Submarine Salvatore Todaro, Project 212A

(photo warships.ru)
Creation in Germany submarine of project 212 are more likely to mean the beginning of a technological revolution in the field of non-nuclear submarines, since it is the first production by a submarine with a combined power plant in the central part of the diesel-electric plant and an electrochemical generator.

Work on the project 212 were initiated by German firms in 1988. An intergovernmental agreement between Germany and Italy on the joint development and construction of buildings of the project 212 submarines was signed in 1994.

Bookmark submarine for the Navy of Italy S526 "Salvatore Todaro" was held in 1999, the second boat was laid in 2000. It is planned that in the future for the Navy of Italy will be ordered two more submarines of this type.

Construction Project 212 submarine is traditional for German submarines. Durable housing consists of two cylindrical sections of different diameters, connected by a short conical section. In the forward torpedo tubes are placed with the systems of fire, batteries, central office, premises and systems of the crew. In the connection section contains the fuel cell stack of polymer electrolyte membranes. In the stern section of smaller diameter are the main modules of power plant, which operates automatically and when working in normal mode does not require maintenance personnel. Main ballast tanks are located in the fore and aft ends of the outer hull. ? In the aft located also shockproof containers with liquid oxygen and steel tanks with a source of hydrogen - metal hydride.

New in the construction of the German submarines are the location of hydroplanes on fence cutting and application of X-shaped stern rudders for better handling the boat submerged.

Nuclear submarine the USS Los Angeles to be decommissioned

The USS Los Angeles attack submarine is in the Port of Los Angeles for its decommissioning ceremony Saturday. (Robert Casillas/Staff Photographer)

Glancing at the green-and-black sonar screens aboard the USS Los Angeles, Cmdr. Steven Harrison reminisced about the brief 1 1/2 years he oversaw operations aboard the nuclear-powered submarine.

Goodwill stops throughout the Pacific Ocean and intense training missions are just some of the moments he will miss, but it's memories of his young crew that he'll cherish the most.

"Most of these guys are in their early 20s, but they're some of the brightest men in the Navy who are able to drive a nuclear submarine," Harrison said. "They don't know what to expect when they start out, but they realize it's an important job and don't mind being on a sub for 30 to 60 days at a time."

The 360-foot nuclear-powered sub the USS Los Angeles has patrolled the world s oceans for 33 years. Commander Steven Harrison explains the operation of its torpedo tubes. (Robert Casillas/Staff Photographer)

Harrison's crew of 141 officers and sailors are slowly disbanding as the USS Los Angeles prepares for a decommissioning ceremony this morning at the vessel's namesake port.

Many of the sub's former crew members will be on hand during the private event, which will feature speeches by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn.

Vietnam tops Russia's arms client list

Vietnam is now officially Russia's biggest arms client thanks to recent orders for six Kilo-class submarines and 12 Su-30 fighter jets, according to a Moscow-based think tank.

Kilo-class submarine

Vietnam's deal for its first submarines is Russia's second-biggest contract for subs in the post-Soviet period, after a 2002 contract with China for eight submarines, said the independent Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies that monitors Russian military exports.

The analysis by CAST confirms what observers believed when the deal was signed during Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung's Dec. 15 visit to Moscow. Vietnam joins India, Algeria, Venezuela and China as Russia's top clients, according to an article on the Defense News Web site, which quotes the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass as the source.

The article did not, however, give any figures for sales to Vietnam.

Russia stands to make another $2 billion for maintenance and repair work, much of it carried out in Vietnam within new facilities at a naval base. Russia is also likely to construct a communications center, said CAST analyst Konstantin Makiyenko. The subs will be designed by the Rubin Central Design Bureau for Machine Engineering and built by the Admiralteiskiye Verfi shipyard, both in St. Petersburg.

Washington Prepares Arms Sales for Taiwan, Risking China’s Ire

A package of arms sales being prepared by Washington for Taiwan may portend a downturn in U.S.-China relations only a year after the Obama administration entered office championing closer ties with Beijing. The ever-sensitive topic of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, considered by Beijing to be an integral part of the People’s Republic of China, will undoubtedly result in protestations by the Chinese, who have long maintained a vow to recover the island by force if necessary.

 The sales of armaments and military-related equipment and support to Taiwan may hinder - temporarily at least - whatever progress made by the administration in pushing for more cooperation between the two countries in areas such as climate change, nuclear proliferation and regional security issues. Perhaps more importantly, it may also lead China to temporarily sever military-to-military contacts with the U.S.

