GB2103156A - Missile firing sea craft - Google Patents

Abstract

Sea craft designed to avoid and resist the explosion effects of long range nuclear missiles, by structure and by high-speed manoeuvering during missile approach and designed also for the deployment and launching of Trident missiles can submerge to avoid constant position-taking by satellites, ships and aircraft. The craft comprises means for high-speed manoeuvering, means for avoiding hull water-resistance by hydrofoils and wings to produce lift at high speed, electronic servo-control of flaps and means for stowing, lifting, inclining and launching Trident missiles.

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements to sea craft Technical Field The present invention relates to improvements to sea craft, and particularly to a small naval unit, requiring a minimum of production cost and a minimum of crew members, to permit the deployment and launching at sea of Trident nuclear missiles or other long range missiles, the said sea craft, when deployed in sufficient numbers as a naval unit, providing a relatively inexpensive alternative to missile-carrying submarines, and providing an improved means of deterrence against nuclear attack.

Background Art The Western Powers are faced with the problem of how to provide nuclear missile defence systems which are unlikely to be destroyed by enemy nuclear missile attack. In several counties silo nuclear defence systems have been constructed. These have the disadvantage of being easily located and may be put out of action by surprise attack at the start of the hostilities, thus largely preventing the possibility of any riposte.

In america, the construction of an underground road system has been considered, upon which mobile inter-continental missile launchers would be constantly changing their geographical position, thus rendering their surprise destruction more difficult, and permitting the possibility of a riposte. The disadvantages of such an underground road system would be the enormous cost, the operational time lag, and the fact that the tunnel entrance points would be easily detectable and easily destroyed, while blast effects along tunnels are particularly dangerous.

One nuclear missile defence system which is at present employed by the Western Powers is the construction and deployment of submarines which carry nuclear inter-continental missiles. These have the disadvantage of being very expensive to produce and their numbers are therfore limited.

These submarines depend upon their ability to submerge for long periods in order to avoid detection. In the event of means being developed by an enemy to easily detect these submarines when submerged, they will be liable to simultaneous destruction.

It is possible that a potential enemy will have such detection equipment available within the next five to ten years.

It is thought that turbulence created by the passage of submerged vessels, such as heat turbulence, will become detectable by equipment stowed in space satellites. It is considered that a detectable trace of heat or some other physical mark from a deeply submerged submarine may rise and reach surface level within one or two hours, leaving a detectable trail. It has been reported that equipment at present being designed may provide resolution down to ten yards or less (a French project).

Regular peace-time calls of submarines at base may provide enemy space satellites with a restricted geographical region within which constant tracking may commence. The deterrent effect of missile carrying submarines may cease within the next five to ten years.

The object of the present invention is to provide the Western Powers with a relatively inexpensive nuclear deterrent deployment means, which will guard the West against surprise attack when expected technical progress shall have rendered the deterrent use of submarines obsolete.

Invention Disclosure The disclosed nuclear missile deployment means is the installation of one or a number of Trident nuclear missiles or other missiles within suitable improved sea craft, The invention consists of the following improvements to the sea craft: The improved sea craft may be designed to carry and launch one or a suitable number of Trident or other long range nuclear missiles. The dimensions of the improved sea craft may be in conformity to the dimensions, weight and shape of the missiles it is to transport and launch.

The cross-section of the designed sea craft may take the appropriate form of a letter H section, and may consist of two buoyant bulwarks mainly connected by two decks, an upper and a lower deck. Hydraulically operated double doors or flap doors may be provided at or near each end of the bulwarks, between thte upper and lower decks and between the bulwarks. The space between the two decks, the two bulwarks and the end flap doors or panels may form a hold for stowing the missiles. A suitable part of the upper deck and a suitable part of the lower deck may take the form of hinged flaps or doors, operated by hydraulic pumps, which may be opened to permit missiles to be swivelled from a horizontal stowed position to an inclined launching position.

