By ANTONY PRESTON

Antony Preston, a London-based naval analyst and broadcaster, is co-founder of the international newsletter NAVINT.

The $1.6 billion first batch of three Type 45 destroyers announced in mid-July will create over 5,000 jobs at BAE Systems Marine, Vosper Thornycroft, and other British defense firms. The destroyers Daring and Dauntless—each displacing 5,800 tons standard and 7,200 tons at full load—will be assembled respectively by BAE Systems Marine in Scotland and Vosper Thornycroft (VT) in Southampton. The third ship is not yet named.

The ships will be assembled from competitively procured modules, allowing prime contractor BAE Systems to choose where each will be built. So, although Daring probably will be assembled by the former Yarrow Shipbuilders at Scotstoun on the River Clyde, it is still possible that some work will go to BAE’s Govan yard, and that the assembly of VT modules may be carried out at the Portsmouth naval base. The contract is expected to be placed later in the year.

The length of the Type 45 ship is now stated as 490 feet, the maximum beam as 55 feet, the speed as 29 knots on twin gas turbines (either WR-21 or an intercooled recuperative cycle variant of the LM 2500) driving electric generators, and the range 7,000 nautical miles at 18 knots. A breakdown of the costs of the Type 45 program is as follows:

Building Batch 1 (three ships)                         ..........  $1.920 billion

PAAMS development                                         ..........   $1.600 billion

Building Batches 2, 3 & 4                                    ..........  $5.280 billion

Purchase of additional PAAMS missiles       ..........  $0.080 billion

Total                                                                            ..........  $8.880 billion

These rounded figures can be assumed not to include future armament changes, notably the 155mm gun and the as-yet-unselected land-attack missile. The first three ships will be armed with the existing 4.5-inch Mk8 gun (with the cupola reshaped to reduce radar cross-section), but the remainder will be armed with the U.S. Navy’s 155mm Advanced Gun System.

A senior Royal Navy source said that the ships "are not the best that we could build, but we are getting a dozen, and the armament enhancements to the later ships will improve their capabilities considerably."

United Defense Buys
Bofors Weapon Systems

United Defense has announced that it is purchasing Sweden’s Bofors Weapon Systems (BWS), a division of Saab/Celsius, for an undisclosed sum. The U.S. contractor said it intends to retain BWS as a Swedish corporation, with its headquarters remaining at its present location in Karlskoga.

Thomas Rabaut, president of United Defense, said the deal establishes a transatlantic defense link between the United States and Sweden and consolidates a long-standing relationship between the two companies. BWS "is an excellent fit to support our core business," he said. "Our defense customers in the United States and Sweden share a common joint vision on future military capabilities. We now have the potential to be the defense company that offers a unique life-cycle approach to armament systems and intelligent munitions that focus on precision engagement."

A United Defense statement said that the combination of the two companies offers a completely integrated weapon-system competency—ranging from projectile dynamics and ballistics to launch and propulsion, trajectory guidance, sensors, and warhead effectiveness capabilities—as well as a comprehensive ability to develop, manufacture, integrate, and support combat vehicles, land and naval guns, and "smart" munitions.

"I am extremely happy that we have been successful in getting a strong and competent owner for Bofors Weapon Systems—an owner that can develop the unique competencies that are to be found with the company," said Saab’s president and chief executive Bengt Halse. He said the divestment was in keeping with Saab’s strategy of concentrating on its core operations. Saab has been looking for a purchaser for BWS since it took over Celsius at the end of last year, at which time company officials said that the gunmaker and ammunition producer would not fit into the merged company.

The best-known Bofors naval system is the 57mm SAK 70 Mk3 gun. Mexico has placed an order for 57mm Mk3 guns for its eight Holzinger 2000-class patrol vessels, which are equipped with Saab EOS-450 optronic fire control systems.

Raytheon Simulation Systems For Australian Sub Weapons

Raytheon Systems Company Australia, a Raytheon subsidiary, has jointly developed—with Australia’s Defense Science Technology Office (DSTO)—the prototype of a new weapons simulation system for training personnel assigned to the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN’s) new Collins-class diesel-electric submarines.

The prototype simulation system, which is now functioning in the Virtual Submarine Environment Laboratory at the Combat System Research Center, will be repackaged and integrated into the combat system trainer at HMAS Stirling, allowing the full range of submarine warfare training to be conducted on-site for the first time.

Raytheon officials said the company is committed to supporting the Collins- class submarines throughout their operational lives and that Raytheon is confident that the weapons simulation development will be just one of many that will emerge from the Combat System Research Center under the company’s alliance with the DSTO.

First Aegis System
Ready for Spanish Navy

Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems (NE&SS) Surface Systems has completed testing of the first Aegis weapon direction system for the Spanish Navy’s Alvaro de Bazán (F-100)-class frigates. The complete system, the first of four bought by the Spanish Navy, has undergone acceptance testing over the past few months to verify its performance capabilities before being shipped to Spain.

The system will be delivered to Spanish shipbuilder (and Lockheed Martin partner) Empresa Nacional Bazán for installation in the Alvaro de Bazán at Ferrol. She will be delivered in the fall of 2002: her sister ship, Roger de Lauria, will follow in November 2003. The Blas de Lezo is scheduled for delivery in December 2004, with the Mendez Nuñez following in February 2006.

