Inflictor Class Carrier
Basic Information:Installed Power:
- Role: Aircraft Carrier
- Displacement:131,000 t (full load)
- Complement: 2,000 crew + 2,400 air wing
- Length: 390 m
- Beam (flight deck): 90 m
- Beam (waterline): 42 m
- Draft: 12.5 m
Propulsion:
- 2x SDI PWR 1175 pressurized water reactors (PWRs), 700 MWt each
- 4x AMG 12V 17/19 M95 emergency diesel generators, 2,900 kW each
Performance:
- 4x SDI high temperature superconducting (HTS) AC Motors, 50 MW each
- 4x shafts, 4x 5 bladed fixed pitch propellers
Sensors & Processing Systems:
- Top Speed: 31 knots
- Range: crew endurance
Electronic Warfare & Countermeasures:
- SDI Typhoon Combat System
- SDI FMG 300 X band Multi-Function Radar (MFR)
- SDI FMG 600 S band Volume-Search Radar (VSR)
- SDI Integrated Bridge and Navigation System
- SDI EOS 400 Staring Infrared Search & Track System
Armament:
- SDI FMS 1800 Electronic Warfare System
- SDI LWG 310 Naval Laser Warning System
- SDI ZTKG 130 Trainable Decoy Launching System (TDLS)
- SDI Sea Guardian Surface Ship Torpedo Countermeasure System
- 64x S70 Vertical Launch System cells
- Rb 73 surface-to-air missiles
- Rb 81 surface-to-air missiles (quad-packed)
- 4x Manticore CIWS
Aircraft Carried:
- Up to 100 fixed wing aircraft and helicopters
Typical Air Wing:
- 20x AEJ 36C Sea Seraph fleet air defense fighters
- 20x E 20 Ghost naval bombers
- 10x S 5 Corsair anti-submarine aircraft
- 10x AEJ 39 Lich interceptors
- 8x SH 90 Sea Phantom anti-submarine helicopters
- 6x KS 5 Polaris air refueling tankers
- 6x A 17 Sentinel airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft
- 8x EA 20 Shade electronic warfare aircraft
- 2x A 11 Shadow electronic reconnaissance aircraft
Aviation Facilities
- 4x electromagnetic catapults
- 4x arresting cables
- 4x deck edge lifts
- below deck hangar
Overview:
The Inflictor is a class of large nuclear powered aircraft carriers designed by SDI Marine Systems.
Design & Construction:The Inflictor class carriers have a length of 393 meters overall (377 meters at the waterline), a waterline beam of 42 meters, a design draft of 12.5 meters, and a full load displacement of 131,000 tonnes. The ship has very full hull form with a protruding bulbous bow to reduce wave-making resistance. The carrier is constructed from over 200 modular sections each weighing up to 900 tonnes which are assembled separately and then welded together on the dry dock to form the complete ship. The ship's hull is 18 decks tall and is constructed primarily from welded St 92 (900 MPa yield strength) high-strength structural shipbuiding steel. The ship's twin islands each weigh around 555 metric tons with the forward island containing the navigation bridge, flag bridge, and combat direction center and the aft island containing the ship's primary flight control flight, deck control and launch operations room, carrier air traffic control center.
PropulsionThe Inflictor class is powered by a two SDI PWR 175 pressurized water reactors each with a rated maximum power output of 700 megawatts of thermal energy (MWt). Each reactor is fueled using 97% highly enriched uranium (HEU) and is designed for a service life of over 40 years without refueling. The SDI PWR 180 reactor employs integral type circuit design with all primary circuit components including the steam generators are placed inside the reactor pressure vessel. The emergency core cooling system (ECCS) employs our separate systems including a gravity driven water injection system, pressure injection system, passive decay and heat removal system (PDHR), and a reactor protection system (RPS). The reactor core has an active length of 2.4 meters and contains 89 fuel assemblies containing binary U-Zr metallic nuclear fuel pellets consisting of 15% zirconium and 85% uranium enriched to a level of 97% U235 with a boron burnable poison coating which gives the reactor a design service life of 45 years before requiring refueling. Pumping for each reactor is provided by four horizontally mounted axial flow pumps attached to the outer shell of the reactor vessel which each provide a flow rate of 95,000 liters per minute (LPM) of cooling water through the reactor core. Each pump is powered by a 500 kW, 460 VAC 3 phase brushless AC motor driven by a variable a frequency drive (VFD). Steam from the reactors is used to drive a total of four turbogenerators each rated at 87.5 MW. Each of the four turbogenerators employs a double-ended turbine which drives a 120 Hz, 6 phase, 4160 VAC, 87.5 MW, 3600 rpm high-temperature superconducting (HTS) AC generator.
The 350 MWe of electrical power from the four turbogenerators is distributed throughout the ship using a DC zonal electrical distribution (ZEDS) which distributes DC electrical power to the ships propulsion plant, sensors, electromagnetic catapults, and hotel loads.. The 4160 VAC from the four turbogenerators is converted to to 6000 VDC with four power conversion modules (PCMs) attached to each generator. The PCMs then supply both port and starboard DC buses which supply power to 24 electrical zones which each include one DC/DC PCM per bus (two each per zone) which converts the 6000 VDC to 750-800 VDC or 650 VDC to supply DC loads in each zone. Both DC/DC PCMs in each zone also supply one or more DC/AC PCMs with 750-800 VDC which then converts the 750-800 VDC to 450 VAC at 60 Hz for AC loads. All electrical loads in each zone are connected to both port and starboard bus ensuring continued operation if either port or starboard bus becomes inoperable.
