Model Type: SCS-005
Designation: Ryuho (Dragon-Phoenix) class Sea Control Ship
Keel laid:
Launched:
Commissioned:
Speed: Water Surface: 105 knots (approx. 200 kph); Underwater: 90 knots
(165 kph).
Height: 90 m over the hull
Beam: 96 m over all
Length: 514 m over all
Displacement: 191,500 tons displacement surfaced; 210,000 tons
displacement submerged.
Main power system: Toshiba cold nuclear fusion reactor; 25 year life.
Main propulsion system (1): 2x35,000 shp Komatsu-Hitachi electrical
motors driving one propulsor aft. Auxiliary thrusters (2): 2 Hosokawa 3,000 shp
MagnetoHydroDynamic propulsion units mounted port and starboard before the main
propulsor.
Computer system: Toshiba Neurosystems AI.
Maximum operational depth: 8,000 meters.
Crush depth: in excess of 9,600 meters.
Endurance and mobility limits: The dry stores endurance is 6 months
maximum; after that, the Ryuho-class submarine needs to restock. Potable
water and oxygen can be obtained from the ocean. The magazine for the ship's
torpedo tubes can store 110 large weapons such as heavyweight torpedoes or
cruise missiles. Two homing mines or Long Lance VII anti-ship missiles can be
carried instead of one large weapon.
Market Cost: DM 40 Billions (per vessel).
Ship’s crew: 50 plus 200 power armour naval infantrymen. Life support
limits are for a full combat complement and about 45 supernumeraries (295 men
total).
Weapon systems:
·
Senkaku (
·
Tetsushin (Iron
Spirit) 760 mm super-cavitating torpedo tubes (19 front; 10 rear). These can
fire a large variety of weapons. The torpedo tubes can be discharged from
depths up to 2000 meters, though not all weapons carried can survive the
pressure at this depth.
·
Sea-to-Air
Missile Launchers (20)
·
Counter Torpedo
Batteries (6 front; 6 rear)
It counts with the capacity to launch long-distance,
multistage supercavitating missiles fitted with nuclear warheads; but the
nuclear warheads haven’t been deployed for political reasons.
Electronic Systems:
·
Internal: A 15-foot bow blue-green bandwidth (BGB) active lidar array, a wide aperture passive bow and flank sonar,
surface-search radar and one attack and one search optic-fibber photonic
periscopes with
a visual imaging capability that does not require a mast to penetrate the
pressure hull. A Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD)
long range passive sensor, able to register the magnetic fields of operating
fusion reactor. Two emergency towed array sonars.
·
External: 8
deployed Autonomous Tactical Undersea Satellites (ATUS), each one with high
frequency under-ice/mine detection sonars, an active intercept sonar and wake,
IR, chemical and oceanic sensors. The eight ATUS can be configured as a single
sonar array.
5 Autonomous Tactical Aerial Radar Satellites (ATARS),
each one a miniature helicopter with seeking, detecting, and object
identifying, tracking and precision guiding capabilities over surface targets.
Design Notes:
The Ryuho-class is an extensively modified version of the NSSN Kurohana submarine of the 2010s that
will replace an assorted variety of sub-fighters carriers. The class was
originally planned to include six boats, but budgetary constrains reduced the
Sea Control Ships program to four. Of the submarines currently in the strategic
submarine force (SSF), four are always operational and two are at sea at any
given time.
Among the technological advances represented by the Ryuho-class
deserve to be mentioned:
·
Its Toshiba
Neurosystems Advanced Non-sentient Artificial Intelligence (ANAI), able not
only to manage the ship’s rutinary function, thus reducing the human crew, but
also able to control the unmanned undersea vehicles (UUV), including the Requin-class
sub-fighters.
·
Its nuclear power
plant, based in a cold fusion nuclear core. Using the Carranza-Fuchida-Hu light
water-Ni-Pd-K2CO3 electrolytic cells as main power
system, the heavy hot fusion core could be eliminated, the steam lines system
simplified, and the generation of magnetic anomalies produced by hot fusion
reactors eliminated, making the Ryuho-class submarines invisible to MAD
detectors. The Imperial Japanese Navy maintains its
monopoly over the practical uses of cold fusion technology.
·
The LIght
Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) sensor
that electronically computes the position of a vehicle under observation, using
transmitted laser light pulses and the reflective and transmissive properties
of the water and the vehicle. The details are kept secret but it's known that
the Lidar fires a laser and a blue-green pulse into the water, and the distance
is then calculated from the difference in characteristics between the laser
return and the blue-green return.
·
Also, improved
hull materials increased the diving depth to twice that of the USN Abigor-class
and MAN Wellesley-class carriers, the possible antagonists envisioned by
the IJN. The hull has an ablation resistance four times the titanium, but with
the density of an aluminium alloy: the only publicly known characteristic of
this composite material is its ceramic nature and the use of diamond filaments
used to reinforce carbon fullerene microstructures, manufactured using cold
compression moulding techniques. The double hull is supported by a structure
based in a
foamed-aluminium core wrapped with stressed carbon nanotube-epoxy resin
monofilament and protected by a rigid composite titanium-steel shell. These revolutionary materials enable the Ryuho-class
to dive below the maximum depth of most anti-submarine weapons.
·
The communication
problems of submerged submarines were solved by the use of a low power laser
radio, the Submarine Laser Communication Receiver (SLCR) a sequenced, 2-stage,
concentrator assembly which maximally concentrated an input radiance function
to its near theoretical limit, and able of penetrate the deepest waters of the
Pacific.
·
The two Senkaku
(
·
The Tetsushin
(Iron Spirit) High-Speed Torpedo. The torpedo weights 3,000 kilos, has a
longitude of 10 meters, with a range of about 2 kilometers, and can top 320
kilometers per hour. Unlike previous models, the Tetsushin is not a
"straight shooter," but can manoeuvre or home in on a target. In
order to avoid the distortion of the air layer coverage of the Tetsushin, the
cavitator disk at the craft's nozzle can rapidly adjust its orientation and
control ventilation to make sure the surface is getting coverage. The simple AI
built-in the torpedo or the more powerful sub-fighters’ AIs can, using
high-tech sensors and controls, to maintain that air bubble through sharp
turns, acceleration and deceleration, constantly changing pressures, altering
body geometry, vibration, contact with foreign matter and other unpredictable
variables. The propulsion of the Tetsushin is a ramjet thruster engine supersonic
sub, reacting powdered aluminium with water in a contained whirlpool to produce
heat that powers the ramjet turbine, proportioning from 2.5 to 3 times the
specific impulse of solid rocket propellants.