Politically-speaking, for the Obama administration there is no good time to announce the approval of arms sales to Taiwan, only a least-damaging one. The potential sales involved may include 60 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, second-hand Perry-class frigates, design assistance on diesel-electric submarines, an upgrade deal for the “Po Sheng” (Broad Victory) C4I (command, control, communications, computers and military intelligence) system, and Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles and upgrades to Taiwan’s existing Patriot missile defense system.

Modernized nuclear sub back in service

The Russian strategic nuclear Delta-IV class submarine K-18 “Kareliya” is back in service in the Northern Fleet after five years of modernization.

 

The contract on delivery of the nuclear submarine was signed today at the Zvezdochka ship repair yard in Severodvnisk, the company'sweb site reads.

The modernization has prolonged the submarine’s lifetime with approximately ten years and improved its tactical and technical performance considerably. The work includes improved noise-reduction and detection systems.

Kareliya (Photo Star.ru)

Indian Navy boosts its air fleet in $1.5 billion deal

India's Navy has started a $1.5 billion overhaul of its ageing Soviet-era fleet of aircraft, seeking to boost its air power in an Indian Ocean region where a growing China is threatening its traditional dominance.


The investment is one of the biggest the Indian Navy has made in recent years and reflects New Delhi's urgency to modernise its military, a move that rival Pakistan says could spark an arms buildup and destabilise an already roiled South Asia.

India plans to buy 16 new MIG-29 fighter jets, half a dozen light combat aircraft, unmanned patrol planes and multi-role helicopters. Tenders for these will be floated soon, Indian officials said.

Russian IL-38 over USS Midway

The Navy is also upgrading its Sea Harrier fighter jets, IL-38 maritime anti-submarine warfare planes and acquiring five Kamov KA-31 patrol helicopters.

Navy commander crashed £32m British submarine after failing to ensure craft's 'safe direction'

A navy commander has pleaded guilty to crashing a £32million British nuclear submarine that was deployed in support of the 2001 assault on Afghanistan.

Commander Steven Drysdale, of Miskin, South Wales, will be sentenced in March after he admitted an offence of failing to ensure the submarine's 'safe direction' at a court martial yesterday.

HMS Superb was left stricken in the Red Sea after she was steered into underwater rocks - despite the massive stone pinnacle appearing on maritime charts.

Damaged: The HMS Superb crashed in the Red Sea after she was steered into underwater rocks - despite the massive stone pinnacle appearing on maritime charts Photo:dailymail

The nuclear-powered submarine was forced to surface following the smash, which damaged her sonar but left her reactor unaffected.

Two of his officers, Lt Cmdr Andrew Cutler and Lt Lee Blair, also admitted neglecting to perform their duty before the crash on May 26, 2008.

The three submariners all pleaded guilty at a court martial hearing in Portsmouth and were told they would be sentenced in March.

Military to Spend $1.1 Billion on Unmanned Systems in Next 10 Years

military operations, with estimates suggesting that just under half of expenditure on autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) coming from defence organisations.

Photo:defpro

Research from Douglas-Westwood suggests that the underwater unmanned systems market will total $2.3 billion (£688 million) between 2010 and 2019, with $1.1 billion of that coming from the military sector.

"Although 629 AUVs have been produced to date, they are still regarded as a relatively new technology," said Paul Newman, lead analyst at Douglas-Westwood.

He added that the use of unmanned systems for a number of key tasks as increased significantly as they have been shown to be more cost-effective than previous technology.

"For example, they are now one of the military's primary mine countermeasure devices and well established within the oil and gas community as deep water survey platforms," Newman added.

Iran threatens to hit Gulf

Iran's Defense Minister Ahamd Vahidi said yesterday that Western warships stationed in the Gulf are "best targets" for the Islamic republic if its nuclear sites are attacked, Fars news agency reported. Iranian officials have repeatedly threatened to deliver a "crushing response" and hit US targets, including its bases in the Gulf and neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan, if Iran's nuclear sites are attacked.

Why are there so many warships there? The Westerners know that these warships are the best target for operation by Iran if they do anything against (us)," Vahidi told a conference in Tehran. The United States and its regional ally Israel, which accuse Iran of seeking atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear program, have never ruled out a military option to thwart Tehran's nuclear drive. Iran denies the charges and has continued to expand its nuclear program despite UN sanctions.

As Israeli-German cabinet meet in Berlin, media reports indicated that Israel intends to station one of its German-made Dolphin submarines in the waters of the Arabian Gulf. Israel's use of the dolphin submarine in exercises in the Red Sea aroused fears that Israel may seek to maintain a continued presence in the Arabian Gulf as soon as it receives its submarines from Germany in 2011-2012.