The warship's integral electric propulsion (IEP) system features four SDI designed 50 MW superconducting motors which directly drive the ship's four propellers. Each 50 MW superconducting motor is a three phase, six pole synchronous air-core AC motor with a brushless exciter which has a rated speed of 150 RPM at its design voltage of 7,200 VAC with a full-load efficiency of 97.5%. The complete motor with cryocooler assembly weighs 75 tonnes, approximately 80% less than a conventional AC induction motor of the same RPM and power output. The rotor employs yttrium-barium copper-oxide (YBCO) high temperature superconducting ceramic conductors and is cryogenically cooled to 77 degrees K using gaseous helium from cryocooler module containing single Stage GM cryocoolers located at the non-drive shaft end of the motor which feeds helium gas into the rotor through a rotating seal at the back end of the motor. The rotor housing is further enclosed in a vacuum-sealed cryostat to maintain cryogenic temperatures inside the rotor. The stator coils of the motor are made from copper Litz conductor and are cooled using a liquid dielectric coolant. Each motor employs a variable-frequency drive (VFD) with three separate 2,400 VAC three-phase power modules per drive which allows for efficient motor operation from 6 up to 150 rpm. Each 60 MW motor is used to directly drive a single 7.5 meter diameter, 5-bladed fixed pitch propeller weighing 27 metric tons through a hollow carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CRFP) alloy propeller shaft supported by a series of water lubricated bearings.
Steering is accomplished by two rudders which are 8.8 meters high, 5.7 meters long, and weigh 50 metric tons each. The rudders are placed directly behind the inboard propeller shafts and employ a twisted blade design to minimize cavitation effects. A 4-vane rotary vane steering gear with 3,690 kNm of peak torque is used to actuate each rudder with +/- 70° rudder deflection capability. Tactical diameter of the ship is 1,000 meters at a speed of 30 knots.
Sensors & Processing Systems:SDI Typhoon Combat System: The SDI Typhoon Combat System (TCS) is a comprehensive open-architecture anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) combat management system designed by SDI Missiles & Fire Control Systems which provides fully automated detection, identification, and engagement of air targets. The primary components of the Typhoon Combat System are the Sensor Fusion Processor (SFP), Command and Decision System (C&DS), Typhoon Display System (TDS), Weapons Control System (WCS), and Integrated Ship Computing System (ISCS). The sensor fusion processor or SFP takes tracking data from the ship's radars, IFF system, distributed IRST sensors, and electronic warfare system and correlates them using a contact-to-track data correlation algorithm to provide a single integrated track of each detected target. With the contact-to-track algorithm detected contacts from each sensor (radar, IFF, IR, and ESM) are correlated with existing sensor tracks and merged using a smoothing filter to create a single track file of each correlated target. This allows (for example) the range data from the radar tracks of the dual band radars to be fused with the angle track data from the higher angular resolution IRST sensors, creating a fused 3D track which is more accurate than either the individual radar or IRST sensor tracks. Track data from the sensor fusion processor is fed into the Typhoon Command and Decision System (C&DS) which uses both IFF data and aided and automatic target recognition (Ai/ATR) algorithms to provide identification, threat classification, and weapon assignment of target data input from the sensor fusion processor. Information from the Command and Decision System (C&DS) processor is displayed via the Typhoon Display System (TDS) which uses large multi-function color displays inside the ship's CIC to display target tracks and other situational awareness data to the ship's crew and captain. The TDS consoles also features keyboards for data input which allows doctrinal IF/THEN instructions to be input to the system to the modify its behavior; such as instructing the system that IF any target is detected above a certain speed and altitude in a certain sector THEN it is to be automatically classified as hostile and engaged with a certain missile. The Weapons Control System (WCS) is responsible for launching missiles at targets identified as hostile by the Typhoon Command and Decision System (C&DS). Targets are matched to the ship's missiles by the C&DS which will then send a fire instruction to the weapon control system when the target has entered the engagement zone of the specific missile. The WCS then sends a a firing instruction to the ship's VLS to fire the specific missile and then uses the ship's radars and datalinks to provide midcourse guidance as necessary to guide the missile towards its intended target. The WCS is also responsible for providing Air Intercept Control (AIC) functionality and can be used to guide carrier or land based airborne interceptors towards a hostile target being tracked by the ship. Finally the Integrated Ship Computing System (ISCS) acts as the central processor of the Typhoon combat system and processes radar and and other sensor data and connects all the ships systems including weapons, countermeasures, and communications system together. The ISCS architecture is based on SDI's SPPC10D single-board computer, a ruggedized, shock hardened and conduction cooled computer which employs a 10nm gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon architecture, 48 core (384 thread) superscalar symmetric multiprocessor with a 4.0 GHz clock rate as well as 64 GB of DDR5 DRAM. The SPPC10D computers are each packaged into 16 Electronic Modular Enclosures (EMEs) which each include their own power, shock, vibration, and electromagnetic protection, and water cooling systems. Each EME is a self-contained server and carries 235 cabinets containing the SPPC10D single-board computers. The EMEs which run the ISCS software are interconnected to the rest of the sensors and electrical systems through fiber-optic cables and uses voice-over IP for internal communications between computer systems. The combined computing power of the ship's processors is 27,000 MIPS (million instructions per seconds) at 4.35 GHz with a combined 240 TB of data storage.