The two bulwarks may be of sufficient volume and may be sufficiently buoyant to support the weight of the hold when it is fully flooded. The bulwarks may be provided with submersion and emersion equipment, permitting the sea craft to submerge to a moderate depth. The missiles may be launched from the sea craft while it is upon the sea surface or when it is submerged. When the sea craft is submerged the hold may normally be flooded, with upper deck and lower deck flaps open and end of the hold doors or flaps open.

A missile launching arrangement may be provided upon the improved sea craft, which may be similar to the launching arrangement hereunder described.

The sea craft may be provided with means for producing a great deal of thrust for high speed manoeuvres. This thrust may be produced by a number of powerful aircraft type turbine engines, suitably placed upon the sea craft, which together may be capable of producing a speed of up to one hundred and twenty miles per hour by propeller drive or by jet reaction, and possibly a greater speed.

Besides rearward thrust, means may be provided for directing thrust downwards towards the sea surface in a manner which may permit the sea craft to rise above the sea surface and to advance without water resistance upon the hull, thus permitting a very high speed, in the manner attributed by the prior art to hovercraft.

The improved sea craft may also be provided with skis mounted at fixed angle or at an adjustable angle upon struts, which may be fitted beneath the bulwarks in a fixed manner or in a retractable manner, in such a way as to permit the sea craft to rise above the sea surface when in moderate forward motion, and thence to advance at very high speed owing to the elimination of water resistance upon the hull or bulwarks, in the manner attributed by the prior art to hydrofoil craft.

Wings may be provided upon a suitable part of the sea craft. These wings may be of high camber in order to produce maximum lift, and may include control flaps suitable for high speed stability control when operated by electronic servo control equipment. The lift produced by the wings at high speed may permit the sea craft to skim above the sea surface at a precise altitude in order to avoid wave contact and drag, the altitude being controlled by the flap servo control equipment.

Vertical rudders placed in the propeller airstream or engine jet stream may also be controlled by electronic servo control equipment.

Engine air intakes, air outlets, and orifices and apertures may be equipped with hydraulically operated seals which may be operated by remote control before sea craft submersion.

The structure of the improved sea craft may permit submersion to a very moderate depth. The missiles may be constructed to resist water pressure to a moderate depth. The structure and the design of the sea craft may permit it to resist without damage the effects of atomic blast caused by a medium powered atomic explosion taking place at a reasonable distance from the sea craft, which may be five miles.

All equipment may be protected from water at moderate pressure.

In one form of the invention, only the launching part of the hold may be flooded when the sea craft is submerged, the missile stowage part of the hold being partitioned off from the launching part in a suitable water-tight manner.

The crew may be housed in a water-tight operational structure, and the sea craft may submerge to a moderate concealment depth, which may be one hundred feet, in order to regularly elude constant detection and positiontaking by the aircraft and ships of a potential enemy. The submersion equipment may include water ballast tanks and air pressure bottles for water evacuation from the ballast tanks. Suitable propulsion and steering equipment may permit manoeuvres while submerged, mainly in order to change position. The sea craft may take up a new short range position while submerged, or remain in a dormant position for up to twenty-four hours, with all non-essential equipment switched off, to reduce the possibility of detection.

The ability to submerge will ensure protection against radiation. The sealed operational quarters will ensure protection against chemical, gas, and biological warfare. The sea craft may be designed to submerge very rapidly, by crash dive.

Communications equipment may provide the sea craft with a two or three minute warning from headquarters that a number of them are the possible target of a long range missile, according to a detected trajectory. The sea craft may then perform a high speed manoeuvre of up to five miles in order to escape the direct effects of atomic blast from an explosion directed at the original target position.

Radar equipment may provide the sea craft with warning of the approach of enemy ships and aircraft, which in peace-time may constantly track and follow up, in order to transmit exact positions at every moment, with the possible intention of permitting a surprise attack to be carried out. The ability of the sea craft to submerge and to remain concealed at a suitable moderate depth, which may be up to one hundred feet or more, for periods of up to twenty-four hours or more, may counter-act tracking by a potential enemy and leave the potential emeny in frequent ignorance of general positions.

The sea craft may be equipped with defensive missile systems and all necessary equipment for combat against ships and aircraft. The defensive missiles may be operated by remote control from the protected command position.

