ES2659027T3 - Deployable device on the seabed to house and launch at least one weapon - Google Patents

Abstract

Device (2) to house and launch a weapon (4), which can be deployed on the seabed separated from a means of transport, with at least one closed tank (6) to house the weapon (4), means to launch the weapon (4) and a target detection device, characterized in that the device (2) has a buoy attached to it by cable and an emission-reception device that can be brought to the surface of the water by means of the buoy.

Description

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DESCRIPTION

Device deployable on the seabed to house and launch at least one weapon The invention relates to a device for housing and launching at least one weapon.

It is known to sow marine mines in maritime areas, for example in front of ports, to prevent the movements of enemy ships there. Because marine mines are weapons linked to a position and have only a very limited range of action, it is necessary, if necessary, to plant a large number of marine mines, which later, when they are no longer needed, can no longer recover or only With great difficulty.

If submarines are used for the seeding of weapons, the seeding of the weapons is done through the weapons tubes also called submarine torpedo tubes. In addition to this it is also known to equip the submarines with a housing and ejection tank fixed outside the pressure body of the submarine to the fuselage of the submarine, from which weapons can be expelled during the submarine's immersion navigation. An accommodation and ejection deposit of this type is known, for example, from DE 103 35 524 B3.

In US 801,719 A (D5) a torpedo ejector device is described, in which a torpedo suspended from a rail can be ejected from a conduit configured in the fuselage of a marine vehicle, by extracting the rail out of the conduit .

From document DE 39 24 386 A1 a submarine weapon is known, which has a starter and can be deployed on a seabed from above the water surface. The starter has a device to position an enemy target. If such a target is detected, an effector is started from the starter and moves on a calculated path to the target.

With this background, the invention has set itself the task of making available a weapon system that, with a clearly minor complexity, makes possible an effective blockade of a maritime zone and after its use can be easily recovered again.

This task is solved by means of a device for accommodating and launching at least one weapon with the characteristics set forth in claim 1. Advantageous improvements of this device are deduced from the dependent claims, the following description and the drawing. In this regard, according to the invention, the features set forth in the dependent claims may also form the solution according to the invention, according to claim 1, respectively by themselves or also in a suitable combination.

The device according to the invention for housing and launching a weapon can be applied separately from a means of transport on the seabed. That is, the device can be carried with a means of transport, such as an underwater or surface vehicle or an aircraft, to a sea area to be blocked and submerged there on the seabed. The means of transport can then leave the affected maritime area again, while the device acts on site automatically. When the device is no longer needed in the maritime zone, it can be picked up again by means of transport and, if necessary, used elsewhere.

The device according to the invention has at least one closed tank to house a weapon. The tank can be configured in such a way that the weapon is lodged in it in a humid way. However, this makes relatively short intervals necessary for the maintenance of the weapon. Therefore, deposits in which the weapons are housed dry are preferred. This makes it possible to leave the device if necessary several years, ready for use, at its point of placement on the seabed. The device can advantageously present several of these deposits and, correspondingly thereto, several weapons.

In the case of weapons housed in the depot or in the depots, these are conveniently weapons that can move towards a target to fight autonomously and, if necessary, over long distances, such as torpedoes or missiles. This makes it possible to block a relatively large maritime zone with a device. In addition to the at least one tank for housing a weapon, the device according to the invention also has means for launching the weapon from the tank. In the case of the means for launching the weapon, it may be devices, with which a lid can be opened that closes an extraction opening of the tank and may be devices, with which a weapon can be brought to an outside position of the deposit.

In order to act autonomously on the seabed, the device according to the invention preferably also has an objective detection device. Here it can be sonar installations, which detect noises from surface or submarine vessels that navigate, for example, in the environment of the deployed device. The target detection device may conveniently also contain means that make a friend-enemy identification possible. After the target detection device has detected a possible target, the device according to the invention can authorize, preferably autonomously, the removal of a weapon to combat this target through a correspondingly configured command. In addition to this, the device also has a buoy fixedly connected to the device by cable, with which an emission-reception device can be brought to the surface of the water from the device. Through this

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The transmitting-receiving device can then communicate a possible target detected to a remote command post, where it can then be decided whether or not this objective should be fought, after which an order corresponding to the command of the device is forwarded. Likewise, the device according to the invention, once all the weapons housed therein have already been used to combat the target, can be used to detect undetected movements of ships around the device and communicate them to the command post. That is, the device according to the invention can also be used as a pure scanning device.

The device according to the invention preferably has a conformation, in which the tank for housing the weapon of the device deployed on the seabed has a certain distance to the seabed, such that a weapon located in the tank can be launched safely from the reservoir distanced from the seabed. For this, the device advantageously has several and preferably four columns for mounting the device on the seabed.

