S/A-1 Seablade

[Uzb3kistan]

S/A-1 Seablade

Introduction
The Seablade is the Navy's first operational subcraft of the S/A series (Submersible/Attack). The Seablade is the introduction to the new revolutionized high-speed undersea warfare using the newest supercavitation technologies. With it's stable, easily manipulated supercavitational bubble, the Seablade abandons the old need for slow and silent, and takes up the fast and powerful. Older SSN Submarines are to the Seablade like big and old bombers are to F-22's. The older style submarines are basically sitting ducks for the new supercavitating craft.

Design
The Navy had in mind a subcraft that broke the barriers of conventional undersea warfare. In the hands of Shaitan Corporation scientists, they trusted the highly-valuable subject of High-speed supercavitational fighter subcraft. The Shaitan Corporation answered with the S/A-1 Seablade, with it's breakthrough technologies. The S/A-1 (also known as just S-1) Seablade is now the main subcraft used by the Navy. Mainly designed to be carried on such craft as the Collins Class, the Seablade was designed to be carried on older systems such as the Osiris Class Submarines.

The Seablade was chosen for main production because of it's high speed and maneuverability. Other systems were offered that displayed more weapons and internal suites, the Seablade was chosen because of it's faster speed, better maneuverability, and longer range. Naval commanders thought that speed and maneuverability were more important than firepower, as a slower subfighter might be more prone to attack by other systems. The Seablade was most favored due to the fact that it didn't need extra bulky countertorpedo systems, when it's fast speeds and maneuverability can simply out run or maneuver older torpedoes, being one of the first supercavitational subcraft.

Supercavitation is a naval revolution that changes underwater warfare drastically. Implementation of this technology into many of the Naval ships and weaponry envisions a future for Naval Warfare that promises high speed hyper-kinetic fights, instead of the slow and silent. This technology seems to be science fiction, however, in actuality, it has been invented years ago and even used by the Russians with the Shkval torpedo in the late 1970's. It wasn't until 1997 that scientists at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island were able to set the record of first undersea projectile to break the sound barrier, traveling at over 3,000 knots. However, it wasn't until recently that the Navy began to implement the technology into it's larger systems.

Before this technology, Naval submarines and warships were haunted by the drag of of the water. After all, water is around 1,000 times thicker than air, and that meant big problems in the speed of Naval ships. However, if the ship has a special shaped 'cavitator' on it's nose, a bubble of air forms around the entire ship, and the ship is therefore no longer moving through water, but rather through air. This is known as Supercavitation, and Uzb3kistan Naval ships are already using this technology on the submerged. Supercavitation was difficult to develop for the larger ships, and thus was born the ideal of ventilated supercavitation. Ventilated supercavitation pumps air into the bubble to increase it's size and to ensure that the bubble covers the entire projectile, also allowing much larger ships, like the Collins Class, to have the technology. With new ventilated supercavitational features on the Seablade, it makes it's supercavitational bubble to be very stable, and thus allowing more maneuverability at high-speeds.

With a frame made out of Titanium, giving the subcraft a high mass efficiency, a high strength-to-weight ratio, and a lighter weight. Although expensive, the costs are made up with the lower maintenance costs. The Titanium frame also protects the subcraft rom certain dangers that haunted previous submarines. Such as the crushing of the hull due to pressure depth. The Titanium allows the submarine to go deeper than ever before, and it can even hold up to some defense systems. Although it could be overpowered by the shear size and weight of larger torpedoes, it needs not to worry about coming in contact with one since most of the older and bigger torpedo systems can simply be outmaneuvered by the Seablade's extraordinary speeds. The Seablade's hull made out of Shaitan Corporation designed special advanced polymer matrix composite materials, or advanced PMCs. Giving it an even higher strength and protection against outside aggression. The composite materials are then reinforced by extra layers of titanium, depleted uranium, and carbon nanotube reinforced amorphous steel. The Seablade also has some stealth features such as an active degaussing system to help prevent MAD detection, and silencers fitted to the engines. The presence of white noise emitting transducers allows the Seablade to be just as silent as an older SSN submarine. As for more silent and slower movement, the Seablade has a secondary MHD/pumpjet propulsor.

The Seablade also features certain technologies seen in some aircraft. The Seablade features an active camouflage system that continuously changes to match it's environment, using the latest technologies in "e-paper". E-paper, or electronic paper are paper-thin, plastic, flexible screens, which are a reality in the military and everyday life. Even though it might sound like something you would watch in a movie, such screens are not science fiction, and have already been designed, developed, and ready for mass production in 2005; by certain American companies. The material, only as thick as three human hairs, displays full color with a resolution similar to that of a typical laptop computer screen. In operation, the super-thin screens uses only one-hundredth to one-thousandth of the energy required by "conventional display technologies", thus saving a significant amount of energy. The technology is now a reality in the civilian's life, and in the military life. People in Uzb3kistan might be reading a newspaper that suddenly flashes updated news, or a child might be 'watching' a fully animated comic book, and companies have already made animated t-shirts. The technology is real, and it proves to be very useful in military life. New orders being relayed by satellite to a unit are no longer "printed" on paper, but rather sent, updated, and displayed on the display screen in front of the Seablade's pilot. A Captain or pilot may also 'download' the orders onto a smaller, pocket-sized screen that can be rolled up into a pencil-sized tube, or smaller.

Propulsion
The Seablade is powered by two, new and higher thrust-to-weight engines, Shaitan Corporation developed SC-S10, which is designed for efficient undersea supersonic operation without afterburner (called supercruise). With two of these 35,000-pound-thrust-class engines, and supercavitational technologies, the Seablade is shot up to a top speed of 916 knots. Using the two SC-S10 engines (using internal fuel), the Seablade has maximum range of 2,600 miles. However, when not in supercavitation, and when in a more silent and slower speed, the two SC-S10 engines are abandoned and the pumpjet/MHD propulsor is kicked in. When in this 'silent' mode, the Seablade is very quiet, and much more silent than your typical older SSN, because of the Seablade's size, and integrated electrical systems which power the pumpjet/MHD propulsor that have no moving parts like many noisy older SSN submarines.

