Submarine Combat Systems: Europe is Expanding Its Offer

摘要

In the last 12 or so months, European shipbuilders and suppliers have reached important milestones in submarine construction and in the domain of underwater subsystems. The development of new conventional and nuclear submarines, as well as of air independent propulsion systems, is complemented by new combat and weapon systems. In addition to improvements in propulsion and platform designs making the new underwater platforms quieter and more versatile, recent developments in the capabilities of combat systems are key to addressing current and future operational needs and challenges. The new generation of submarines, or their latest versions, will be equipped with combat systems providing expanded processing capabilities. New integrated sonar systems will offer enhanced sensitivity. Together with further integration and fusion capabilities, this will enable deployment of a wider range of surface and underwater sensors, weapons and the expected unmanned systems. The new combat systems which are under development will lead to a new configuration of a submarine's Combat Information Centre (CIC). Advanced and interchangeable operator stations, being less platform-dependent thanks to the introduction of a full suite of non-penetrating masts, will provide flexibility with respect to the positioning of the CIC inside the submarine. The development of future combat systems is trending towards scalable, COTS-based open system architectures. This will enable operators to avoid the limitations of proprietary products, enable better management of equipment and software obsolescence and allow faster adaption to new technologies, such as common network and server infrastructures and enhanced protec- tion against cyber-attack. The evolution towards machine learning and artificial intelligence will support future submariners in dealing with a new conception of their operational environment. Their submarine will be the central node or a part of a wider network of surveillance assets in which surface and air units -both manned and unmanned - are connected.