These columns can preferably be passed from a position in close contact with the device to an outward position outside the device. In this regard, a conformation in which the columns are pivotally articulated to the device is advantageous. In the state in which the columns make contact with the device, the device occupies relatively little space, which has a positive effect in terms of housing the device in a vehicle, with which the device is taken to its position of use. In addition to this, this conformation also makes it possible, if necessary, to take the device from a submarine to its position of use on the sea floor, through a sluice configured in the submarine.

The columns can also advantageously form telescopic cylinders. That is, the columns can be configured eg hydraulically telescopic, which makes it possible to adjust the length of the individual columns to individually compensate for irregularities on the sea floor.

A tubular body can advantageously form, in a constructively simple manner, the at least one reservoir to house the weapon. This body can preferably be configured open at its two ends, where the openings configured at the two ends of the body can be advantageously closed, tightly to pressure, by means of covers arranged there in a tilting manner. In the body the weapon can stay dry. The body conveniently has an inner diameter, which corresponds to the outer diameter of the weapon to be housed therein.

In the case of a dry housing of the weapon in the tank a low pressure prevails inside the tank in relation to the outside environment of the tank, at the point of placement of the device according to the invention on the sea floor. To open the lid that closes the tank, it is therefore necessary to adapt the pressure inside the tank to the ambient pressure. To this end, the device according to the invention presents in a convenient development means for generating a pressure compensation in the tank to house the weapon. With these means the pressure inside the tank is preferably increased to the outside ambient pressure of the tank. For example, in relation to this, a valve may be arranged in the tank, which can be activated to open, by means of a device control, to irrigate the tank. As soon as the pressure compensation in the tank has taken place, the two tank caps can be opened and the weapon can be launched from the tank.

It is preferred that the weapon be housed in the tank at a pressure that is below the pressure of the prevailing air above the water surface. For this, the device according to the invention advantageously has means for generating a low pressure in the tank to house the weapon. In this way the container can present a connection, to which a vacuum pump can be connected. This connection may preferably be configured in a valve intended to irrigate the tank, such that this valve can be used both to evacuate the tank and to irrigate the tank.

A submarine is also shown. This submarine features a sluice to house and launch a device, as described above. Means for deploying and housing this device are provided in the lock. The sluice is preferably arranged forward of the submarine in an area between a pressure body of the submarine and an outer shell that surrounds the pressure body at a distance, where it is accessible from inside the pressure body. The lock can normally be closed at its two ends, tightly with pressure, with covers.

In the submarine sluice, a removable projection can be advantageously arranged from the sluice, with which the device can be brought to a position outside the submarine. The projection preferably has the shape of a rail, which is arranged so that it can move axially on a guide profile disposed in the tank. The device can be fixed directly or indirectly to the projection. As soon as a lid that closes the sluice is opened, the projection can be moved from a position inside the sluice to a position outside the sluice, so that also the device for accommodating and launching at least one weapon is found outside the submarine and from there you can get off to the seabed. The descent of the device is preferably carried out with a cable, to which the device is fixed.

In this way, according to an advantageous improvement of the submarine, it is planned that the projection be guided in the projection

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a cable that can be thrown and recovered by a cable winch, which has means for detachable fixing to the device. The cable winch is preferably arranged here in a fixed manner in an area of the airlock next to the pressure body.

The projection can also advantageously form a guide rail, in which the device is guided so that it can move in axial direction. In this respect, the guide rail itself is conveniently guided on the inner wall of the sluice in an axially movable way, so that it can be thrown in part from the submarine. On the guide rail, the guide means can be engaged by means of the device configured to accommodate and launch at least one weapon, with which the device can move in the axial direction of the guide rail within the guide rail, such that the device is completely out of the submarine with the guide rail removed from the sluice. To move the guide rail and the device on the guide rail, a push chain drive, ie a push chain coupled to a drive, is provided within the lock.

The projection is conveniently arranged, to launch the submarine device, on an upper side of the sluice. This makes possible a suspended arrangement of the device to house and launch at least one weapon in the projection, such that the device with the projection can descend to the seabed in a position outside the submarine, simply because of the force of gravity.

The invention will be explained in more detail in the following, based on examples of embodiment represented in the drawing. In the drawing they show:

fig. 1 a device to house and launch at least one weapon in a frontal view, in a schematically simplified manner,

fig. 2 an enlarged depicted detail of fig. 2 without a tank cover, fig. 3 the device according to fig. 1 in a side view,

fig. 4 the device according to fig. 1 in a longitudinal section along the line IV-IV in fig. 1, fig. 5 an enlarged detail A of fig. 4, and

fig. 6 a bow area of a submarine in a sectional view, schematically very simplified.

