While Navantia is heading towards the final stretch before delivering the first S-80 class submarine to the Navy, scheduled for the end of this year, France has begun the first sea trials of the “Duguay-Trouin” (S636), the second Suffren-class SSNs, which have been underway off the Cherbourg Naval Group shipyard in Normandy. The submersible set sail last Sunday, March 26, and the tests were carried out on the 27th and 28th, during which she also successfully made her first dive. Later, she returned to the shipyard to await the next steps, which would last for several months in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
He France’s latest nuclear-powered attack submarine has entered its final phase ahead of its scheduled delivery to the armed forces later this year. The SSN Duguay-Trouin belongs to the Barracuda class (or Suffren class), designed by the French shipbuilder DCNS for the French Navy, replacing the Rubis class.
“Its objective is to progressively verify all the technical and operational capabilities of the submarine,” explains the Ministry of Defense.
This first sea voyage “follows the commissioning of the nuclear boiler room that took place in September 2022 and dockside testing since the submarine was launched in 2021,” according to the Naval Group.
The defense manufacturer is in charge of the design and construction of the submarine, with TechnicAtome being in charge of the nuclear boiler room for this program led by the General Directorate of Armaments (DGA) and the Commissariat for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies (CEA). Construction of this 99 m long, 5,300 ton black steel giant began in 2009.
Characteristics
The Duguay-Trouin is the second of six Barracuda-class submarines, after the Suffren, delivered to the Navy in November 2020.. These are intended to replace the six Rubis-class submarines that have entered service since the early 1980s and four of which are still in service.
The other four Barracuda submarines (Tourville, de Grasse, Rubis and Casabianca) are “currently in various stages of construction and their deliveries will be staggered until 2030,” according to Naval Group.. The cost of the program (urbanization and construction) amounts to 9,100 million euros.
The Barracudas use the technology of the Triomphant class, including the jet propulsion pump. This class produces approximately 1/1000 the detectable noise of the Redoutable Class submarines, and they are ten times more sensitive in detecting other submarines. Have a length of 99.5 meters and a beam of 8.8 meters in diameter, with some 5,300 tons of displacement when submerged and armed with four 533-mm torpedo tubes, capable of launching F21 heavy wire-guided torpedoes, MdCN2 naval cruise missiles, Tomahawk equivalent which could carry the Spanish S-80 Plus (discarded for now), Exocet SM39 anti-ship missiles and mines. Together, these submersibles can carry up to 20 long weapons (F21 torpedoes) without counting the tubes. Its armament is smaller than that of the Spanish S-80 series, with only the aforementioned four torpedo tubes, among other things due to its main function, which will be surveillance and intelligence missions.
The objective is equip the Navy with “more discreet, more resistant and more armed” submersibles, to protect ships such as aircraft carriers or missile-launching submarines, track enemy ships and intelligence tasks approaching the coast. New capabilities include an airlock that allows frogmen to be deployed for combat. It will also be able to fire cruise missiles with a range of 1,000km at ground targets and deploy special forces.
It houses a crew of about 63 sailors and its refrigerators store food for up to 75 days. They can operate continuously for 270 days.
Barracuda vs. S-80
Faced with nuclear-powered submarines, which are currently only available to the US, Russia; China; United Kingdom; France and India, there are conventional submarines, moved by diesel-electric engines and which are a cheaper option and provide practically the same capacities with less autonomy. Its drawback is indiscreetly recharging the batteries while snorkeling. The improvements in the
lithium batteries and new anaerobic propulsion technologies bring them even closer to their older brothers, nuclear submarines.
The wickers that have been used in the design of the S-80 are the same that have been used in many French, British and North American nuclear submarines. The capabilities of the S-80, the innovative AIP system and the care of the acoustic signature, portend a good product, which is why it is currently in the flat testing phase, as is the case with the French submarine.
In the case of Spanish submarines, the characteristics, compared to those mentioned of the Barracuda class, are the following: it has a displacement of almost 3,000 tons (2,965 t) in immersion, a length of 81 meters and a resistant hull diameter of 7.3 meters (almost 20 meters less in length and 1.5 less in width than the French). Its speed on the surface will be 10 knots and 19 knots while submerged. It is equipped with a main propulsion system based on a 3,500 kW electric motor (MEP) and a diesel engine made up of three 1,200 kW generator sets that produce the energy that feeds the MEP. For its part, the Air Independent Propulsion System (AIP) allows the ship, according to Navantia, to remain underwater for up to three weeks. While this system is active, the submarine does not have to ascend to snorkel level to recharge the batteries, where it is much more vulnerable since the snorkel masts or the periscope leave a wake that makes them detectable, without forgetting that an airplane or a helicopter can see your silhouette from the air.
The submarine’s crew is made up of 32 sailors, although it has the capacity to accommodate another eight more troops for, for example, special operations. The high automation of the equipment and systems has practically halved the crew with respect to the S-70 series submarines, despite being a submarine with a much higher displacement and complexity.
For his part, the weapons system includes six torpedo tubes and the capacity to ship 18 weapons (missiles, torpedoes and mines). The cylindrical sonar located in the bow is the main passive acoustic sensor for submerged operations.
As you can see, the S-80 is far from the large nuclear submarines, although if compared with the rest of the conventional submarines on the market, things change there and it would be on a par with the main French, German, Russian manufacturers. , Chinese, Japanese or Swedish. One of the things that some experts suggest is the incorporation of lithium batteries instead of the lead-acid ones that it currently mounts.
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