In addition to the SPY-1D phased-array radar, the ships will be armed with Mk41 vertical launch systems (VLSs) for the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) and Standard SM-2 surface-to-air missiles and RGM-84 Harpoon antiship missiles.

Taiwan Deploys Four FACs
To Island off China Coast

In June, the Republic of China Navy (ROCN) on Taiwan sent four missile-armed fast attack craft (FACs) to its major offshore island near the People’s Republic of China (PRC—i.e., Mainland or Communist China) for the first time, to strengthen its defenses. The four Hai Ou-class FACs, each armed with two Taiwan-made Hsiung- feng antiship missiles, were seen mooring in the Liaolo port of Kinmen. The ROCN has confirmed the presence of the four FACs, but termed the deployment routine. The purpose was to boost the defenses by guaranteeing the safe passage of supplies for ROC naval/military units on Kinmen.

Taiwan officials said the deployment of the four boats was among several measures that ROC military authorities had taken amid the growing tensions that developed after Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party was elected Taiwan’s president on 18 March. Chen visited Kinmen the second day after his inauguration to "show the attention I give to national security." He noted that Kinmen is only a few miles away from Xiamen, a major Chinese city in the PRC’s coastal Fujian province.

The deployment was ordered after government plans were announced to lift the decades-old ban on three direct links between Kinmen, two other outlying islands, and the mainland. Taipei has described these links as the "litmus test" for other, more far-reaching, plans to build up comprehensive links with China, which were banned in 1949 at the end of the civil war.

In his inaugural speech Chen held out the vision of a future "One China" that would include both Taiwan and Mainland China, but did not respond directly to Beijing’s alternative One-China concept, which views Taiwan as a "runaway province" and insists that all of One China must be under the PRC’s control.

New Russian Fleet Plan
Calls for Higher Budget

The Russian Navy’s headquarters believes that 12 strategic nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines (SSBNs), 20 nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs), 35 diesel-electric submarines (SSKs), and around 70 surface warships would be sufficient to ensure the country’s security in the 21st century, according to reports published by the Bellona Foundation in Norway.

The Bellona reports cite a confidential presidential decree, issued on 4 March, outlining the goals of the Russian Navy. The decree stipulates the main features of the state policy toward the Navy from now to 2010. Adm. Viktor Kravchenko, chief of the Russian Navy General Headquarters, said that Russia should possess a powerful naval potential in the new century in order to provide defense and security for the Russian homeland. The top priorities of the Navy’s development, according to the reports, will be SSBNs and general-purpose submarines as well as "unified vessels."

Kravchenko emphasized that the naval budget requires 25 percent of Russia’s total defense budget in order to achieve the goals the Russian Navy has been assigned. The current naval share of the budget is around 11–12 percent. The Russian Navy now maintains 26 SSBNs, 50 SSNs and SSGNs (nuclear-powered guided-missile submarines), 80 SSKs, and about 100 surface ships. Russia’s "fleet of the future" is expected to be smaller, therefore, but more technologically advanced and therefore, more combat-capable.

Related note: No fewer than 183 nuclear-powered submarines are currently being taken out of service from the Russian Navy’s Northern and Pacific Ocean Fleets.

International News in Brief

 The U.K. Ministry of Defence has agreed to participate in the U.S. Navy’s Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) program, which is designed to provide a revolutionary advance in air and missile defense by combining and distributing the sensor data from a large number of CEC-compatible ships, aircraft, and land sites. The result will be an integrated, netted, air-defense system that not only greatly enhances the detection, tracking, and identification of targets, but also coordinates the engagement of targets by all units of a task force.

The Brazilian Navy plans to invest R$750 million to complete development of its first nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN). The announcement was made by Sr. Marcus Vinicius de Oliveira Santos, the director of Centro Tecnologico da Marinha. The project, which began in 1980, already has cost R$1.3 billion. The SSN is scheduled to be delivered in 2010.

The two landing ships to be built for the Royal Navy are to be named Largs Bay and Lyme Bay, according to the London Daily Telegraph. The original names proposed—Quiberon Bay and Aboukir Bay, commemorating British victories over the French Navy—were rejected, because they were not "politically correct." Political pundits have wondered aloud whether Trafalgar Square and Waterloo Station are to be renamed.

Cammell Laird of Birkenhead, U.K., has secured a subcontract from BAE Systems to reactivate the former Royal Navy diesel-electric submarine Unseen, originally built at Birkenhead over a decade ago. The Unseen, launched in 1989, has been bought by the Canadian Navy and renamed HMCS Victoria. BAE Systems was awarded the contract to reactivate, refurbish, and modernize all four Upholder-class submarines for the Canadian Navy.

India’s Chief of Naval Staff, Adm. Sushil Kumar, visited Russia this summer for the commissioning of the Indian Navy’s first missile-armed submarine, according to official sources. The INS Sindhushastra, a Project 877 Kilo-type boat fitted with the Klub-S missile system, was commissioned at the Baltiisky yard in St. Petersburg on 16 July.

In Six Black Sea states—Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine—have established a joint naval task force—BLACKSEAFOR—to support peacekeeping and humanitarian operations in the region. The NATO reaction seems to be that such a force might be "most useful" for the missions announced, and would pose no naval threat to NATO itself.