The drawing shows a device 2 to house and launch two weapons 4. The device 2 can be deployed on the seabed and has two tanks 6 arranged in a plane next to each other. Each of these tanks 6 is used to house a weapon 4. Above the tank 6 there is another tank 8, whose purpose of use is explained in more detail below. The tanks 6 and 8 are formed by tubular bodies of the same length, which are joined by connecting pieces 10, which extend all along the tanks 6 and 8.

On the outer side of two connecting pieces 10, which respectively connect a tank 6 to the tank 8, two columns 12 of the device 2 are articulated respectively, where they are coupled in motion respectively to a tilting drive 14, and can be tilted by the drive tilting 14 from a position, in which they make contact with the device 2 (see fig. 6), to a position where they protrude out of the reservoirs 6 and 8. At the ends of the columns 12 away from the pieces of connection 10 are configured about 16 feet, which are equipped with a tip. These tips configured on the feet 16 engage when the device 2 is deployed on the seabed therein and confer on the device 2, thus, a good stability.

The four columns 12 are respectively configured as hydraulic telescopic cylinders and are fed with hydraulic liquid from two hydraulic accumulators 18, of which one is respectively arranged on the outer side of a connecting piece 10 that joins a tank 6 to the tank 8. The Individual telescopic cylinders can be launched on a different extension, independently of each other, to compensate for irregularities of the sea floor. Hydraulic accumulators 18 supply hydraulic fluid, through hydraulic conduits 20, also to all other hydraulic devices of device 2.

The two tanks 6 are closed respectively with a cover 22 at its front end in the direction of removal of the weapon 4 and with a cover 24 at the far end thereof. The covers 22 and 24 are pivotally articulated in the reservoirs 6 and can be opened and closed respectively by their own tilting drive 26. As clarified in fig. 5, the covers 22 are sealed by sealing rings 28 with respect to the inner wall of the reservoir 6. The sealing rings 28 are arranged in annular grooves, which are configured on the outer perimeter of the covers 22 in an area of the covers 22 that engage in the tank 6. Similarly, the covers 24 are also sealed with sealing rings 28 with respect to the inner wall of the tanks 6.

In tanks 6, the housing of weapons 4 is carried out at low pressure. To generate this low pressure in the

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inside the tanks 6, each of the tanks 6 has a vacuum connection 30. Each vacuum connection 30 is arranged on the perimetrically outer side of one of the tanks 6. In order to open the covers 22 of the tanks underwater To launch the weapon 4, each reservoir 6 also has an irrigation valve 32. In this respect, they respectively form an irrigation valve 32 and a vacuum connection a construction unit.

From fig. 2 it follows that inside the tanks 6, three guide rails 34 are configured respectively, which extend in the longitudinal direction of the tanks 6. On these guide rails 34 the weapon 4 located in the tank 6 is housed and is guided when leaving the tank 6. In addition to this inside the tanks 6, a fastening device 36 is respectively configured on the upper side of the tanks 6, which immobilizes the gun 4 in its positive position in its housing position. in the tank 6. For this, a clamping and guiding pin 38 configured in the gun 4 engages in a groove, which is configured in a guide rail configured below the clamping device 36.

The tank 8 is closed tightly with pressure by means of covers 40 at its two ends. The covers 40 are screwed to the reservoir 8. The reservoir 8 is used to house or arrange the means for launching the weapon and the target detection device. All the components arranged in the tank 8 are fixed to a frame 42 that can be inserted into the tank 8 (fig. 4). The actions to be carried out by the device 2 are initiated by means of a control 44 and a valve block 46. To supply the device 2 with electric power, batteries 48 are provided. All the electronic data processing to be carried out in the device 2 is assumed by a processor unit 50.

Several sonar devices 52 are arranged on the outer side of the tank (fig. 3). In the case of sonar devices 52, these are passive sonar devices 52, such as those also used in submarines.

In the tank 8 there is also a housing 54, which can be opened by means of clappers in relation to the external environment of the device 2. In the housing 54 an ascending thrust body 56 is arranged. This ascending thrust body 56 is connected through a self-separator coupling 58 to a pressurized gas accumulator 60 and, if necessary, can be filled with gas. The coupling 58 and the pressurized gas accumulator 60 are also arranged in the housing 54. In addition to this the upward thrust body 56 is attached to a cable mounted in a containment chamber 62 in the housing 54. The upwardly thrust body 56 is used to pick up the device from the seabed again, after use, by means of a transport vehicle. For this, the housing 54 is opened and the ascending thrust body 56 is filled with gas and then separated from the pressurized gas accumulator 60 by means of the coupling 58. After this the ascending thrust body 56 ascends in the direction of the surface of the water, where you drag the cable attached to it. In this regard, the cable is guided through an opening 64, in which a stop 66 for a hook or a coupling of a lifting equipment of the transport vehicle is also arranged.

