The promising A26 submarine will become the carrier of American Tomahawk cruise missilesHaving applied to join the NATO military-political bloc last year, Stockholm is taking measures to improve the capabilities of its armed forces.
Recently, the country's defense ministry issued a contract to the local shipbuilding company SAAB Kockums for the restoration and modernization of the Halland submarine. Earlier, in the period from 2015 to 2020, similar work was carried out on Gotland and Uppland, built according to a single project.
In parallel, a program is underway to create a next-generation submarine under the A26 project with a total displacement of 1,900 tons . It started in the spring of 2015, when the government issued an order totaling $ 945 million for the design and construction of two submarines, naming them Blekinge and Skåne.
The implementation of the relevant program is going hard. The readiness of the lead ship, originally scheduled for 2018, was gradually postponed. Now it is expected no earlier than 2027-2028. This suggests that Swedish underwater shipbuilding is going through difficult times, its degeneration is at stake.
Naval commanders demand that designers create a really powerful and modern ship that is not inferior to the best foreign analogues. Clarification of the seafarers' requirements required a revision of the original draft A26.
The redesigned version will carry vertical launchers (VPU) with 18 long-range American Tomahawk-type cruise missiles.
Will Washington agree to sell such a powerful weapon to Stockholm? There is no answer to this question yet. Perhaps the desire to get long-range cruise missiles at its disposal is one of the factors pushing Sweden to become a member of the Atlantic Treaty. The revision of the A26 project has led to an increase in costs: now the cost of one boat is estimated at $ 816 million. If the government provides sustainable financing under the A26 program, SAAB Kockums will not just stay afloat, but will also receive funds for development.
ACCORDING TO THE AMERICAN PROJECTThe firstborn of Swedish underwater shipbuilding, the Hajen torpedo submarine was assembled in 1904 according to the American Holland-VII project.
Since then, the development of this type of naval equipment in the country has been going on constantly, although with some interruptions.
Local shipbuilders experienced the most difficult period at the turn of the century. Then the country almost lost its own school of underwater engineering design.
The reason was the government's decision to transfer the local Kockums design bureau to the German industrial giant ThyssenKrupp. It was a tribute to the popular trend of participation in integration processes within the European Union. The Germans were not going to develop Kockums, nor were they going to integrate their own and Swedish design bureaus into a kind of united team of like-minded people.
Not immediately realizing the bleak prospect of losing the accumulated national competencies, Stockholm forcibly regained control of Kockums. Heavily armed special forces soldiers cordoned off the building of the experimental design bureau (OKB), neutralized the guards and occupied the territory of the enterprise. Employees were offered to terminate employment contracts with ThyssenKrupp and conclude new ones. Thus, a division of SAAB Kockums appeared as part of the national giant SAAB. However, not all employees (but only about 200) decided to continue their careers in Sweden: there were also those who remained loyal to ThyssenKrupp or moved to other structures.
The recreated national Design Bureau is experiencing difficulties. This was reflected in the serious delay in the design and construction of the next-generation A26 DPL.
The program of restoration and modernization of military equipment is designed to help local shipbuilders overcome temporary difficulties. By order of the Swedish Navy, the local industry has completed major repairs on the Halland and Uppland submarines by 2021. Today they represent the most modern "hidden vessels" of the Swedish fleet, which has 5 submarines.
The peculiarity of Swedish equipment and its technical support system is to obtain the maximum possible service life, taking into account medium and major repairs. A number of examples have been accumulated when boats of local construction were kept in service for half a century or more.
Built for their own needs, these ships, after exhausting the established service life, were repaired with modernization and then returned to the fleet or transferred to foreign states.
SINGAPORE ORDERSingapore in 1995 bought from Sweden a pair of used diesel-electric submarines (diesel-electric submarines) of the Sjöormen type built in 1968-1969, which had been in reserve since 1993.
They represent fairly compact ships with a length of 50 m, a surface displacement of 1000 tons and an underwater displacement of 1400 tons. High automation allows a crew of 23 sailors to control the ship. Both boats have undergone restoration repairs and are known as the Challenger class in the Singapore Navy.
In 1997, an order for three more submarines followed (including one for disassembly for spare parts). Then the average age of overbought ships was 30 years. Challenger and Centurion were decommissioned in 2015, at the age of almost half a century. Conqueror and Chieftain remain in service, they are 52-53 years old!
Singapore's next purchase is the boats Hälsingland and Västergötland with a displacement of 1400 tons built in 1986-1987. They are currently known as the Archer type. The contract provided for their alteration according to the type of modernization previously carried out on Swedish boats of the Södermanland type. Work started in 2009, the submarines returned to service in 2011-2013.
By lengthening the hull to 60 m, it became possible to install an additional compartment with Stirling engines. They complement the main power plant, which includes diesel generators for generating current, batteries and electric motors to provide both underwater and surface running. Stirlings are heated by burning diesel fuel, using oxygen from cryogenic tanks as an oxidizer. The anaerobic installation significantly increases underwater autonomy.
ANAEROBIC ENERGYSwedish shipbuilders acquired the first experience of using an air-independent power plant (VNEU) on the experimental submarine Nacken, which served from 1978 to 2016 (almost 40 years!).
It was designed and built like a classic DAPL. However, in 1987, her hull was cut in half to embed an 8-meter section with a Stirling engine. This made it possible to increase the duration of the underwater patrol without surfacing to two weeks.
The experience gained at Nacken was subsequently used on ships of the Västergötland series. In addition to the main one, similar Hälsingland, Södermanland and Östergötland were built in 1983-1989. The last two in 2003-2004 were upgraded with the installation of the VNEU. The displacement has grown to 1500 tons, the length – by 12 m.