An additional ability of the Typhoon Combat System is Distributed Engagement Capability (DEC) which allow target tracking data from multiple sensors across multiple Typhoon equipped platforms in the battle group to be fused together to create a composite track of all air objects within the battle force area and to allow for hunter-killer functionality in the battle group by allowing unit in the battle force to engage a target being tracked by another unit even when the shooter is unable to see or track the target with its own sensors due to either jamming, battle damage, or line-of-sight restrictions. Distributed engagement capability on Typhoon equipped platforms s enabled by a data distribution system (DDS) and a track fusion algorithm (TFA). The data distribution system or DDS consists of four C band planar array antenna assemblies blended into the outer surface of the ship's superstructure which provide extremely high bandwidth line-of-sight communication capability with other sea and air platforms in the battle force. Each DDS antenna array consists of a liquid cooled digital beam forming (DBF) antenna with separate transmit and receive arrays employing gallium nitride (GaN) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) transmit/receive (T/R) modules integrated into a common subarray line replacement units (LRUs) and high provides extremely jam resistant and high bandwidth line-of-sight data exchange with other DDS equipped platforms. The track fusion algorithm (TFA) uses the ships ISCP processors to take sensor data received by other units through the data distribution system and fuse it with data from the ships own sensors to create a single composite sensor picture. The main capability of the track fusion algorithm is the ability to network the measurements of radars and other sensors on different platforms tracking the same target and combine them with an intelligent averaging algorithm that creates a single composite track of the target which is more accurate than the track of any individual sensor. When a Typhoon equipped platform establishes a target track with one or more of its sensors a track alert is broadcast across the Typhoon network which then cues the other platforms in the battle force to point their sensors in the direction of the target track. When the other platforms begin tracking the target with their own sensors their sensor measurements are distributed back across the network to every other platform to form the composite track. This capability allows the battle force to maintain track of a target even if any one or even multiple of the battle force units loses the target track due to jamming, battle damage, or environmental effects. When used to fuse radar data from different platforms the track fusion algorithm also enables better radar observation of low observable targets by illuminating them simultaneously with many radars of different wavelengths and scan rates at once, allowing a composite track to be created even if none of the radars in the battle force are able to generate an individual track of the target for more than a few pulses.
FMG 300/600 Dual Band Radar (DBR): The SDI Dual Band Radar (DBR) system includes the ships FMG 300 X band Multi-Function Radar (MFR) and FMG 600 S band Volume-Search Radar (VSR). Each radar system consist of three phased-array antennas and associated receiver/exciter (REX) cabinets above -decks in the superstructure and a signal and data processor (SDP) system mounted below-decks inside the hull. Both arrays share a central controller and and a common array power system (CAPS) with power conversion units (PCUs) and power distribution units (PDUs) for each radar antenna. Both arrays are cooled using a closed loop, phase change based common array cooling system (CACS). The X band radar system features a larger operating bandwidth and better low-altitude performance and provides surface search, radar navigation, gun-fire targeting and splash spotting, periscope detection, mine detection, precision target tracking and discrimination, limited volume-search, high-bandwidth missile uplink, and terminal illumination of targets while the S band radar provides long range volume search and long-range target tracking capability. Both the The X band and S band radars can provide simultaneous sector search, environmental mapping, counter-fire/counter-battery tracking, missile tracking, electronic warfare, clutter detection, and in-flight missile guidance and communication. Each X band FMG 300 aperture has a 4-meter square antenna with 10,560 transmit and receive (T/R) modules which use gallium nitride complementary metal-oxide semiconductors (CMOS) on a diamond substrate. The S band FMG 600 antennas are significantly larger at 16 square meters and each use 42,240 full-duplex radio integrated circuit transmit and receive (T/R) modules. Each radar antenna features +/- 60° azimuth and +/- 60° degree beam-steering capability giving the system combined 360° azimuth coverage around the warship. Both radar systems employ wide-band digital receiver/exciter (DREX) units and feature digital beam-forming (DBF) capability, space-time adaptive processing (STAP), and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) waveform generation techniques. ECCM capabilities of the dual band radar system include frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) operating modes, ultra-low sidelobes, high processing gain, pulse-to-pulse frequency agility and ultra wide-band frequency hopping, staggered pulse repetition frequency (PRF) switching, randomized burst transmissions, and automatic jammer detection and tracking. Peak power consumption of the dual-band system is 12 MW and instrumented range is 1,000 km in air-surveillance mode and 2,000 km in ballistic missile tracking mode with the ability to simultaneously track up to 3,000 air targets in air surveillance mode or up to 30 ballistic missile targets in ballistic missile tracking mode.
EOS 400 Staring Infrared Search & Track System: The EOS 400 Staring Infrared Search & Track System is a distributed multi-aperture sensor system which consists of four identical dual field-of-view, electronically stabilized mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) starring focal plane array (FPA) imaging infrared (IIR) sensor units mounted in a mast above the ship's island which provide combined 360°azimuth and -20° to +75° elevation situational awareness infrared search and track (SAIRST) capability against surface vessel, cruise missile, ballistic missile, and aircraft targets to supplement the active search and track capability of the ship's dual band radar system. The 4096 × 4096 pixel (16 MPA) HgCdTe sensor used by each sensor head operates in the MWIR (3–5 µm) band and features a 95 x 95° degree field of view. The image processing features of the EOS 400 system include automatic target recognition (ATR) using an on-board threat library, passive ranging algorithms, multi-target adaptive tracking, and clutter rejection techniques. The video feed from the sensor units can be stitched together and displayed on operator consoles in the ship's bridge and CIC to act as a navigational aid and to provide close in situational awareness for the ship's crew.
SDI Launch and Recovery Surveillance System: The Launch and Recovery Surveillance System or LARSS is a network of eight cameras placed around the ship's two islands which provide continuous 24/7 monitoring of launch, recovery, and flight deck operations. The system uses 2 megapixel (1920 x 1080 px) visible/SWIR (0.4 - 1.7 µm) cameras with InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide) FPAs with a 60 fps frame rate. Five of the eight cameras are mounted in a fixed panoramic mount on the starboard side of the forward island with feeds from the five cameras stitched together to provide a real-time panoramic video feed of the entire flight deck. The other other three cameras are mounted atop the aft island in individual mounts with pan/tilt capability and feature digital zoom to allow the operators to zoom in on any specific part of the flight deck or aircraft taking off and landing from the carrier. Four control console units (CCUs) for the LARSS system are mounted below the flight deck in the LARSS control room.
