International Maritime Defence Show 2021, Russia

As a fellow Vayu subscriber, if I were to bring up Russia, I can confidently say at this very moment you are conjuring up thoughts of freezing temperatures, vodka and the Cold War. As such it’s only logical that I address these three thoughts, and my perception of the same, through the course of this article.

St Petersburg in all its Tsarist splendour

First, a little bit of context. Earlier this year, amidst all the pandemicrelated doom and gloom, I was asked to represent Vayu at IMDS (International Maritime Defence Show) 2021 at St Petersburg, Russia. The show, held in cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Defence, Rosoboronexport JSC and Federal Service for Military- Technical Cooperation, is an exposition held every two years at St Petersburg. Akin to what Aero India and Defexpo are to us, IMDS showcases naval armament, maritime assets and technology. Of particular note, and something I found personally amusing was the interest garnered by the Brahmos Stand in this edition of the show.

Temperature

Landing up armed with the best cold weather gear the average Bangalorian can muster, I was subject to scorching temperatures that would make the average Delhiite look back fondly upon the scorching North Indian summer, so much for thoughts of emulating a frozen Napoleon.

Vodka

As any of the thousands of other engineers floating aimlessly throughout India can attest, I too have my fair share of drinking stories. Maybe it was the environment, or perhaps the relief of finally being out of the house after a year of lockdowns, but Russian vodka truly is worth its weight in gold!

The Cold War

This thought is something I want to handle differently. Having had grown up on a steady diet of Tom Clancy novels and videos games like Jane’s 688i Hunter/Killer, my perception of the Cold War and of Russian/ Soviet submarines are musings that I think are worth delving into. As one of the companies bidding for the Indian Navy’s Project 75I tender, Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) and the Rubin Design Bureau, were keen to show me, and by extension Vayu, what sets them apart. With a portfolio boasting of designs like the Foxtrot (Independent India’s first submarine), Delta series of SSBN’s and the INS Vikramditya dwarfing Typhoon class, the Rubin Design Bureau hardly needs some random correspondent from India singing their praises. What is Project 75I? It is a project, cleared by the Nirmala Sitharaman-headed Defence Acquisition Council in June 2021, to build 6 conventional submarines under the Make in India scheme.

These submarines, with advanced sensors and Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) are intended to keep the Indian Submarine arm at the forefront of underwater warfare and as such serve the nation for the foreseeable future. At the time of writing, four foreign firms have responded to the Indian government’s request for proposal: the French firm Naval Group, Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine systems, Sweden’s Saab and Russia’s Rubin Design Bureau.

Meeting to discuss Project 75I with Mr Andrei I. Baranov (Deputy Director General on Foreign Activities, right) and Chief Designer Igor Molchanov (responsible for conventional submarine design, left)

Mr Dmitry Semyonov (Designer of the Vityaz UUV, Rubin Design Bureau) showing us the key features of the UUV on a scale model of the same at IMDS 2021

A quick Google search will reveal all that there is to know about the Amur class of submarine, its merits, demerits, etc. All written by people with far more experience in the field of defence journalism. Keen to showcase their improved Kilo class/ Lada class/Amur class of submarines, my attention was instead (rather frustrating for all parties involved) drawn to the selection of Autonomous Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV) on offer. So instead I pose, to you the reader, the question, what next? What comes after P75I?

Before I delve into the world of UUV’s on display at the USC stand at IMDS 2021, I wish to first provide you with a little more context. St Petersburg is a city of rivers and canals, a city uniquely in touch with both its maritime past and its present. Far from the Cold War references I expected to find around every corner I instead found myself treated to Tsarist Russia at its finest. As if to drive the point of the city’s seafaring past home the museum ship Aurora, rumoured to have had fired the first shots of the Russian Revolution in 1917, is moored near the heart of the city with the opulent Admiralty Building serving as a backdrop. A mere 10-minute walk along the riverbank leads one to Admiralty and Baltic Shipyards, complete with under refit Kilo class submarines and a Soviet WW2 submarine bobbing in the river. Amidst all of this Imperial Russian splendour is located the Rubin Design Bureau. Each of these sights was soundtracked with apocryphal stories of James Bondesque espionage (narrated to us by our USC representative Alice Gritskova) which helped draw a stark mental contrast with what I see as the potential future of underwater combat. Posing many a question to Mr Dimitri Semyonov, chief designer of the Vityaz UUV, I managed to, at the very least, figure out how little I know. Still largely in a proof of concept stage in the design life-cycle of any major weapons programme, like with UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), UUV’s are improving with leaps and bounds and will soon prove to be (in my opinion) the next disruptive technology.

The cruiser Aurora moored in the Neva river, St Petersburg.

A short walk from the Aurora, Admiralty Shipayrds (left) and Baltic Shipyards (right) with the C-189 Submarine Museum in the foreground (613 class diesel-electric submarine launched 1954)

Not without their own challenges, Rubin and Mr Semyonov patiently explained the engineering obstacles associated with the Vityaz’s record making dive to the bottom of the Mariana’s trench (10,925 mtr), where they succeeded and where their Chinese rivals failed. As with all ground breaking tech, this dive pioneered new technologies such as sound-guided communications (which as of 2021 has no foreign analogues), automatically directing communication bursts along a selected acoustic-ray path. Involving both ultrasonic and sonic channels, this new system demonstrated an ability to transmit and receive text, low quality images as well as command and control instructions from great depth. The editors of GlobalSecurity. org do a far better job of putting my thoughts to paper when they say: “Once UAVs came to be regarded as reusable aircraft rather than expendable aerial munitions, there was a quantum leap in the size of vehicles and the purposes to which they were put. Now such a revolutionary phase transition is underway underwater. In both cases, the foundation was the inexorable unfolding of the gift that keeps on giving, the miracle of Moore’s law” (Moore’s law when simplified basically states that we can expect the speed and capability of our computers to double every couple of years whilst having to pay ever less). Perhaps in the not so distant future a school kid will spend less time daydreaming of Soviet Akulas chasing American missile boats, and instead dream of unmanned submarines stalking the world’s oceans. One thing is for certain, the Terminator series of movies must now be included in the CBSE school curriculum.

More of the C-189 Submarine Museum with an under refit Kilo class submarine in the background

Angad J. Maolankar

Rubin Design Bureau’s Project Amur 1650

Kilo class submarines are well-known in the export market. More than 70 ships of the basic and upgraded design have been already constructed and inducted into the Russian Navy and those of friendly countries. Now comes the Amur 1650-the next generation submarine. She is more compact with similar weapons pack (six torpedo tubes with ammunition comprising 18 torpedoes and missiles), the surface displacement has been reduced and the displacement of Pr. 636 submarines is about 2400 tons, the same of Pr. Amur 1650 is about 1800 tons. Due to automation, the complement has been reduced from 52 to 35. Special features include a powerful torpedo-missile complex, capable of striking both underwater and surface targets, as well as land targets. Torpedo or missile salvos can be launched from all six tubes. Stealth is ensured by hull lines, a carefully designed propulsor (propeller), slow-speed low-noise permanent magnets propulsion motor, specially developed low noise equipment and advanced acoustic protection means.

Anechoing coatingreduces the probability of detection by surface ships and anti-submarine aircraft. A forward sonar array, with area comparable to that of nuclear submarines, availability of towed array sonar, as well as advanced processing techniques enable detection of very low-noise targets at considerable distances. As for the Ergonomic Combat Information Centre (CIC), operators’ consoles are of modern design and have user-friendly interface. Consoles arrangement ensures swift and accurate joint work in standard combat and emergency scenarios.

(Text courtesy Rubin. All photos: Oleg Kuleshov)