Ares: A Defense Technology Blog

Guardion Goes Ahead

The four remaining M-type multipurpose frigates operated by the combined navies of Belgium and the Netherlands will be upgraded with a new combat management system based on the Guardion system, the Dutch defense ministry confirms. Earlier versions of Guardion already equip the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN)'s LCF-type air defense and command frigates and the amphibious command ship HrMs Johan de Witt.

Guardion is based on software developed by the RNLN's in-house Center for the Automation of Mission-critical Systems (CAMS, also known as Force Vision). It uses hardware supplied by Thales (multifunction operator consoles) and commercial vendors (servers and processors).

(Photo: This is the RNLN-developed 1990s-generation combat management system that equips the M frigates today, here on board HrMs Van Nes that will be transferred to Portugal under a deal signed earlier this year. (Credit: Joris Janssen Lok)

Six Ways to Say 'Barracuda' in French

Here are the names of the six Barracuda-class nuclear powered submarines to be built by France (see DTI January/Febraury 2007 issue, page 14 for more details) in the order in which they will be built (according to reliable sources):

• Suffren
• Duguay Trouin
• Dupetit-Thouars
• Duquesne
• Tourville
• De Grasse

Metal for the Suffren will be cut before this summer with the aim of having it operational in by 2016 or 2017. The last of the series should be delivered to the French navy by 2027.

GAO: How the Navy Bought a Lemon from Northrop Grumman

The General Accountability Office explains in a new report how the Navy's Advanced SEAL Delivery System program got so messed up that the service had to cancel its orders last year in favor of an ASDS improvement program. GAO says the Navy paid $885 million over 13 years for the first and only ASDS which is so flawed that it's only available for limited operational use, prompting Congress to ask for a detailed investigation.

The Advanced SEAL Delivery System is designed to deliver and extract Navy SEALs to and from high risk, clandestine missions. It's the mini-sub looking object traveling on the back of the submarine USS Greeneville in this picture.

Apparently, the problems boil down to poor contract and program management which led the Navy to be overly confident about the technology and the contractor's ability to deliver even though Northrop Grumman was not an experienced submarine builder. As the schedule slipped and costs rose, the Navy continued to assume responsibility for the program, giving the contractor no incentive to improve its performance, GAO reports. In 2003, the Navy accepted the first ASDS "as is," relieving Northrop Grumman of any reliability for the vessel's performance, which failed to meet Navy requirements. The Navy assumed more risk when it sought outside contractors to supply key components such as the propeller and battery that Northrop Grumman lacked the expertise to develop. The Navy then supplied these components to Northrop Grumman, paying the company millions to integrate them onto their platform.

Critical Review

Thales Underwater Systems has reached a major milestone in the conversion of its Sonar 2076 sonar suite from a closed architecture/bespoke electronics system to an open architecture/commercial-off-the-shelf system. The high-performance Sonar 2076 suite, at sea in three U.K. Royal Navy Trafalgar-class nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs), is being retrofitted into a fourth, and will also equip the three new Astute-class SSNs currently being built.

The milestone was the successful completion on Wednesday, May 23rd of the Critical Design Review of Stage 5 of the 17-year, 300-million pound Sonar 2076 program, says Jeff Clarke of Thales Underwater Systems in Cheadle Heath outside Manchester, England.

Tonnerre Trials

There’s been much talk that U.S.-French relations will improve now that Nicolas Sarkozy has replaced staunchly anti-American French president Jacques Chirac. So it’s befitting that just days before the May 16 power handover in Paris, the latest French vessel, the Tonnerre command and force projection ship, underwent interoperability trials with the U.S. Navy. The Tonnerre was fielded in late February and is now on an Atlantic operational evaluation excursion. This month, it spent several days off near Norfolk, Va., to evaluate the ability to deploy U.S. forces. As part of the drill Landing Craft Air Cushion, MH-53E, and H-60 helicopters operated from the Tonnerre. The ship can move 60 vehicles and 450 troops. The 22,000 metric ton vessel is the second largest in the French fleet, after the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier. Once the trial period is over, the ship will formally enter French operational service.

[Click below to see more pictures of the Tonnerre.]

Aboard the Mistral

Ares welcomes DTI Paris correspondent Christina Mackenzie. This post accompanies a gallery of 15 photos from the visit.

The thwap of helicopters maneuvering above the 22,000-ton, 199-meter (653-ft.) Mistral landing helicopter dock accompanies our short trip from the beach, squashed aboard a landing craft with two of the Foreign Legion's 2^nd Infantry regiment's armoured vehicles and a number of legionnaires.

We slip easily inside the ship's well in a haze of blue smoke left by the vehicles as they come up the back ramp (there are also lateral ramps). The well can accommodate two landing craft air cushions (LCACs) “although France doesn't have any, but for interoperability reasons we had to be able to take them,” explains Captain Gilles Humeau, our easy-going, humourous host for the day.

Charlotte Comes to Town

I recently mentioned the departure of another brand-new diesel-electric submarine for the South African Navy, starting a six-week journey from her building yard in Germany to her homeport at Simons Town Naval Base.

At the end of April, the 62-meter boat (the SAS Charlotte Maxeke) completed her delivery voyage, during which she was manned by a completely South African crew. At the same time, yet another new South African submarine (the last of a series of three) started sea trials in Germany.

Tales of Thales

Last month's "convergence" of Thales' French-based naval business with French naval shipbuilder DCN (which since calls itself DCNS) does not mean that all of Thales' naval activities are now part of DCNS... as I found out when talking to two senior executives in Thales Naval. Both were keen to point out that major parts of Thales' naval business, both domestically within France and internationally, stay outside of the deal.

Catamarans = Mini Sea Base

The leased U.S. Navy catamaran Swift -- "High Speed Vessel" in milspeak -- is headed to Latin America to test the Navy's new "Global Fleet Station" concept, which envisions transport ships acting as miniature sea bases, hauling and supporting contingents of engineers, boat crews, civil affairs specialists and doctors, all specializing in stabilizing and rebuilding failing states. Cue the press release!

Cleo Nominee: LCS

Bill sends in this nominee for the Cleopatra Award (seemingly snake-bitten projects):

As I linked yesterday, there was a fire on the LCS Freedom Wednesday morning.

Like having your sister ship canceled for massive cost-overruns wasn't enough...

--Sean Meade