SDI Carrier Aircraft Tracking System (CATS): The SDI Carrier Aircraft Tracking System is a sensor system which is designed to provide continuous tracking of aircraft locations and orientations on the flight deck and inside the hangar and aids in the automation of flight deck operations by supplying flight deck personnel with a digital aircraft spotting board with real-time information on the position and status of each aircraft on the ship. The Carrier Aircraft Tracking System is fully automated and employs a 3D camera tracking system with a a total of 43 1920 x 1080 pixel visible/SWIR (0.4 - 1.7 µm) cameras with InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide) FPAs with a 60 fps frame rate which are combined with digitized video enhancement and machine vision algorithms to provide position tracking of each carrier aircraft on the ship in real time during the day and night and in all weather conditions. 12 of the 43 cameras are mounted in a fixed panoramic mount on the starboard side of the aft island and another 43 mounted on a fixed panoramic mount on the starboard side of the forward island with feeds from the 24 cameras stitched together to provide a real-time panoramic video feed of the entire flight deck. Another 16 cameras are mounted in the hangar, 8 in each hangar bay, with feeds from each set of 8 cameras stitched together to provide a real-time panoramic video feed of each hangar bay. The final three cameras are mounted atop the aft island in individual mounts with pan/tilt capability and feature 10x digital zoom capability and are used to track aircraft taking off and landing from the carrier and provide the capability to zoom in on any specific part of the flight deck. Parallax between the cameras on the forward and aft island is used to determine the position of objects on the flight deck with additional position accuracy provided by machine vision algorithms which pinpoint individual features on the objects on the flight deck and hangar in relation to fixed landmarks on the flight and hangar decks. Individual pixels in each fixed frame are referenced to fixed padeyes and deck lights on the flight and hangar decks which are then used to triangulate the position of the object being tracked. The cameras track the six orientation parameters (X, Y, and Z coordinates, along with yaw, pitch and roll) of each aircraft with <0.5 meter position accuracy and continuously update the system computer generated digital aircraft spotting board at a rate of sixty frames per second. The CATS storage includes digital storage of "interesting events" which includes launch and recovery events with the ability to filter events by tail number and by aircraft type. The CATS is also used to provide FOD detection, fouled deck detection, and ordnance inspection.
Electronic Warfare & Countermeasures:FMS 1800 Electronic Warfare System: The primary electromagnetic countermeasure system of the ship is the FMS 1800 Electronic Warfare System, a comprehensive offensive and defensive electronic warfare (EW), electronic support measures (ESM), and electronic intelligence (ELINT) suite which combines passive radar warning receivers and phased array jammers for long range, over-the-horizon detection, identification, and targeting of threat emitters as well as automatic employment on-board RF countermeasures and support of passive over-the-horizon targeting capability for the ship's weapon systems. The passive radar warning system of the FMS 1800 consists of multiple single-quadrant, high-gain linear interferometer arrays blended into the sides of the vessel's island which are connected to a set of digital receivers and pulse processors inside the ship's superstructure which provide for 360 degree spherical broadband, all aspect detection, identification, and direction-finding of radar emissions with the capability for precise emitter location and threat identification capability against low probability of intercept waveforms and with additional over-the-horizon direction finding capability of MF, HF, VHF, and UHF band signals. The offensive electronic warfare capability of FMS 1800 system includes multiple low, mid, and high band electronically scanned gallium nitride (GaN) based Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) jammers blended into the superstructure which provide for the jamming of hostile RF sensors. The FMS 1800 is a fully cognitive and adaptive system; by using radar emission data collected from the FMS 1800 radar warning receivers the DRFM jammers can automatically adapt in real time to unknown waveform characteristics, dynamically synthesize countermeasures, and jam the waveform accordingly. The DRFM Jammers of the FMS 1800 also includes false target generation capability allowing the FMS 1800 to generate up to 32 simultaneous false surface and air targets at ranges up to 625 kilometers to spoof hostile radar systems. Designed to spoof wideband phased array radars with moving-target indicator (MTI) and inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) capability, the false-target generation system of the FMS 1800 comprises a receiver system for producing a false signal that mimics an incident radar pulse, a phase sampling circuit is connected to the FMS 1800 radar warning receivers for sampling the signal and providing phase sample data, and an image synthesizer circuit is connected to the phase sampling circuit and arranged to receive the phase sample data from the circuit which processes the phase sample data to form a false target signal which is input to a signal transmitter system built into the FMS 1800 DRFM jammer array which is arranged to transmit the synthesized false target signal so that it can be received by the threat radar system.
