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Sink or swim: Sweden’s new A-26 next-gen submarine in doubt

After reading the Article I wonder why we went for french Agosta instead of swed . May be marketing was weak or Bofors Ghost!!

TKMS blocked Kockums from quoting in many deals, even to existing customers.

Think Bofors was in the freezer, until the Indian Army found out that they really liked
the stuff in Kashmir and wanted more spare parts.

If it still is an issue, and India insists, I can take any bribe money that may or may not have been
paid back as a part of a deal, LOL....
 
Saab Story: Sweden’s New Submarines
Jun 10, 201418:46 UTC by Defense Industry Daily staff
Submarines remain the ultimate maritime insurance policy, which is why so many countries treat the ability to build or design them as a strategic capability. Sweden is trying to recover from a disastrous pair of assumptions in the early 21st century, and preserve both their industrial capabilities and their country’s defenses.

The narrow, shallow Baltic seas present their own special challenges, but Swedish designs have proven themselves very capable. In order to field their next-generation design, however, Sweden may have to do something unusual: partner with other countries…

Sweden’s New Submarine

The A26 was originally envisioned as a 62m boat with about 1,800t displacement when surfaced, and more when fully submerged. It would be designed to excel in littoral operations, while remaining a capable ocean-going vessel. As a point of comparison, that size is a bit larger than the German U212A/214, and about the same as the Scorpene AM-2000 AIP, all of which are ocean-going boats.

Kockums A26 design also included a 6m x 1.5m Multimission Portal flexible payload lock system, in addition to its twin pairs of conventional 533mm and 400mm torpedo tubes. Envisaged weapons include torpedoes and mines, but not anti-ship missiles.

The lock system makes it easy for commandos to enter and exit the boat, and is large enough to allow the launch and retrieval of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles. UUVs are expected to play a larger role in future submarine warfare. They can already provide advance surveying and sensing capabilities, and their modification toward a combat role is a certainty. This will likely begin with coordinated decoying tactics, but UUVs are expected to graduate to active combat capabilities before the A26 leaves service.

The A26 will be equipped with an air-independent propulsion (AIP) supplement to its diesel-electric systems, which is intended to allow it to remain underwater for up to 18 days at relatively slow speeds before its AIP fuel is exhausted. That avoids the need to surface and suck air for diesel combustion to recharge its batteries, a vulnerable time that was the absolute bane of submarine operations until the USA introduced nuclear-powered boats. The A26′s AIP system will be Kockums’ Stirling, which also equips Sweden’s 3 Gotland and 2 Sodermanland Class submarines, Singapore’s Archer Class Sodermanlund variant, and Japan’s Soryu Class.

To date, Swedish submarines have been renowned for their quietness. HMS Gotland performed well enough in Mediterranean naval exercises to earn an invitation and eventual 2-year lease from the USA, which brought the boat and crew to San Diego to help train its forces against an advanced diesel-electric boat. In return, the Swedes got a nice payment, outstanding training for their own crews, and a record of torpedo “kills” against US Navy submarines and carriers in exercises.

That reputation for stealth was dented somewhat by Australia’s much-enlarged 3,400t (submerged) Collins Class boats, which were designed by Kockums based on the 1,150t Vastergotland Class and built in Australia. For various reasons, the AIP-less Collins Class are known to be rather noisier than they ought to be. The topic remains relevant because Australia may become a partner in the A26 program. If they do, they will demand a larger design with greater range, longer endurance, and probably missile-firing capability. Saab, in turn, will need to avoid a repeat of whatever happened to the Collins design.

Poland, which has become alarmed by recent Russian military operations to annex parts of Georgia and Ukraine, is another potential partner. They are looking to lease or buy 2 submarines by the early 2020s, with a 3rd to come by 2030.

Saab Story: Sweden’s New Submarines


A26 SOF Concept

SHIP_SSK_Kockums_Next-Gen_Concept_lg.jpg

A26 Next Gen Concept
 
UUVS! A new arena in under water warfare. This sub looks next gen and embraces the realities of tomorrow's warfare. UUVs are as essential to subs, as smart munitions are to airplanes. UUVs also enhance special forces' under-water capabilities.

I think the ballistic missile tubes of the Qing class can also be made (or modified) to serve the same purpose as this sub's 'Multimission Portal flexible payload lock system' i.e as UUV and commando launch and retrieval points.

So we can perhaps have this capability in our own subs, to accomodate future PN growth in UUV sector.
 
Pray the Swedes regain control over their sub program, as German Kockums owner TKMS is screwing the Swedish company in favor of German HDW
 
Pray the Swedes regain control over their sub program, as German Kockums owner TKMS is screwing the Swedish company in favor of German HDW
Penguin what do you think, what is the role of UUVs in modern submarine combat tactics? Since most of the modern sub projects nearing completion feature UUV deployment capability.