The first boats built from scratch with VNEU were three ships of the Gotland type (Gotland, Uppland, Halland) built in 1992-1996. Displacement 1600 tons, length 60 m, crew 27-32 people. The armament includes four 533 mm torpedo tubes (12 torpedoes) and two 400 mm torpedoes (six torpedoes). They are equipped with Stirling engines Kockums v4–275R Mk III, providing underwater autonomy for up to 30 days, determined by the oxygen supply.
During the international exercises of 2000, the lead submarine conducted a successful training attack and conditionally "sank" American and French nuclear submarines, and in 2005 - an American aircraft carrier. The United States became interested in the ship, asking the Swedish navy to lease it. It lasted from 2005 to 2007.
Equipping Swedish diesel-electric submarines with additional Stirling engines required serious efforts to rework the original designs. Despite all the difficulties, the Swedish shipbuilders managed to solve the problem. This is evidenced by a number of facts.
Firstly, the converted boats are accepted by the Swedish Navy and are normally operated, without much comment.
Secondly, Singapore has accepted and operates such boats.
Thirdly, the Swedish Stirling engines attracted Japan, and she also introduced them to a number of her own submarines. However, all Japanese boats were originally designed taking into account the inclusion of additional engines, and were not redesigned during the overhaul (except for one for experimental purposes).
Fourth, the Swedish boat was leased by the US Navy and took part in fleet exercises for three years. Her crew distinguished themselves several times, managing to get into an attack position unnoticed and deliver a "conditional" strike.
The practical operation of Swedish submarines with an auxiliary power plant based on Stirling engines has shown that a non-nuclear submarine with VNEU poses a serious danger even to the US Navy with its numerous surface anti-submarine defense ships. However, there is an assumption that the American naval commanders made such a conclusion intentionally, "playing to the public." They needed this in order to gain support in Congress and the US presidential administration for requests for additional anti-submarine defense expenditures.
AUSTRALIAN ASSEMBLYA separate page in the history of Swedish underwater technology refers to Australia.
This country acted as the customer of six submarines of a special project with construction on its own territory. In 1987, the Kockums Design Bureau received an agreement for design work. The Type 471 diesel engine project represented an enlarged version of the Västergötland. Construction was carried out at the Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) shipyard in the southern part of the country in the period from 1990 to 2001, the boats entered service from 1996 to 2003.
Although Sweden had already tested Stirling engines by that time, they were not used on Australian submarines. The special project consisted in the fact that the Collins–type boat received an enlarged hull and twice the displacement (surface – 3100, underwater - 3400 tons). At the same time, the main engineering solutions and approaches developed by Swedish designers have been preserved.
The fact is that the Baltic Sea, where the Swedish Navy operates, is relatively shallow, characterized by intensive shipping. It is difficult for large boats to manage in it. This began to be talked about shortly after the First World War, when future shipbuilding programs were discussed.
As for Australia, the island-continent is washed by the Pacific Ocean from all sides, providing excellent access to the operational expanse. Therefore, local sailors preferred to order relatively large submarines for operations in the ocean.
Although the corresponding project was implemented and the boats were built, its implementation took much longer than originally expected. The delivery of the final Rankin DAPL in the series took place 41 months later than the schedule. The boats themselves were distinguished by good qualities, but up to 2016 it was necessary to solve numerous issues with hull saturation. The main problem was the integration of suppliers' systems from different countries into a single workable complex.
With a significant delay, a workable version of the onboard information control system (BIUS) was created, which the Australians decided to take from American nuclear submarines.
It is interesting to note that the United States has agreed to transfer the relevant technologies and equipment. This once again demonstrated Washington's willingness to make profitable deals, even when it comes to products specially designed for nuclear submarines. However, the bulky BIUS had to be practically redone (while maintaining the original designation AN/BYG-1, as on the Virginia submarine). It turned out this way because the source code (made based on the systems of the nuclear-powered vehicle) was not suitable for the DPL for a number of technical characteristics, primarily energy consumption.
As a result, the cost of the project increased by an order of magnitude, but the customer paid for it (for a total of 5.1 billion Australian dollars, or $ 850 million per combat unit). His absolute priority was to ensure the implementation of joint operations with the US Navy (interoperability), which to a large extent is provided through the BIUS. In addition, through this system, the task of issuing target designation for American Mk torpedoes is solved.48 and Harpoon anti-ship missiles, selected as the main armament of Collins-type submarines.
The onboard systems of the Australian submarine include European sonar and other equipment. Their integration with American and Swedish systems also forced us to overcome a lot of technical difficulties. While the search for solutions was underway, the active fleet of Collins-type ships was forced to be reduced to two or three fully combat-ready units at that time (especially from 2009 to 2012) how the others spent their time in repair or reserve. But over time, all the difficulties were overcome.
perspectiveThe issue of extending the service life of a Collins-type DPL until the mid-2030s is being considered.
This, of course, requires the involvement of Swedish experts as great experts on how to proceed in order to increase the previously designated period of trouble-free operation. Within the framework of the Collins program, SAAB Kockums specialists have accumulated unique experience, which they subsequently applied to the modifications of previously built Swedish DPLS. The main problem is low seriality. If we take into account only newly built boats with delivery after 1999, then the total number of submarines of the "Swedish type" will be limited to three Australian ones: Dechaineux ("Deshene", 2001), Sheean ("Shian", 2001) and Rankin ("Rankin", 2003). The market perspective is the sale abroad of old boats from the presence of the Swedish Navy, and the sale of new type A26.
Vyacheslav IvanovVyacheslav Viktorovich Ivanov is a military expert and historian.