SDI Sea Guardian Surface Ship Torpedo Countermeasures System: The ship is fitted with the SDI Sea Guardian Surface Ship Torpedo Countermeasure System which combines various soft-kill and hard-kill torpedo countermeasure systems. The Sea Guardian system consists of a towed array sonar designed specifically for torpedo detection, a towed acoustic decoy with a a single-drum winch, an interface to the ship's trainable decoy launchers, and a processing cabinet with two display consoles, and and four 4-round anti-torpedo torpedo launchers on either side of the ship. The towed array sonar used by the system is a combined active and passive array sonar optimized to detect the high frequency sound signature of torpedo screws and active sonar homing heads. The towed array is supported by two vibration isolated modules (VIMs) located on either side of the sonar with the array being connected on one end to the ship using a fiber-optic tow cable and connected on the other end to the towed decoy with an array tow cable. The towed decoy array is designed to emit simulated ship noise such as propulsor and engine noise to lure a passive-sonar homing torpedo to the decoy instead of the ship. The towed decoy can also receive sonar pings from the active homing head of a torpedo and amplifies and returns the "pings" to the torpedo, presenting a larger false target to the torpedo. The hardkill component of the Sea Guardian system comprises a series of four box launchers on either side of the vessel which each contain six SDI S2s Barracuda anti-torpedo torpedoes in individual all-up rounds (AUR) which contain the Barracuda torpedo and a self-contained compressed gas launch system. The Barracuda torpedo is 21 cm in diameter, 2.0 meters in length, weighs 110 kilograms, and contains a 20 kilogram aluminized PBX explosive warhead. The guidance and fusing system of the Barracuda is designed to explode it in front of the oncoming torpedo and create a pressure wave which crushes the nose section of the oncoming torpedo. The Barracuda has a maximum firing range of 10 kilometers and is propelled by an advanced stored chemical energy propulsion system (ADSCEPS) which can propel the Barracuda at speeds up to 60 knots at depths up to 1,000 meters. Although designed as an anti-torpedo the Barracuda can also be used to engage midget submarines, naval mines, and unmanned or autonomous underwater vehicles.
ZTKG 130 Trainable Decoy Launching System (TDLS): The ZTKG 130 Trainable Decoy Launching System (TDLS) is am aimable decoy launching system which can launch a variety of decoys designed to decoy away anti-ship missile and torpedo threats. The TDLS) system consists of multiple 12-round trainable countermeasures launchers controlled by a central command console inside the ship. Each 12-round launcher employs a rotating platform with 12 separate 130mm barrels which can each be individually trained in elevation. The ship is fitted with eight decoy launching systems, four on either side of the ship used for acoustic torpedo decoys (48 total) and another four launchers on each side used for chaff/flare rounds and missile seduction decoys (48 total).
AM5 dual chaff/IR seduction decoy: The primary chaff seduction round employed by the TDLS is the AM5 dual chaff/IR seduction decoy which is capable of defeating dual-seeker missiles equipped with both IR/EO and radar seekers. The AM5 releases clouds of super-rapid blooming chaff with a 10,000 m2 RCS in the X band along with a series of spectral infrared flares with full coverage in the MWIR (3-5 µm) and LWIR (8-14 µm) bands. The chaff clouds and flare submunitions of the AM5 are designed to be deployed at increasing distances and altitudes from the ship, creating a "walk-off" effect which leads the missile seeker away from the ship.
AM79 Buzzard active missile decoy: For decoying away radar-guided anti-ship missiles the TDLS can deploy the AM79 Buzzard active missile decoy, an expendable electronic-warfare rotary-wing drone which is designed to seduce RF guided anti-ship missiles by simulating the radar return of a large surface vessel. The buzzard features a cylindrical shaped fuselage 130 mm in diameter and 0.9 meters tall with both top and bottom mounted 1.8 meter diameter three-bladed counter-rotating coaxial rotors powered by two brushless DC motors. The rotors unfold from the body of the decoy after launch and fly the decoy into a pre-programmed flight path away from the ship where the decoy then hovers in place while emitting electronic warfare signals uses its fuselage mounted Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) jammers which are designed to seduce oncoming anti-ship missiles into targeting the decoy and not the host vessel. The decoy is powered by a thermal battery mounted in the center of the fuselage which gives the decoy approximately 60 minutes of flight endurance after launch.
AM7 Lamprey acoustic decoy: The TDLS can also launch the AM7 Lamprey, a 130mm diameter, expendable acoustic decoy designed to counter torpedo threats. After a rocket-powered launch into ocean the Lamprey is programmed to hover vertically using a pressure-controlled motor driving a small, shrouded propeller in the tail of the decoy. The Lamprey is designed to hover at a pre-selected depth from 10-300 meters where it listens for torpedo transmissions. Active acoustic transmissions are detected and analyzed resulting in decoy selectivity and generation of the appropriate deception signal for transmission including target signature and target self noise. If no torpedo transmissions are detected the decoy is programmed to emit warship propulsor and engine noise to lure in passive homing torpedoes. Power for the motor and electronics of the Lamprey is provided by a thermal battery. The Lamprey is programmed to hover and emit noise until the battery dies where the decoy then sinks and all software onboard is erased.
Flight Deck & Aircraft Operations:Flight deck: The Inflictor class carrier features a 23,250 m2 area angled flight deck for aircraft operations. The flight deck is located 18 meters above the designed waterline and has a maximum width of 90 meters. The flight deck is designed to operate using a "pit stop” concept of aircraft servicing which is designed to decrease the amount of time needed to re-fuel, re-arm, and service aircraft during cyclic operations. The pit-stop style of operations are enabled by the carrier's extremely large flight deck area which enables the pilots of the landing aircraft to maneuver their plane from the recovery runway to the servicing pit-stop area, shut down, be serviced, start up, and then taxi to one of the ship’s catapults for relaunch, all without the need of using aircraft towing tractors. The carrier has a total of 24 pit stops placed around the edge of flight deck each of which is adjacent to two flush deck servicing hatches, one containing electric power and electrical LAN cable reels while the other contains a fueling and de-fueling fuel line and valve. After landing and being arrested by the arresting gear on the flight deck aircraft are guided to the nearest available pitstop by combination of flight deck spotters and a signal lighting system placed on the flight deck where the aircraft are parked with their exhaust directed overboard and then shut down. Aircraft service operators at each pit stop then open the electrical servicing hatch and connects grounding cables to a receptacle on the aircraft before connecting the electrical and LAN cables. A mobile fueling cart then pulls up to the pit stop and parks next to the fueling service hatch where the driver then opens the hatch, attaches a fuel line to the appropriate valve, and then pulls a fuel hose off the vehicle and connects it to the fuel receptacle on the aircraft. The fuel pumps at each pit stop have a flow rate of 1400 liters per minute which allows aircraft to be fully refueled in 7.5 to 10 minutes. While the aircraft is being refueled it is simultaneously rearmed using weapons provided from one of four weapons carrier elevators placed around the flight deck which serviced from below by several deck transient weapon stowage centers located in the ship's sponsons between the hangar and the flight deck. With an air wing of 90 to 100 embarked aircraft the pit-stop style of operations supports a sustained sortie rate of 180 to 220 sorties per 12-hour flight day with a surge capability of up to 400 sorties in a day. The carrier contains a total of around 17,500 tonnes of jet fuel which enables the carrier to sustain air operations for 21 days.
