Feature 5 | MINE COUNTERMEASURES


‘camouflaged’ mine types); the need to replace legacy ‘Cold War’ assets in a cost-constrained environment;


the


requirement to deploy at range to assure access in distant theatres; the adoption of a more covert posture, particularly early in a campaign; and a desire to substantially increase the tempo of mine reconnaissance and disposal. Other drivers include the emergence of new enabling technologies, principally autonomous unmanned vehicles (AUVs) and their associated sensor payloads; and an increasing imperative to reduce the risk to personnel. The goal therefore is for SLAM-F


to transform the French Navy’s mine warfare force through the adoption of a capability-centred approach that promotes modularity and interoperability. Slow,


specialised legacy MCM craft


would be rendered redundant; instead, operations will be conducted from larger, non-specialist ‘mother ship’ platforms that will remain well outside the mine danger areas, relying instead on sensors and effectors carried by robotic platforms – deployed at stand-off ranges – to pinpoint and, where necessary, neutralise mine-like objects.


Parallel lines of development At the current time, the DGA is pursuing parallel lines of development as it progresses along a route map designed to lead to the introduction of SLAM-F in the 2018 timeframe. At the national level,


it is working with the French Navy


and industry – through a triumvirate of DCNS, Tales and Eca – on a technical demonstration programme known as ESPADON (Ėvaluation incrèmentale de Solutions Potentielles d’Automatìsatìon de Deminage pour les Opérations Navales) to de-risk the overarching concept and key enabling technologies. On a separate track, the DGA has been


playing a leading role in the European Defence Agency’s 13-nation Maritime Mine Countermeasures project, a co-operative study effort intended to prepare and harmonise future European MCM replacement efforts. Launched in mid-2009, ESPADON is a


three-year effort to establish some of the fundamentals that will condition the final architecture of SLAM-F, and to mature


38


and de-risk key concepts, and define the boundaries of the performance envelope. Key areas of activity include platform


integration between the manned and unmanned components in both a physical and functional sense; robust communications over long ranges; and the effectiveness of the automated launch and recovery systems.


“The goal ... is for SLAM-F to transform the French Navy’s mine warfare force through the adoption of a capability- centred approach that promotes modularity and interoperability. Slow, specialised legacy MCM craft would be rendered redundant”


At this stage, DGA envisages a system


architecture that can ‘stand-off’ at ranges of between 10 and 14 nautical miles, and operate in conditions up to Sea State 5. Tese assumptions will be tested in the ESPADON demonstration programme.


Keystones The three keystones of SLAM-F are a mine warfare mother ship of about 2000-3000tonnes displacement; the multifunction USV ‘taxi’ to transport MCM vehicles to the outer perimeter of the mine danger area; and a suite of specialist vehicles, sensors and effectors – ranging from towed sidescan sonar and reconnaissance AUVs to inspection vehicles and ‘one-shot’ mine neutralisers – that would be deployed from the taxi to prosecute the mission in hand.


Tis construct is seen to offer a future MCM capability that


is quicker, safer


and more effective. It would additionally exploit the respective complementarities of USVs and AUVs as regards speed, range and covertness. Current planning assumptions assess


that five mother ships would satisfy the capability requirement. The vessel concept being studied is a catamaran, which combines the advantages of a better speed of advance than the current Eridan class, and large working deck area aſt for the launch and recovery of the USV taxi. Each mother vessel would embark two or three USVs.


Multifunction USV It is the operability of the multifunction USV, based on a twin-engine aluminium catamaran platform, which is currently the focal point of the ESPADON research and technology effort. An experimental optionally manned vessel, known as Sterenn Du (‘Black Star’ in Breton) has been built by Pech’Alu International in Morbihan under contract to DCNS, and was delivered in December 2010. Designed by naval architects HT2 in


Nantes, Sterenn Du is 17m long, 7.5m in beam, and displaces 24.5tonnes. Te vessel is powered by twin diesels driving two waterjet propulsors.


Testbed for unmanned vehicles Sterenn Du is to be used as a testbed platform to assess the operational practicality of remote, fully automated launch and recovery of unmanned vehicles and sensors. A first major trial, planned for the third quarter of 2011, will see the vessel operated off Brest in evaluations supported by the DGA and the French Navy. During these trials, Sterenn Du will


be required to autonomously deploy and recover a towed sidescan sonar body (based on DUBM-44) and an AUV (using the Système Autonome de Chasse aux Mines [SAMC] demonstrator previously delivered by Eca and Tales). A further trial will follow in mid-2012.


This is intended to fully explore and establish the end-to-end performance characteristics of


system architecture. WT Warship Technology May 2011 the full ESPADON


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