Are there any combat UUVs in development or research phase?
 
SAAB confirmed today that they are buying TKMS (formerly Kockums) for 40 M€,
so I guess that the new subs are ON.
 
Some more information regarding Swedish Subs:

Stealth Subs Could Sink America’s Navy

Submarines are getting quieter, stealthier, and better armed. And that could mean major trouble for the U.S. Navy and its aging fleet of sub-hunters. The tactical balance between the surface warship and the submarine has strategic impact. The submarine is not made for a show of force. Its principal weapon is designed not to damage a ship, but to sink it—rapidly and probably with much loss of life. It’s a sure way to shift the trajectory of any conflict in a more violent direction.

The best deterrent against submarine attack is robust defense—but as little as surface sailors like to discuss it, that defense has seldom been less assured.
Modern diesel-electric submarines (SSKs) are very hard to detect. It’s not that SSKs with air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems are much quieter, but they mitigate the SSK’s drawback: lack of speed and endurance on quiet electric power. When the Swedish AIP boat Gotland operated with the U.S. Navy out of San Diego in 2005-07, the Navy’s surface ships turned up all too often in a photo album acquired by the submarine’s mast. The sub was so quiet, that it consistently managed to get within easy torpedo range.

AIP submarines are a high priority in the budgets of nations such as Singapore, Korea and Japan. Russia has struggled with its Lada-class boats, but persisted, and is selling them to China. Sweden, whose Kockums yard developed the AIP technology for Japan’s big 4100-ton Soryu-class subs, had trouble getting its A26 replacement submarine program started. In an indication of its importance, Saab will buy the Kockums yard back for Sweden from ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.

AIP—which uses stored liquid oxygen and fuel to generate power underwater—seems to be here to stay, whether it uses the Swedish-developed Stirling-cycle engine (a 19th-century curiosity, but very efficient) or fuel cells, favored by ThyssenKrupp’s German yards. and Russia. Lithium-ion batteries will further increase underwater performance. Kockums advertises another step in invisibility called Ghost (genuine holistic stealth) which, like stealth technology on an airplane, involves the careful blending of hull shapes and rubber-like coatings to make the submarine into a weak sonar target. .

Other improvements are making the submarine more elusive and lethal. Masts with high-definition cameras are as clear as direct-vision optics—so the mast needs only to break the surface and make a single sweep to provide a full horizon view. Finmeccanica’s WASS division and Atlas Electronik offer modern all-electric torpedoes with multiple guidance modes, from fiber-optic to wake-homing, and back-breaking influence fuzes that work too often for comfort.

Stealth Subs Could Sink America’s Navy - Yahoo News

Easy on the font-size there. My eyes are sore now!

Getting to the point, this article brought back sketchy memories of the HMS vanguard incident off the British coast. If I can recall correctly the vanguard was run into by Le Triomphant of the French Navy and the matter was covered up almost immediately with no official explanation or inquiry into the matter. The French Defence Minister said that they "face an extremely simple technological problem, which is that these submarines are not detectable".

Nuclear submarines collide in Atlantic | UK news | theguardian.com
France and UK may coordinate submarine routes| Reuters

The collision was such an eye-opener of the potency of these underwater platforms that the British and French considered cooperating on underwater patrols - which effectively meant disclosing to one another the locations of their strategic submarines so that a future collision could be avoided. Remarkable! Submarines have come a long way from the clutter they used to build in WWII.
 
Saab finalizes the deal with ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions AG to buy its former Kockums subsidiary. Dagens Industri had speculated on Friday that it would cost about SEK 500 million, but the final price tag was just SEK 340 million ($50.5 million) on 2013 sales of SEK 1.7 billion (2011/2012: SEK 1.9 billion) and income from operations of approximately SEK 34 million (2011/2012: SEK 13 million).

Existing funds will be used to finance Saab’s acquisition, which still has to be approved ThyssenKrupp Group’s board, German authorities, and the Swedish Competition Authority. These approvals are expected during July 2014.

In a way, this acquisition closes a long loop. The original 1999 acquisition of Kockums by HDW was an all-shares transaction, which saw Celsius AB give up Kockums in exchange for 25% of HDW, with an option to exit the business for a lump sum. After Saab acquired almost all of Celsius in 2000, they opted to be paid the lump sum and exit. Celsius had also owned 49% of Australia Submarine corp. (ASC), but the Australian government used its leverage over the larger merger to help them nationalize ASC in 2000, instead of completing its transfer to HDW. Now, there is talk of Saab buying ASC alongside Kockums.

Saab Story: Sweden’s New Submarines
 
I sincerely hope Sweden manages to salvage Kockums submarines and its domestic submarine design and building capability from being sunk by TKMS / HDW / Germany. The Netherlands lost it's sub producer RDM and we will be very sorry come the time (not too distant future) to replace our Walrus class subs.
 

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