavs/142807.article

Blackwing UAV
https://www.avinc.com/tms/blackwing

[Huzaar1]

Ja leuk maar dit levert NG meer schade op dan het euros oplevert. Weten zij ook.

Heerlijk om te zien dit.

[Master Mack]

Dit hangt Australië nu al als een molensteen om de nek dus uit de deal stappen is denk ik al een gepasseerd station. Naval heeft weer een paar mooie belofte gedaan die straks weer net zo makkelijk gebroken gaan worden. Het Franse belang staat altijd voorop. Kunnen wij op meerdere manieren wat van leren.

[Harald]

Australia and Naval Group agree on Future Submarine progress funding and local industry content  ( tja.... ik moet het nog zien hoe dit verder gaat, ik ben sceptisch..  )

Tense negotiations between Canberra and French shipbuilder Naval Group over future costs and the percentage of local industry content in Australia's AUD90 billion (USD70 billion) Future Submarine Program have concluded with agreements on both issues, Janes has learnt.

According to informed sources, the overarching Strategic Partnering Agreement underpinning the project will now be amended to include a commitment by Naval Group to spend a minimum of 60% of the contract value in Australia over the life of the programme.

This will formalise an earlier undertaking by French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly that has subsequently been the subject of lengthy negotiations and Australian frustration.

Following reports that Canberra was considering walking away from the contract, under which Naval Group is to design and build 12 Attack-class conventionally powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), breakthroughs were reached during a visit by the company's global chief executive officer, Pierre Éric Pommellet.

Pommellet left Australia on 28 February after spending two weeks in mandatory Covid-19-related quarantine, and a third in discussions with defence and industry leaders and senior ministers.

The recent in-principle agreement will require Australian content to be agreed for each stage of work, the sources disclosed.

Should this fall below the agreed band in any phase, Naval Group would be liable for penalties. Should the level of Australian work exceed the agreed band, Naval Group would qualify for incentives.

Formal signature awaits legal reviews and sign-off by Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, who has been on medical leave since 24 February.

https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/australia-and-naval-group-agree-on-future-submarine-progress-funding-and-local-industry-content

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Kunnen ze er meteen 6 doorverkopen aan Taiwan..........

Taiwan heeft geen behoefte aan 4000 tonners.

[Zander]

Jeb die kwantitatieve behoefte ook nooit begrepen. Ook Australie gaat die 12 boten nooit kunnen vullen zonder dienstplicht.

Kunnen ze er meteen 6 doorverkopen aan Taiwan..........

[Huzaar1]

Jeb die kwantitatieve behoefte ook nooit begrepen. Ook Australie gaat die 12 boten nooit kunnen vullen zonder dienstplicht.

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Hopen op een einde van deze deal. Mooi nieuws voor NL.

Dat lijkt er vooralsnog niet in te zitten, al rommelt het zeer stevig.

Wel vraag ik me af of het er uiteindelijk wel 12 worden?

[Huzaar1]

Hopen op een einde van deze deal. Mooi nieuws voor NL.

[Harald]

Government submarine contract sunk and unlikely to resurface

The submarine deal France proudly called 'the contract of the Century' appears to have collapsed, reports Alan Austin.

IF THERE WAS one thing which should unite all media commentators, economic and military analysts, and informed citizens in outrage against the Morrison Government, it is this. The Government has wasted billions of dollars on a deal to buy 12 new submarines which have virtually no chance of fulfilment.

As this is written, the head of the French naval construction company Naval Group, Pierre Eric Pommellet, is in Australia meeting federal ministers in an attempt to rescue the contract. Tragically for Australia – and for Monsieur Pommellet – not one of those ministers has the experience or competence to wrangle a successful result.

Many informed commentators in France, Australia and elsewhere now expect the much-celebrated deal to be abandoned. If that happens, replacing the current ageing submarines would be delayed many years, depending on the timing of the change of government to a capable administration.

Although defence is just one example of Coalition mismanagement, this is where Australia's losses are arguably most devastating: both in billions of dollars wasted and in the risk to national security.

Responsibility for the project
Multiple failures are evident. The most basic is accountability. Since negotiations with France began, Australia has had three prime ministers, three deputy PMs, three failed treasurers, five defence ministers and four ministers for defence industry. Of the 15 individuals to have held these portfolios, seven have left the Parliament. None remaining has the competence to deliver for Australia or the mettle to take responsibility. The current Defence Minister is in hospital on leave.

Political priorities paramount
A major factor in dashing into the connection with France was the set of promises the Coalition hoped to make chasing votes. In the run-up to the 2019 election, then Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne promised hundreds of new jobs, the "majority of which will be based in South Australia".

Cost and defence considerations were secondary.

Many military observers were dismayed at Australia taking the French Shortfin Barracudas over the lower-cost and more suitable alternatives tendered by Japan and Germany.

Design and cost errors
Several of Australia's specifications were plain foolish, as Binoy Kampmark summarised for IA. A nuclear submarine with a diesel-electric engine is a fail. An American combat system won't work in a French vessel because the Americans and the French do not talk. Lead-acid batteries will be obsolete well before the subs are delivered.

France's original tender documents put the cost of the project at between $20 billion and $25 billion. The cost in the initial agreement signed in late 2016 was $50 billion.

By February 2020, the Parliamentary Library research service reported that the acquisition cost:

'... is in the order of $80 billion in out-turned dollars and the estimate for sustainment might roughly work out to be around $145 billion ...'