Best Mode of Operation and Strategy The object of the disclosed invention is to provide the Western powers with a means of launching Trident nuclear missiles or other missiles at enemy targets in retaliation to any nuclear attack, in spite of a nuclear attack which may have been carried out upon the launching means.

The high mobility of the described sea craft and a here-under disclosed dispersion and concealment strategy, which may be applied to a fleet of three hundred such sea craft, may permit a significant number of them to remain operational after long range nuclear missile attacks have been carried out upon them.

In one form of the invention, one part of the seacraft's hold may be arranged for the stowing of a conventional number of long range nuclear missiles, while another part of the hold may be arranged for the launching of these missiles.

In one possible arrangement, a suitable number of missiles may be secured horizontally within the hold, one above the other against each bulwark. A mobile lifting device in the form of a girder or a girder-like construction, extending across the hold from one bulwark to the other at a suitable height above the stowage area, may permit a lifting attachment device suspended from a chain or cable to run from one bulwark to the other, moved by equipment running upon wheels and rails from one bulwark to the other, within or beneath the girder-like construction. Each end of the girder-like construction forming the mobile lifting device may be placed upon wheels, which may run within a pair of rails placed one above the other against each bulwark, and extending the length of the bulwark.

By means of the mobile lifting device each stowed missile may be lifted by remote control from the stowage position to a central alley way running the length of the hold. Each missile may then be moved from the stowage area to a launching area, which may be at the foreward end of the sea craft. At the launching position the lifting device may place the missile within the two opposite open halves of a missile supporting sleeve, which may then close around the missile to support it. The attachment of the lifting device may then disengage and the lifting device may be withdrawn. The missile supporting sleeve may secure the missile in a horizontal position ready for rapid launching and may suitably incline the missile when it is about to be launched.The missile lifting and positioning operations may be carried out rapidly and automatically by data processed robot control, operated from the protected command position.

The missile lifting and positioning operations may be carried out when the closed hold is above or upon the sea surface.

In one form of the invention, the missile lifting and postioning operations may be carried out when the sea craft is submerged, with the hold partly or entirely flooded. When the hold is flooded, the upper and lower deck flaps which partly form the top and bottom of the hold may remain open. The missiles may be designed to resist moderate water pressure when submerged.

The opposite halves of the missile supporting sleeve may each swivel upon a horizontal rod. The two horizontal rods may each revolve upon their horizontal axis. One end of each horizontal rod may revolve with a sleeve, each sleeve being embedded at opposite positions within each bulwark. Within each bulwark sleeve each of the two horizontal rods may advance towards a central position within the hold and may withdraw from this central position, thus permitting each half of the missile supporting sleeve to enclose or to release the missile that it is supporting. The motions of the two horizontal rods will be controlled by appropriate equipment.

Hydraulic pumps operated from the command quarters may cause each sleeve-bearing rod to revolve and the sleeve and missile may be swivelled to any required angle. To permit the warhead end of the missile to swivel upwards, hydraulic pump-operated upper deck flaps may open upwards, while to permit the lower end of the missile to swivel downwards, hydraulic pumpoperated flaps forming part of the lower deck, which is the floor of the hold, may open downwards. The lower end of the missile may then swing down into the sea until any required firing angle is reached.

At the instant of launching the two horizontal rods with their attached missile supporting sleeve sections will be suddenly drawn apart, by appropriate means, thus allowing lift off.

Means of Avoiding Destruction A main advantage of the invention and a principal tactic which may be carried out by the improved sea craft is that of position changing at very high speed, in order to elude the explosion effects of all enemy long range atomic missiles as they are detected approaching the sea craft. The technical means described such as high engine power and wing lift effect may permit the sea craft to avoid waves or wave crest drag and to skim away from an original position at a speed of three miles per minute, while the approaching missile is still in traject, and directed at the original target position.

The improved sea craft may carry out a position change each time an enemy satellite passes overhead and at each possible sighting by an unfriendly aircraft or ship.