Hangar: The ship's hangar measures 34 meters wide, 8 meters high, and 260 meters long and is subdivided into two
aircraft servicing bays separated by a hangar division door which are each serviced by two deck-edge aircraft elevators. Each hangar bay includes a high hat region with a overhead bridge crane and an additional 2 meters of overhead clearance to allow for the removal of aircraft components requiring an overhead removal path. The aft sidewalls of the aft hangar bay contain two cargo elevators for transferring replacement aircraft engines from below deck storage to a jet engine repair shop located at the stern of the ship. The aft end of the hangar bay also includes a composite material repair shop which is capable of containing a single aircraft for composite structure repair and replacement operations. For pier-side replenishment a cargo ramp located along the starboard aft hangar wall is used to provide pier-side access of forklift driven palletized cargo into and from the hangar from one of eight pallet storage elevators located along the starboard side of the hangar which are each capable of transferring up to six pallets of cargo at once. The aft sidewalls of the aft hangar bay contain two cargo elevators for transferring replacement aircraft engines from below deck storage to a jet engine repair shop located at the stern of the ship. Forward of the hangar is a 50 meter extension used for storage which is divided into two decks, a lower storage deck which acts a storage for aircraft servicing gear and acts as a access to the in-deck cargo and weapon elevators and an upper storage deck which stores up to 50 6.0 x 2.4 x 2.4 meter modular electronic equipment containers. The modular electronic equipment container consists of a shipping container modified with a removable top which leave behind a rafted deck to which is mounted various electronic equipment and operator workstations for the ship's various subsystems. The containers are lifted into the flight deck or onto one of the ship's elevators where they are moved to the the high hat region in the hangar maintenance bays. The overhead bridge crane in the high hat region is then used to remove the top from the container
where the raft is then moved on rails to the forward hangar extension. The raft is then hoisted up into the overhead portion of the forward hangar extension and secured where the electrical, cooling water, and LAN connections are made with the electronics on the raft.
Catapults: The flight deck of the Inflictor contains four SDI designed electromagnetic catapults or "electropults" for launching aircraft. Each electropult weighs 225,000 kg, is slightly over 100 meters long, and is capable of launching aircraft weighting up to 45,000 kg at speeds of up to 180 knots. The electropult employs a linear synchronous motor supplied with electrical power via a cycloconverter by a network of four compensated pulsed alternators (CPAs) which provide the pulsed power necessary to accelerate the aircraft down the catapult. The four 81.6 MW compensated pulsed alternators consist of an axial field permanent magnet motor (PMM) with four 35 MGOe (Mega Gauss Oersteds) neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) magnets and dual stators sandwiching a rotor disk which serves as the flywheel energy storage mechanism. During the 45 second charge period power from the ship's zonal DC distribution system is fed into the alternator and the permanent magnet motor is used to spin the rotor disk up to a speed of 6400 rpm which results in the rotor storing 121 MJ of kinetic energy. Each alternator is around 89% efficient and is liquid cooled using a 50/50 ethylene glycol and water (EGW) mixture with a coolant flow rate of 150 liters per minute for each alternator. For launch the 484 MJ of energy stored in the four alternators is released in a 2 second pulse through a cycloconverter circuit with a peak power output into the circuit of of 326.4 MW. The cycloconverter is required to dissipate up to 528 kW of thermal energy and employs a cold-plate liquid coolant system using 50/50 ethylene glycol and water (EGW) coolant with a flow rate of 1400 liters per minute. The launch motor is a linear synchronous motor 103 meters long with a trough in the flick deck containing twin vertical stators running the length of the trough and carriage acting as the rotor which contains 160 35 MGOe (Mega Gauss Oersteds) neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) magnets along with a shuttle attached to the carriage which protrudes above the trough and attaches to the aircraft to be launch. A series of rollers are welded to the carriage which contain the carriage's travel in the vertical and horizontal directions and allow the trough to flex and twist with ship motion while retaining a constant air gap between the carriage magnets and the linear stators. The end of the 103 meter trough contains a series of eddy current brakes consisting of shorter reverse wound stators which cause the carriage to rapidly brake when it reaches the end of the trough. A spray water cooling is used to cool the launch motor between launches which cools the linear motor stators down to 75°C from 150°C in the 45 second recharge period between launches. Each electropult including launch motor, compensated pulsed alternators, cycloconverter, and associated cooling and power conversion hardware is its own entirely self contained assembly which allows any of the four electropults to be serviced or replaced independently of the other three.
