As welcome as the new attention to ASW we’ve seen in the last few years has been, there are places I hope are getting not just attention, but fresh capital and even fresher thinking.
One item not discussed enough – within reason in open source – is the “kill” part of the kill chain.
It has been a long time since any navy has conducted real-world ASW. The last two real experiences were in the Falkland Island War of 1982 and the Indo-Pakistan War a decade earlier.
The further you get from the clarifying facts of what does or does not work at war, history tells us the less we know what will or will not work in the next war. With this ambiguity there must come humility, and not too much trust in any one item.
Though short of war, Sweden has to deal with an excessively curious Russian Navy. More often than not, she has been embarrassed by her inability to secure intruders in her home waters. A small but active nation, it is healthy to see what she is looking at. Being that ASW in the littorals is her speciality, it is especially helpful.
That is why this caught my eye the other day;
The Royal Swedish Navy (RSwN) is to return the ASW 600 Elma anti-submarine grenade launching system to frontline service as part of efforts to bolster its anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities.
According to Sweden’s Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), the ASW-600 Elma systems – designated Antiubåts-granatkastarsystemen 83 in RSwN service – are to be installed on Koster-class mine countermeasures (MCM) vessels. Each vessel will receive four nine-barrel launcher sets firing M/90E 100 mm grenades.
On top of that, the Swedish Navy seems to have decided that it needed to ensure they can dislodge any bottomed submarine in any water, and the LWT isn’t the only thing they think they need.
Old School ASW “hedgehogs?” Well, yes it seems. Not just that, the Swedes are still bringing depth charges to the game. Here they are;
Swedish Navy doing their thing#SubSunday @Forsvarsmakten pic.twitter.com/UrswOKWTvg
— Marko Babic (@iammarkobabic) October 28, 2018
While some may roll their eyes at the Old School, at the same time they are keeping these tools, Sweden is also rolling out a new lightweight torpedo;
… the SLWT (is) only 2.85 m (9.35 ft) long, 40 cm (15.75 in) wide and weighs in at 340 kg (750 lb) soaking wet, but inside, it has a state-of-the-art, fully digital homing system that gives it a fire-and-forget and wire-guided capability.
Small enough to be launched by submarines, surface ships, helicopters, airplanes, or from improvised launchers, the SLWT’s electric pump jet powered by a lithium-based rechargeable battery can propel it at over 40 knots (46 mph, 74 km/h) and at depths of over 300 m (1,000 ft) for more than an hour.
Additionally, the SLWT is an intelligent weapon. Operated either autonomously or by wire using a two-way data connection, the torpedo can pilot a preset search pattern or series of waypoints while scanning with its multi-beam active/passive sonar system. As it does so, it can adapt to changes in temperature and salinity, while its onboard computer can distinguish between rock outcroppings, wrecks, and active submarines as well as navigate around obstacles.
Outside our SSN, what are our ASW weapons?
We have the MK-54; a Cold War seeker head bolted on to an even older Cold War body. Good kit, but is it fit for purpose as it should be?
What are our “off line” backups if our MK-54 isn’t exactly the right weapon for the target at hand?
Ahem.
Are we, like the Swedes, not just looking back for solutions for today’s threat – but also developing modern weapons? When we look in our ASW toolbox at the end of the kill chain, do we have a diversity of options to meet where the subs are likely to be?
