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2018-06-03

BSDA Showcases Naval Group’s Defence Innovations

Naval Group proved to be one of the foremost participants in this year’s Black Sea Defense and Aerospace exhibition (BSDA), which took place in Bucharest over 16th-18th May. Its state-of-the-art naval technology demonstrated capabilities in modern military ship and submarine building, alongside high-tech system solutions and expertise as a leading naval integrator.

Amulti-mission corvette designed for 21st-century security and defence challenges, Naval Group showcased its Gowind 2500. A sea-proven platform combining unrivalled stealth features, resilience and high availability with MU90 and CANTO-V armament, the Gowind provides outstanding anti-air (AW), anti-surface (ASW) and anti-submarine warfare (ASuW) performance.

A new lightweight torpedo, the MU90 is capable of countering any type of nuclear or conventional submarine, even acoustically coated, deep-diving, evasive vessels deploying anti-torpedo effectors or bottomed in littoral areas. Based on a dilution/confusion concept, the CANTO-V represents a breakthrough in anti-torpedo defence, acting against advanced and previous-generation torpedoes.

Naval Group-SNC’s exclusive partnership

On 20th April 2018, Constanţa Shipyard (SNC) and Naval Group signed an exclusive partnership to deliver four Gowind 2500 corvettes to the Romanian Navy.

SNC will benefit from centuries-long expertise in military shipbuilding and ensure the Romanian industry is implicated in ship design, construction and maintenance to preserve national sovereignty and create long-term high added-value jobs.

Stealthy steel corvette

With a low-acoustic signature and radar cross-section making the corvette stealthier than other class vessels, the Gowind 2500 is a steel mono-hull vessel avoiding easy detection by hostile platforms.

The Gowind 2500 is powered by combined diesel and electric propulsion system, while the power-plant provides a maximum speed of 25kt-plus and the corvette a range of 4,000 nautical miles (nm) at 15kt speeds. The corvette has a 102m length, 16m beam, 5.4m depth and 2,500t displacement, complementing a crew of 65 and 15 Special Forces.

Utilising the SETIS system, the vessel integrates multiple mission modules for operational requirements combat-proven on the French Navy’s FREMM frigates and interoperable with NATO systems. The intuitive man-machine interface and integrated command prompts enable significant data analysis via onboard sensors, alongside quick counteractions against wide-ranging threats.

Through integration of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for extended detection and threat response, SETIS can conduct surface vessel engagement, detection/tracking of submarine and aerial platform defence. It also utilises interoperable data links to share an accurate tactical picture with other vessels in the task group.

The corvette is armed with an OTO Melara 76mm main gun, two Nexter Narwhal 20mm cannons, a vertical launch system (VLS) for 16 VL Mica surface-to-air missiles, eight MBDA MM40 Exocet anti-ship missile launchers and two triple-torpedo launchers. Amongst the onboard sensors are a 3D radar, electronic support measures (ESM) suite and a hull-mounted variable depth sonar (VDS), while the vessel features a helicopter deck for permanent deployment of a 10-tonne heavy-lift helicopter, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and a helicopter hangar facility.

Scorpène 2000 submarine

Naval Group’s Scorpène 2000 is a submarine well-placed for operational effectiveness, with a comprehensive mission scope including: anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare, strikes against land-based objectives, naval force or joint-NATO operational integration, special operations, offensive minelaying, area surveillance/blockade and intelligence gathering. Integrating the Barracuda’s improvements, it can carry 18 torpedoes/missiles or 30 mines.

The Scorpène 2000 is equipped with six bow-located 21in torpedo tubes providing salvo launch capability, with an air turbine pump launching positive discharges. Weaponry includes anti-ship/-submarine torpedoes and anti-surface missiles with automated weapon handling and loading, while the SUBTICS combat management system has six multifunction common consoles and a centrally-located tactical table collocated to platform-control facilities.

The SUBTICS system is composed of a command and tactical data-handling system, a weapon control system, a suite of acoustic sensors with an interface accessing air surface detection sensors and an integrated navigation system. The system can download data from external sources while the integrated navigation system combines data from global positioning systems, depth measurement and the ship’s trim/list monitoring system, enabling the Scorpene to monitor seawater density/temperature and the submarine’s own noise signature.

The structure of the submarine uses high-yield stress-specific steel, enabling dives to maximum depths. The low-acoustic signature and hydrodynamic shock-resistance give the Scorpene the capability to carry out anti-submarine and anti-surface ship warfare operations in closed or open sea conditions, enabling the vessel to work with special forces in coastal waters.

The Scorpene has been planned and designed to achieve an extremely quiet vessel with great detection capability and offensive power thanks to its elastically-supported 2,900kW electronic engine. It has two diesel generation sets providing 1,250kW of power with a Dutch Breach machinery shipping hatch on top of the hull above the diesel generator sets.

The Scorpene has two variants: the CM-2000 with the conventional propulsion system and the AM-2000 equipped with air-independent propulsion. The AM-2000 is capable of remaining submerged on underwater patrol for three times longer than the CM-2000.

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