The certain destruction of a sea craft which is carrying out a five mile manoeuvre in a random direction between long range missile launching and target vicinity explosion, will require a destructive force extending over an eighty square mile area. The production of this degree of atomic fire power may be beyond the economic and industrial possibilities of a potential enemy, should three hundred improved sea craft be deployed each at a fifty-mile interval.

An estimate may be made of the capacity of a potential enemy to simultaneously explode in a systematic manner a given number of atomic bombs within a given deployment area, to saturation point; the deployment area may then be maintained or extended in relation to this estimate of capacity.

It is envisaged that the deployment area for an improved sea craft nuclear war deterrent force may extend from the extreme north of Norway to Dover and from Toulon to Cyprus.

These two deployment belts, fifteen hundred miles in length, may extend in width over a patrol distance of three hundred miles. Each sea craft may be positioned at a fifty-mile interval, there being nine sea craft within a four hundred mile perimeter square. The disclosed defence system may therefore consist of about three hundred naval units.

The nine naval units positioned within each four hundred mile perimeter square may generally perform coordinated movements in diverse directions. Their positions may form a constantly changing pattern within the local patrol area.

There may be constant grouping and dispersion movements, and constant advancing and retiring movements, over the three hundred mile patrol distance, these advances being in line with the general direction from which attack may come.

Relative positions may however be maintained, and distances between the naval units may not be less than twenty-five miles, or some other minimum distance as may be considered advisable. In the North Sea and off the Norway coast, the advancing and retiring movements may be in an east and west direction, over a distance of three hundred miles, and in the Mediterranean these movements may be in a north-east and south-west direction, also over a distance of three hundred miles.

The nine improved sea craft within each four hundred mile perimeter square may advance and retire independently of the naval units in the other four hundred mile perimeter squares, and the two fifteen hundred mile long defensive belts may therefore be constantly undulating, leaving vast areas of sea empty of these naval units at unpredictable times and for unpredictable periods.

At any one time, a proportion of the fleet of three hundred naval units may remain concealed by submersion.

These described tactics may render unlikely the simultaneous destruction of the whole fleet of three hundred naval units, and a very long riposte deterrent value may therefore by effectively maintained.

Refuelling and revictualing may take place at sea.

Small beach servicing bases may be constructed for each squadron of nine naval units at hundred mile intervals along coastlines.

In one less expensive form of the invention, the ability to submerge is not provided, the means of avoiding destruction being the very high mobility of the sea craft.

Claims (2)

1. An improved sea craft, designed to carry and to launch at a target long range missiles equipped with nuclear warheads, both from the sea surface and while submerged, including propulsion means for carrying out very high speed manoeuvres, means for eliminating or reducing water resistance when in motion, means for radio communication, means for detection by radar, means for defense against enemy ships and aircraft, and all means appropriate to naval combat units;; Wherein the improvement comprises the provision of one or more wing foils or sections of high camber to produce lift at high speed, electronic servo-control of wing and rudder flaps in order to maintian a high degree of stability and control at a very high speed, a structure permitting the submersion of the sea craft to moderate depth for short periods, means for submerging, means for submerged propulsion and steering, means for stowing and for lifting and inclining missiles into a launching position, means for launching long range missiles, means for sealing by remote control all air ducts, apertures and orifices before submersion, a structural design offering resistance to moderate nuclear blast effects at a reasonable distance from an atomic explosion, the improved sea craft being arranged to operate substantially as here-in described.

2. A sea craft as claimed in claim 1, being an improved sea craft, designed to carry and to launch at a target long range missiles equipped with nuclear warheads, including propulsion means for carrying out very high speed manoeuvres, means for eliminating or reducing water resistance when in motion, means for radio communication, means for detection by radar, means for defence against enemy ships and aircraft, and all means appropriate to naval combat units; ; Wherein the improvement comprises the provision of one or more wing foils or sections of high camber to produce lift at high speed, electronic servo-control of wing and rudder flaps in order to maintain a high degree of stability and control at high speed, means for stowing missiles and for lifting and inclining missiles into a launching position, means for launching long range missiles, a structural design offering resistance to moderate nuclear blast effects at a reasonable distance from an atomic explosion, the improved sea craft being arranged to operate substantially as here-in described.