From: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu To: skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V3 #39 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Sunday, 9 May 1993 Volume 03 : Number 039 In this issue: HMS Smyge See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the skunk-works or skunk-works-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: urf@ki.icl.se (Urban Fredriksson) Date: Sun, 9 May 93 7:32:05 MET DST Subject: HMS Smyge Now I too have seen pictures of Sea Shadow. To me, it doesn't seem like a very tactical vessel, not that I think it was intended as such. But the difference to the Swedish HMS Smyge (which of course was built 5 years later), which was built specifically to gain experiences for the building of combat vessels seems great to me. What could a Sea Shadow class vessel be used for, supposing it was a proof of concept ship for something to be built? Only a few roles comes to my mind: Covert insertion/extraction of troops, minelaying (where it's real useful not having the enemy knowing that you've been there) and mine hunting. Some of you may be curious on Smyge, so here I include an old article of mine. I think the correct terminology is "air cushion catamaran", "side-keel hovercraft" is a literal translation from Swedish, but I didn't know better then. - - begin old article - The Swedish stealth ship HMS Smyge was first shown publicly in 1991. It will be used to evaluate signature reduction, new weapon systems and handling qualities (for example there is no deck to stand on). It is not a prototype for our next generation combat vessels, for one thing it is too small, and the weapons fit is not representative for a ship this size, but it has a little of everything for evaluation purposes. Configuration is a side-keel hovercraft, mostly manufactured of kevlar and glassfibre. It is designed to reduce radar, IR and noise signatures. All structures consist of angled flat surfaces and all in- and outlets are screened, the engines' exhausts are cooled and the use of water jets makes for a small noise signature. As only very little of the hull projects into the water (more than 80% of the ship is supported by the air cushion), it makes for a small pressure signature (there are Norwegian mine hunters with the same configuration). This also makes it relatively insensitive to underwater explosions. It has conformal and retractible antennas, including the elevating radar mast. Displacement: 140 tons Length: 30 m (27 m waterline) Width: 11 m, Draft 1.9 m at rest; 0.7 on the air cushion. Speed: More than 40 kt Crew: 14 (6 officers and 8 conscripts) Propulsion: 2 2040 kW diesels powering water jets Lift: 2 460 kW diesels Armament: 40 mm gun. The barrel can be depressed into the hull and covered by a hatch. RBS 15 anti-ship missiles, torpedoes and mines, all launchers covered by hatches. General arrangement: l l ____n___/###\ /####\ / \ / ____ \ | / || || ~~|____________/~~~~\|~~~~|/~~ The mast is there to comply with civilian regulations regarding lights etc. It also camouflages the stealthyness so that all other trials can be performed in view of the public. It is easily removed for stealth trials. - - end old article - HMS Smyge isn't black, but painted in the normal gray/gray/gray/green splinter camouflage of our combat vessels. - -- Urban Fredriksson urf@icl.se ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V3 #39 ******************************** To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe skunk-works-digest in the body of a message to "listserv@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu". If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe "local-skunk-works": subscribe skunk-works-digest local-skunk-works@your.domain.net To unsubscribe, send mail to the same address, with the command: unsubscribe skunk-works-digest in the body. Administrative requests, problems, and other non-list mail can be sent to either "skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu" or, if you don't like to type a lot, "prm@ecn.purdue.edu". A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "skunk-works-digest" in the commands above with "skunk-works". Back issues are available for anonymous FTP from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu, in /pub/skunk-works/digest/vNN.nMMM (where "NN" is the volume number, and "MMM" is the issue number).