Arresting gear: The Inflictor employs a conventional hydraulic arresting gear mechanism designed to catch and decelerate aircraft which land on the carrier's flight deck. The flight deck contains four arrestor wires spaced 15 meters apart which are each connected to an arresting gear mechanism below the flight deck. The arresting gear system is a hydro-pneumatic mechanism comprising a hydraulic cylinder and ram assembly, a crosshead with fixed pulleys, control valve system, hydraulic accumulator system, pneumatic air flasks, and an arresting cable. When an aircraft lands on the carrier the aircraft's tailhook catches the arresting cable spanning the flight deck. The forward momentum from the aircraft is then transferred from the arresting wire through a series of pulley mechanisms to the hydraulic accumulator system below decks. Through a set of moving pulley mechanism two ends of the cable pull on a moving crosshead running parallel to the hydraulic accumulator mechanism which forces a ram into the hydraulic cylinder filled with pressurized ethylene glycol hydraulic fluid. The force of the ram entering the cylinder forces the hydraulic fluid out of the cylinder through a metered control valve into a hydraulic accumulator until the aircraft's momentum has been completely absorbed and the aircraft has come to a stop. After the aircraft's tailhook has been disengaged from the control cable a valve in the accumulator is opened and high pressure air from the system's pneumatic air flasks is used to push the hydraulic fluid back into the cylinder which in turn retracts the ram and crosshead mechanism and pulls the arresting cable back to its original position.
Aircraft Elevators: The flight deck of the Inflictor has four aircraft elevators, one on the port side and two on the starboard side, which move aircraft between the flight deck and hangar. Each aircraft elevator is 26 meters long, 15 meters wide, and weighs 110 metric tons. The elevators are hydraulically driven and have the capacity to lift 90,000 kg; enough to accommodate two fully fueled and armed strike fighters or naval bomber.
Automated Weapons Handling System:The Inflictor has a a fully automated Mechanized Weapon Handling System (MWHS) which moves palletized munitions to and from the magazines, hangar, transient weapons storage areas, and the flight deck using an all-electric control system without the intervention of human crew members. The Mechanized Weapon Handling System significantly reduces manning requirements aboard the ship and is designed to enable "just-in-time" delivery of ordinance to aircraft awaiting re-arming on the flight deck in order to significantly improve aircraft turnaround times and sortie generation rates. The Mechanized Weapon Handling System can contain up to 4,800 tonnes of aircraft ordinance, sufficient for up to 21 days of continuous flight operations before the carrier must be replenished.
The Mechanized Weapon Handling System is designed to interface with weapons stored as all-up-rounds (AURs) in identical modular weapon containers which interface to the ship's Aircraft Weapons Management System (AWMS) which tracks the location and status of each weapon throughout the handling process. The Aircraft Weapons Management System (AWMS) is used to provide accurate and real-time aviation ammunition inventory management, manage ammunition storage and distribution, and provide real-time tracking of ammunition handling on the ship. Each modular weapon container measures 6.0 x 1.0 x 1.0 meters and can contain a single RBS 87, RBS 110, GB 1000, or DWS 1000 missile or munition, one AM70 mine, two Rb 100 missiles, two F3S torpedoes, two AM88 or AM105 mines, four Rb 80 missiles, or six RBS 90, RBS 93 or GB 100 munitions. Containerized weapons are first loaded through the cargo ramp on the starboard side of the ship to the hangar where they are then transferred down below using eight weapons transfer elevators into the ship's two four-story tall magazines which are located underneath the hangar bays along the centerline of the ship in between and forward of the ship's two nuclear propulsion plants. Expended weapons containers located in the magazine are also retrograded at the same time using the weapons transfer elevators. Each of the two magazines is divided longitudinally into two storage areas served by two magazine weapons shuttles. Each storage area has 800 weapon slots which can each store a single 6.0 x 1.0 x 1.0 meter modular weapon container, giving the ship the capability to store a total of 3,200 modular weapon containers. In order to prevent fires and blasts from spreading throughout the magazines the magazines and lifts are subdivided using a series of 36 blast-resistant mechanized doors, the largest of which are 3 meters wide, 6 meters tall, and weigh over 6 tonnes. When the ship's Aircraft Weapons Management System (AWMS) requests an ordinance delivery for an aircraft (including specified ordinance loadout and on-deck re-arming time) the shuttles in the magazines are used to extract the weapons from each container and transfer it to one of eight weapons transfer elevators which then move the individual weapons up through inclined elevator shafts to the mission weapons carrier gallery located beneath the hangar. Inside the mission weapons carrier gallery are a series of mission weapons carrier pallets which are then gather and transport all weapons needed needed for an aircraft mission as specified by the Aircraft Weapons Management System. Each mission weapons carrier pallet travels lengthwise along the mission weapons carrier gallery where it stops at the necessary weapons transfer elevators to acquire the specified mission weapons load for a particular aircraft and then travels laterally to one of four deck transient weapon stowage centers located in the ship's port side sponsons. In the deck transient weapon stowage centers the weapons from the weapons carrier pallet are loaded using robotic arms onto weapons handling robots which then travel up of four weapons carrier elevators up to the flight deck. On the flight deck the weapons handling robots then transport and load the weapons onto aircraft waiting on the flight deck to be armed or re-armed. De-arming of aircraft is accomplished by reversing the process, allowing ordinance from aircraft on the flight deck to be rapidly returned to the ship's magazines.
The 12 elevators including the 8 weapons transfer elevators and 4 weapons carrier elevators which are included in the Mechanized Weapon Handling System are electrically driven maglev-type cordless elevators which can each lift up to 10,000 kg of bombs, missiles, and other munitions at a rate of up to 50 meters per minute. The elevators are driven using linear motors attached to the four base corner points of each elevator platform, each gripping aligned magnetic levitation tracks which pull the elevators up the inclined elevator shafts inside the ship. The linear motors consist of an ironless long-stator linear synchronous motor consisting of coil units arranged in a double array configuration along the corners of the elevator shaft which are driven by compact, SiC IGBT based inverter units distributed along the elevator shafts. The linear motors are driven by a set of DC busbars in each elevator shaft which are supplied from the ship's zonal DC power distribution system. The position of each elevator is controlled using inductive influence sensors and each elevator includes two mechanical braking systems including an operation brake and an emergency brake. The elevators can move up and down and left to-right inside a series of inclined elevator shafts, significantly speeding up the entire weapons delivery process.