Defence skills shortage makes us an easy sub target

AUSTRALIA is vulnerable to attack from submarines as concerns mount over dodgy military equipment and a lack of skilled undersea warfare operators.

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The nation is dangerously exposed at a time when 100 new submarines are due in service with regional navies, including those of China, India, Pakistan, Russia, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, experts say.

China already has more than 60 submarines with others on the way, Russia's Pacific fleet is 22 strong and India is boosting its 16-boat fleet.

The erosion of anti-submarine warfare is due to:

SYSTEM failures on Collins class submarines.

POOR vessel-mounted sonars.

OBSOLETE torpedoes.

DELAYS to ship upgrades.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute defence expert Andrew Davies said the lack of equipment was symbolic of wider problems.

"Detecting a submarine at long range involves a lot of interpretation and is not a skill you can teach overnight," he said.

Pearl Harbor to get new submarine

The Navy announced yesterday that a third new Virginia-class submarine, the USS North Carolina, will be home-ported in Hawaii, with the submarine expected to arrive next summer.

U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, said in 2007 that the USS Hawaii, USS Texas and USS North Carolina would be based at Pearl Harbor.

USS North Carolina Photo : usmilitary.com

Wednesday's announcement by the Navy is its first official acknowledgment of the impending arrival of the North Carolina.

The state's namesake submarine, the USS Hawaii, arrived in July, and the Texas pulled into Pearl Harbor in November after heading up to the North Pole via the east coast and then transiting through the Panama Canal.

Deep-sea sonar technology for advanced anti-submarine warfare is aim of DARPA DSOP program

Ocean sensor specialists at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., are asking the defense industry for revolutionary advances in extremely deep-operating undersea surveillance systems to protect U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and their support vessels from quiet enemy attack submarines.

DARPA issued a broad agency announcement (DARPA-BAA-10-20) Friday called Deep Sea Operations (DSOP) for deep-ocean surveillance submarine warfare technologies involving sonar and non-acoustic sensors that take advantage of unique signal propagation in the deep ocean.

Navy fixed-site undersea sensor systems today include the Fixed Distributed System (FDS) and the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS), which are used in ocean choke points in the Caribbean as well as the straits between Greenland, Iceland, Greenland, and the United Kingdom -- commonly referred to as the GIUK Gap.

For the Deep Sea Operations (DSOP) program, DARPA scientists want to use deep-sea areas known as the sound fixing and ranging channel -- also known as the deep sound channel -- that exists at ocean depths below about 3,000 feet where the water is cold, silent, and dense, and where the speed of sound is at its slowest.

E-2C Hawkeyes On Movie

 

E-2C Hawkeye Demonstration

  

More welding problems prompt another investigation on Navy submarines

General Dynamics Electric Boat has launched another investigation into welds on at least one Virginia Class submarine after the company found that a shipbuilder at its Quonset Point, R.I., shipyard may not have properly evaluated the quality of the welds he was charged with inspecting.

The employee, who Electric Boat would identify only as a "trade worker," worked on at least one submarine — the recently delivered New Mexico — though the probe could expand to include other boats, officials told the Daily Press this week.

The New Mexico. (Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding photo)

Electric Boat, which builds submarines in a partnership with Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Newport News shipyard, notified the Navy "immediately" after it uncovered the issue Dec. 1, said Robert A. Hamilton, a company spokesman.

None of the welds in question involve so-called "subsafe" portions of submarines, which include all systems exposed to sea pressure or are critical to flooding recovery, Hamilton said.

After a preliminary investigation and assessment, Electric Boat and the Navy concluded that the welds in question would not pose an immediate risk "on the ships that were underway," said Rear Adm. William H. Hilarides, the Navy's program executive officer for submarines.

Defense industry to receive shot of life

Purnomo Yusgiantoro acted fast after being installed as defense minister by conducting a series of workshops aimed at revitalizing Indonesia's strategic industries, as if to allay the public's doubt over his capabilities to handle the defense portfolio.

The workshops were a success, for the first time all stakeholders were assembled together at one place and discussed all their concerns.

First, the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police, the main users of domestically-made weapons systems, outlined on Nov. 18, 2009, their projected needs.

Based on these requirements, the defense industries then presented on Nov. 24, 2009, their options based on their current capabilities.

After the end-users and producers had presented what they need and what they can do, a discussion on the financial side was held with Finance Minister Sri Mulyani and national bankers presenting their ideas.