Today, estimates range up to double that quantum.

Missed deadlines
Delays so far have pushed back delivery of the first Barracuda from the mid-2020s to the early 2030s and now to the 2040s. The latest missed date was finalising the critical Strategic Partnering Agreement which governs the entire project. This was due before last Christmas.

Australian content in labour and components
This is the main area of contestation between the French company and the Morrison ministry. The Defence Minister is holding out for 60 per cent local input, down from 90 per cent when the project was first announced. The French now insist it must be much less as Australia cannot deliver. This was not settled before the production agreement was signed in 2018.

How many subs are needed?
Replacing the current six Collins-class vessels is certainly justifiable and possibly increasing that to seven or eight.

Comparisons with other countries suggest 12 is excessive.

Taiwan with a similar population to Australia's and much greater defence vulnerability has four. Canada with a much higher population also has four. Argentina and Spain with roughly twice Australia's population each have two. Germany which has a population more than three times Australia's and is a major submarine manufacturer has six. Brazil with eight times the population has six. Mexico with five times the population has none. New Zealand with arguably the same defence vulnerability as Australia has none.

Twelve is thus excessive, especially as this Government has borrowed $73 billion on average each year for the past seven years – a total debt blow-out of $541 billion – while all well-managed economies have substantially reduced their debt.

Failure to invest in Australia
There is one justification for 12 subs. That is if Australia expands its own submarine industry and builds them for other countries as well. If Sweden with less than half Australia's population can do this, Australia certainly can. Not many, however, believes the current Coalition Government has either the vision or the competence to attempt this.

The current Collins-class submarines were commissioned by the Hawke Government in 1987. Construction began in Australia in 1990 and continued until 2003. The technical problems encountered in the early years were gradually overcome. The six subs will now remain in service until the mid-2040s, subject, of course, to when the Coalition loses office.

A proficient administration can do it.

Excessive secrecy, even from the Senate
Compounding all these failures is Morrison's Cabinet refusing to be answerable to the Parliament. In an ugly confrontation in last month's Senate Economics References Committee, Defence Department head Greg Moriarty refused point-blank to provide documents which the Committee had the constitutional right to access.

Independent Senator Rex Patrick warned Moriarty:

"There has been an order for the production of these documents. You have advanced public interest immunity and you are quite entitled to do that. The Senate considered that public interest immunity and, in this instance, has rejected it. From that point on, you are basically verging on contempt. The Minister is verging on contempt."

Moriarty steadfastly refused the Committee's requests, insisting he would do the bidding of the craven Minister and Cabinet.

The remedy
Thus the solution is for the people of Australia to get rid of this secretive bungling regime at the earliest opportunity: to save hundreds of billions of dollars and to ensure effective military capability.

[Harald]

Australia might renounce to buy submarines from Naval Group    Het rommelt nog steeds .....

According to information published by Alan Austin, Independent Australia on March 1, 2021, submarine deal between Australia and Naval Group might be broken. The head of the French shipbuilding company Naval Group, Pierre Eric Pommellet, is in Australia to meet with federal ministers to try to save the contract.

https://www.navyrecognition.com/index.php/news/defence-news/2021/march/9767-australia-might-renounce-to-buy-submarines-from-naval-group.html

[Harald]

De Aussies hebben een nieuwe planning van de Fransen gekregen, maar eerste nieuwe onderzeeboot pas in (rond) 2035 !
Voor mijn gevoel een zoethouder van de Fransen, je gaat verder in het ("Franse") proces en dieper in de fuik en tijd, totdat er echt geen weg meer terug is en Australie noodgedwongen wel verder moet !
Voor mijn gevoel had de deal er al moeten zijn en de "harde" toezeggingen voordat je begint... nu lijkt het wel een "Frans" proces van vertragen, tijd en geld zuigen, .... en straks staat Australie met de kloten voor het blok. 

Of serieus praten, kijken met NL ? 

French submarines all but locked in after negotiation breakthrough

.../...

The government had rejected Naval Group's original plan for the program's next phase but the company last week submitted its revised plan, which was developed in consultation with Defence officials.

The deal - which still needs to be ticked off by the government - includes ongoing construction of Naval Group's Osborne shipyard in Adelaide, the development of Lockheed Martin's combat systems, a testing facility and the completion of detailed design work.

It will allow for the pressure hull for the first submarine to be built in 2024. The first submarine is not scheduled to become operational until the mid-2030s.


.../...

Prime Minister Scott Morrison in recent weeks tasked Vice-Admiral Jonathan Mead and Commodore Tim Brown to look at alternative options for the submarine fleet, including long-range conventional powered submarines that Swedish company Saab Kockums has offered the Dutch navy.

While government sources had not ruled out going with an alternative to the French-built submarines, they conceded it was unlikely. The government is expected to take months to formally sign off on the new proposal.

.../...

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/french-submarines-all-but-locked-in-after-negotiation-breakthrough-20210302-p5771h.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Wees niet verbaasd als het niet de Frans wordt.

Het zou mij totaal niet verbazen 

[Huzaar1]

Ja dat snap ik wel. Maar ik interpreteer de uitspraak m.b.t het uitgesproken gebrek aan vertrouwen in franse aannemers heel anders dan in ieder geval jullie twee.

Wees niet verbaasd als het niet de Frans wordt.