Passive Protection & Damage Control:In addition to active protection systems and various electronic warfare and decoy systems the Inflictor class supercarrier features significant amounts of passive protection including several thousand tonnes of armor which are designed to increase the ship's resilience to missile, bomb, torpedo, and mine attacks. The ship is divided by 23 longitudinal bulkheads and has a triple bottom covering over 80% of the ship's length. Covering the ship's below-deck hangar, propulsion and machinery plants, steering gear, aviation fuel tanks, magazines are armored boxes made from 50 to 80 mm thick welded Ti-6211 titanium alloy plates backed by a spall liner consisting of composite panels made from S-2 glass fibers embedded into an epoxy resin matrix. The ship's side protection systems (SPS) covers approximately 80% of the ship's waterline length consist of four internal longitudinal bulkheads behind the outer hull plating. The outer two compartments are liquid loaded with jet fuel or seawater while the inner compartments are voids. The side protection system has a depth of 9.0 meters in the central portion of the ship. and is intended to resist the detonation of a 1,000 kg TNT charge. The side protection system also allows lists from flooding to be corrected by counterflooding empty void compartments and/or draining the liquid filled compartments.
Damage control on the Inflictor is largely automated due in parts to SDI Naval Systems developed Automated Ship Control System (ASCS). The ASCS is controlled by a centralized computer which amongst other functions provides real-time damage information to the crew through a graphical display located in the ship's damage control center. Additionally both the ship's bridge and CIC also also fitted with displays connected to the ASCS. The ACSC is designed to run automatically where after the ASCS detects damage to a compartment it will immediately isolate it and activate appropriate damage control measures. Alternatively the ASCS can be set to manual mode where the operator will have to specify the damage control measures after the system detects ship damage. The ASCS also controls and monitors the ship's engines and machinery and will alert engineers on watch duty through their assigned tablet computer when an engineering issue or machinery failure is detected and requires attention. This remove the need for time based maintenance, the system will simply alert the crew when a component or system requires maintenance. Each compartment and each piece of machinery on the ship are monitored using SDI's Two Wire Automatic Remote Sensing Evaluation System (TWARSES) which includes both visible CCD and infrared cameras located in each ship compartment. After damage is detected in a compartment the ASCS can respond in a variety of ways including isolating the damaged compartment by closing the electrically actuated watertight doors around the compartment. If the IR camera detects a fire the system will activate the compartment's overhead sprinklers and can also pump the compartment with aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), high velocity fog, and/or carbon dioxide agents if necessary. After the fire is extinguished water and firefighter agents are removed using a bilge draining pump installed in each compartment. The ASCS will also reroute ventilation, electrical power, and water around the damaged area and activate additional pumps, generators and other devices if necessary. If the compartment has been breached and is in danger of flooding the system will flood the compartment with foam which rapidly solidifies and restores reserve buoyancy. This system however is only used as an absolute last resort as it renders the compartment unusable. The ASCS also controls the ship's CBRN protection system by passing air from the ventilation intakes through containment filters before it enters the ship. Air in the ship is maintained at 5.0 millibar above local atmospheric pressure to provide a positive pressure and prevent contaminated air from entering into the ship through a breach in the hull.
In addition to the ASCS system the ship's flight deck features its own separate aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) washdown system to combat fires on the flight deck. The flight deck is divided into 24 firefighting zones with several hundred flush-deck and deck-edge nozzles mounted in the flight deck capable of delivering up to 4,000 liters of AFFF solution to each firefighting zone. Each of the carrier's four aircraft elevators also contains four nozzles capable of spraying up to 150 liters per minute of AFFF solution onto each elevator. The deck washdown system for each firefighting zone is activated manually through operator panels located in the primary flight control tower and the navigation bridge. The flight deck also contains 26 AFFF hose stations which also contain portable PKP and CO2 fire extinguishers.
Armament:S70 Vertical Launch System The Inflictor class ship is fitted with 64 total S70 vertical launch cells located in eight 8-cell modules mounted in port sponsons located on the sides of the ship's twin island superstructures. The S70 is a cold-launch system which uses missiles encased in individual concentric launch cells as modular all-up rounds (AURs) each containing the missile, concentric launch tube, launch tube electronics, and missile ejection system. The launch cells are inclined at a 10 degree angle towards the ships centerline to prevent missiles with malfunctioning rocket motors from crashing back onto the deck after launch. Each launch cell is capable of accommodating either a single launch tube which can contain a missiles with a maximum length of 7.0 meters, diameter of 0.6 meters, and a weight of 2,500 kg. The missiles are ejected from each launch tube using a steam generator system which uses a small solid-propellant gas generator which exhausts through cooling water into the base of each launch cell, creating expanding high pressure steam which then forces the missile out of the launch tube. Safety and passive protection features of each VLS module include concentric anti-fragmentation shields placed around each launch cell tube to prevent in-cell missile fratricide and a deluge system which can flood each 8 cell module in the event of a missile catching fire in the launch tube. Launch tubes are connected to the launch cells through shock collar that is designed to absorb acceleration loads from an underwater detonation near the ship. The individual missile cells are connected to the ship's weapon control system via redundant port, central, and starboard fiber-optic Ethernet lines which transmits launch commands to the individual missiles and allows for missile status information before launch to be sent back to the weapon control system.