The submarine 68 shown in fig. 6 is appropriate for throwing and picking up the device 2 described above. The submarine 68 usually has a pressure body 70, which is surrounded on the outside by an outer shell 72. In the bow area of the submarine 68 the outer shell 72 is distanced from the pressure body 70 and thus forms an intermediate chamber 74 through which water passes.

In the intermediate chamber 74 a lock 76 is arranged. It is used to accommodate and launch the device 2. From a passage of the pressure body 78, which has a smaller diameter than the remaining lock 76, it is possible to access the lock 76 from inside the pressure body 70. The passage of the pressure body 78 can be closed by a base cover 80. An outer opening of the lock 76 can be closed by a cover 82, which is pivotally articulated on the edge of the opening of the sluice 76 and can be tilted to a position, in which the opening is fully exposed. On its outer side it is fixed to the cover 82, through a connecting rod 84, an outer covering 86 which, in the closed position of the cover 82, is flush with the outer shell 72 of the submarine 68 and thus It is also almost part of the outer shell 72 favoring the flow.

In the lock 76, a guide rail 88 is provided on the upper side which extends in the longitudinal direction of the lock 76. On this guide rail 88 a projection 90 in the form of a rail is movably fixed which, with the cover 82 open, can be partially launched from the submarine. The device 2 is fixed to the projection 90 suspended. For this purpose, a guiding profile is configured on the lower side of the projection 90, in which a guiding profile 92 configured in the device 2 is engaged. The guiding profile 92 is arranged on the device 2 on the upper side of the reservoir 8 and It extends essentially over the entire length of the container 8.

Through the guide profile 92 the device 2 is guided so that it can move in the axial direction of the projection 90 and can move, when the projection 90 is partially outside the submarine 68, to a position in which the device 2 It is completely outside the submarine 68. To move the device 2 in the lock 76, a push chain 94 is arranged, which can be introduced into the lock 76 by means of a push chain drive 96.

While the device 2 is removed from the submarine, it is suspended from a cable 98, which is fixed to the stop 66 of the

device 2. The cable 98 is lowered and picked up by means of a cable winch 100, which is arranged in the area of the passage of the pressure body 78, where it is guided through an inversion roller 102 disposed at the end of the projection 90 , away from the pressure body 70 of submarine 68.

During the housing of the device 2 in the lock 76, in which the columns 12 of the device 2 make a close contact with it, the device 2 is also guided on a guide 104 configured on the bottom side of the lock 76. The guide 104 is also used as a containment chamber and guide for thrust chain 94.

List of reference symbols

2 Device

4 Weapon

6 Deposit

8 Deposit

10 Connecting piece

12 column

14 Tilt Drive

16 foot

18 Hydraulic accumulator

20 Hydraulic Duct

22 Cover

24 cover

26 Tilt Drive

28 Seal Ring

30 Vacuum drive

32 Irrigation valve

34 Guidance rail

36 Clamping device

38 Clamping and guiding knob

40 Cover

42 Frame

44 Knob

46 Valve Block

48 battery

50 processor unit

52 Sonar device

54 Housing

56 Ascensional Force Body

58 Coupling

60 Pressurized gas accumulator

62

64

66

68

70

72

74

76

78

80

82

84

86

88

90

92

94

96

98

100

102

104

Containment chamber

Opening

Stop, top, maximum as a noun, top as an adverb

Submarine Pressure body Outer shell Intermediate chamber Sluice

Pressure body guide

Base cap

Top

Union Linkage

Exterior revestment

Guide rail

Outgoing

Guidance Profile

Thrust chain

Drive chain drive

Cable

Cable winch Reverse roller Guide

Claims (7)

1. - Device (2) to house and launch a weapon (4), which can be deployed on the seabed separated from a means of transport, with at least one closed tank (6) to house the weapon (4), means to launch the weapon (4) and a target detection device, characterized in that the device (2) has a buoy attached to the 5 same by cable and an emission-reception device that can be carried to the surface of the water by means of the buoy. 2. - Device (2) according to one of the preceding claims with several, preferably four, columns (12) for mounting the device (2) on the seabed. 3. - Device (2) according to claim 2, wherein the columns (12) can be passed, preferably by tilting, from a position in close contact with the device (2) to an outstanding position 10 out of the device (2). 4. - Device (2) according to one of claims 2 or 3, wherein the columns (12) form telescopic cylinders. 5. - Device (2) according to one of the preceding claims, in which a tubular body forms the reservoir (6) to accommodate the weapon (4), which can be sealed tightly by means of covers (22, 24) 15 arranged tiltingly at both ends. 6. - Device (2) according to one of the preceding claims, which has means for generating a pressure compensation in the tank (6) to house the weapon (4). 7. - Device (2) according to one of the preceding claims, which has means for generating a low pressure in the tank (6) to house the weapon (4). twenty