Electronics - Sensors and Countermeasures
The electronics systems is a vital to any undersea craft's success. The Seablade features the latest up-to-date technologies to keep the nation's Naval forces up to par, or even better than the world's Naval powers. When it comes to detection systems in Naval Warfare, it's vital who can detect another first, and farther away. It was in the Shaitan Corporation's best interest, therefore, to design and develop detection systems that will see the enemy, long before the enemy sees you. Also, the Shaitan Corporation understands the importance of Countermeasures in undersea warfare.

The S/A-1 Seablade is equipped with a specially made US/SQR-84 Tactical Towed Array SONAR. The US/SQR-84 was developed by Shaitan Corporation scientists specially for the Seablade and eventually other small subcraft. Like it's larger counterpart (the AN/SQR-74), it features three separate parallel lines, in which the individual hydrophones use fiber optic coils and lasers. Tiny changes in the behavior of the laser light will result when the coils are influenced by sound waves in the surrounding ocean. Such new systems promises to greatly increase the sensitivity of the array to the presence of enemy submarines and other targets. The US/SQR-84 is a much shorter variant of the AN/SQR-74. The US/SQR-84, although short, gives the Seablade a detection range of 120 Nautical Miles.

The Seablade is also equipped with other systems, such as active sonar, LIDAR, and infrared detection, which are linked to supercomputers designed for recognition, targeting, and RADAR/LIDAR enhancement, etc,etc. Equipped, is the Shaitan Corporation developed AN/UQQ-7 bow-mounted spherical array sonar acoustic system, which has a range of about 63nm. Also equipped is the newly Shaitan Corporation designed SC/LUR-16E modern hull-mounted sonar that gives the SSHBN a full 172nm. The SC/LCL-9 LIDAR, and infrared gives the Seablade the ability to actively search, and do it silently. The SC/PGS-16 is currently the primary Surface Search Radar for the Submarine fleets, giving them a search capability of about 330 miles on perfect environment conditions. However, that is just the main ship's systems.

The Seablade is constantly able to upload relayed messages from any military unit integrated into the military Network-Centric Warfare System; which virtually integrates every air, sea, ground, space, and intelligence unit into a real-time 'internet' that allows any unit to send any other unit a common tactical and strategic picture. This includes early warning systems. Currently in the arsenal of the Navy are the new Shaitan Corporation SWACS (Seaborne Warning and Control System), which functions like it's airborne counterpart, only this time it's under water. The system is a passive/active/LIDAR-based electronic system designed to carry out seaborne surveillance, and C3 (command, control, and communications) functions for Naval defence forces. Modern SWACS systems can detect sea and subcraft from up to 300 km away, well out of range of most torpedo weapons. In combat, SWACS systems can communicate with friendly subcraft, extend their sensor range and give them added stealth, since they no longer need their own active sonar to detect threats.

The Countermeasure electronics on the Seablade have proved to be up to par with the leading Naval technologies around the globe. The Seablade is equipped with one decoy tube. The tube fires FCD-1 "Brilliant" Decoys, which is intended to conspicuously mimic the maneuvering and noise signature of the parent sub. The purpose is to draw an enemy's attention away from the parent sub, allowing the parent sub to sneak away from the battle area undetected, or to escape enemy torpedoes because those torpedoes will be lured toward the decoy. The decoy contains a propulsion system and fuel supply like a regular torpedo. But the decoy is unarmed, and the space available because there is no explosive warhead is used instead for additional computers and sonar emitters. This gives the decoy the ability to be programmed -- before launching -- with complex instructions regarding how to behave regarding changes in depth, course, speed, etc., and also to give off appropriate noises like a real full-sized submarine. The decoy might be programmed to act like a different class of sub than the parent, to further confuse and distract the enemy. The term "brilliant" refers to an advanced state of on-board artificial intelligence routines that allows the decoy to make autonomous real-time decisions once launched that further aid the tactical goals of its parent sub during combat or intelligence-gathering missions.

However, like anything, the decoy system isn't failsafe. Therefore the Navy doesn't like to rely on one system for defense against an incoming torpedo. Thus, the Shaitan Corporation responded with the design of a new "Active out-of-phase emission" system. The SH/MEI-05 is the newest implemented technology in the Navy. What Active out-of-phase emission, and this system, does is weaken the echo which an enemy sonar receives from a submarine’s hull, by actively emitting sound waves of the same frequency as the ping but exactly out of phase. The out-of-phase sound waves mix with and cancel those of the echoing ping. This increases the submarine's stealth technology and less likeliness of a direct hit with a torpedo. However, say the enemy submarine already has a good firing solution and drops torpedoes heading toward your submarine? No problem; this worry by the Naval Forces was heard by the Shaitan Corporation scientists when they developed the SH/MEI-05A, an advanced version of the SH/MEI-05 that not only the Active out-of-phase emission on enemy submarines, but takes it a step farther with incoming torpedoes and other inbounds. Using the same technology, only more advanced; it actively emits back to the incoming torpedo to make the Submarine seem, to the inbound, that it is in a different location, and therefore causing the inbound to miss it's target by overshooting or undershooting and detonating prematurely. Also, the main gun on the Seablade can be used for targeting torpedoes and other munitions which shoots rapidly, supercavitating rounds at inbounds, and is guided by SONAR and LIDAR.

___________________________________________________

Will be completed upon finishing of the weapons systems posts, which feature the Seablade's main armaments.