March 3, 2016

Australia CEP contenders - Japan's KHI

Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI's), Kobe, Japan shipyard.
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(Map on KHI's Kobe shipyard)
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Submarine Matters follows a philosophy of not favouring any one of the 3 contenders in the CEP. There are weaknesses and strengths in all 3 bids. 

It is important to get more acquainted with the 3 contenders. This will be done in four articles (one per week). There will be an article each for DCNS and TKMS and 2 (KHI and MHI) in the Japanese bid. There are actually three partners in the Japanese bid which may make things potentially complicated. Within the Japanese bid are:

- the Japanese Ministry of Defence (JMoD or just MOD) important in what has been described as a government-to-government bid

-  Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) described as the leader of the bid, and

-  Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) (and within KHI its subsidiary Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation (KSC)). KHI is much more than a sub-contractor or supplier as it assembles Soryus itself every second year.

KAWASAKI HEAVY INDUSTRIES (KHI)

KHI is the parent company of a group of more 100 affiliates and subsidiaries in Japan and overseas. KHI builds aircraft, helicopters, rockets, satellites, vehicles, factories, huge fixed generators, replacement engines of all types and other equipment.

Subsidiary KSC builds commercial vessels, including oil tankers, bulk, LNG and LPG carriers, container ships, jetfoils. KSC also builds warships for the Japanese Navy including submarines along with essential submarine components like snorkels, propellers and diesels.

KHI has 35, 471 employees (2015) and net sales of 1.49 Trillion Yen in (Fiscal year ended March 31, 2015). That is equivalent to A$189 Billion (by my reckoning!).

KHI works very closely with MHI on design, testing and supplying submarines parts to each other. Both companies build their submarines at Kobe. Perhaps each builds whole sections then transports by barge or rail(?) the sections to the other's Kobe submarine yard?

Note that since the Hayashio/Natsushio class in the 1960s KHI has assembled/launched every second Japanese submarine. This permanent arrangement is evident in the latest Soryu class - see "Built By" in the SORYU TABLE below.

SORYU TABLE (with earlier Oyashios, as at March 2, 2016)
SS
No.
Building
No.
Pennant
No.
MoF approved amount ¥ Billions & FY
LABs, LIBs, AIP
Laid Down
Laun
-ched
Commi-ssioned
Built
By
5SS
8105
SS-590/ TS3608
¥52.2B
FY1993
LABs only
 Jan 1994
Oct 1996
Mar 1998
 KHI
6SS-15SS
Oyashios
10 subs
8106
-8115
SS-591-600
¥52.2B per sub
FY1994-FY2003
LABs only
 Feb 1994
Mar 2008
 MHI
&
KHI
16SS Soryu
Mark 1
8116
SS-501
¥60B FY2004
LABs + AIP
Mar 2005
Dec 2007
Mar
2009
MHI
17SS
8117
SS-502
¥58.7B FY2005
LABs + AIP
Mar 2006
Oct 2008
Mar
2010
KHI
18SS
8118
SS-503
¥56.2 FY2006
LABs + AIP
Feb 2007
Oct 2009
Mar
2011
MHI
19SS
8119
SS-504
¥53B FY2007
LABs + AIP
Mar 2008
Nov 2010
Mar
2012
KHI
20SS
8120
SS-505
¥51B FY2008
LABs + AIP
Mar 2009
Oct 2011
Mar
2013
MHI
No
21SS
No 21SS built
22SS
8121
SS-506
¥52.8B FY2010
LABs + AIP
Jan 2011
Oct 2013
Mar
2015
KHI
23SS
8122
SS-507
¥54.6B FY2011
LABs + AIP
Feb 2012
Oct 2014
Mar 2016
MHI
24SS
8123
SS-508
¥54.7B FY2012
LABs + AIP
Mar 2013
Nov 2015
Mar 2017
KHI
25SS
8124
SS-509
¥53.1B FY2013
LABs + AIP
Oct 2013
Nov 2016
Mar 2018
MHI
26SS
8125
SS-510
¥51.7B FY2014
LABs + AIP
?
?
Mar 2019
KHI
27SS
Soryu
Mark 2
8126
SS-511
¥64.3B FY2015
LIBs only
?
?
Mar 2020
MHI
28SS
8127
SS-512
¥63.6B FY2016
LIBs only
?
?
Mar 2021
KHI
29SS
?
?
 1st of New
Japanese  Class
LIBs only
?
?
2023?
MHI?
Aus1
?
?
1st of new Aus class (if Japan chosen)
LIBs only
2027?
2029?
2032?
in Aus or Jpn?
Aus2 to 12?
?
?
between 5 and 11 additional Aus subs
LIBs only
from 2029?
from 2031?
from 2033?
in Aus or Jpn?

Table courtesy of updates provided to Submarine Matters. LABs = lead-acid batteries, 
AIP = air independent propulsion, LIBs = lithium-ion batteries.  
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A selection of important components KHI builds for submarines includes:

New Diesels - KHI developed four-stroke diesel engines for surface ships with some assistance from  MAN Diesel & Turbo. However, the Soryu submarine's 2 x Kawasaki 12V/25/25 SB diesels are sufficiently modified to be considered original Kawasaki products. This uniqueness is a security  advantage over European companies (MTU-Germany and MAN-France) that might be tempted to share submarine diesel technology with China (a much bigger and attractive customer than Australia). The KHI 12V/25/25 SB will need to be heavily modified into a new engine to be compatible with the faster running demands of Lithium-ion Batteries on Soryu Mark 2s, from 27SS onwards. 

New Snorkel System - this is an integrated system of snorkel and diesel generation capable of operating very quickly and in storms (in the Southern Ocean and tropics). This means that during storms a submarine will not have to "go deep" below the weather (while its batteries run down) or surface indiscretely. It can remain at more discrete snorting depth. 


Not a KHI propeller but a 7 blade propeller used for new Kilo submarines.
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Propellers - KHI also makes propellers. One type is the Kawasaki Controllable Pitch Propeller – Benefits include "low vibration, low noise, high efficiency and excellent cavitation performance. It also makes it easy to control speed and quickly bring a vessel to a standstill without reversing the engine while delivering enhanced manoeuvrability  as well as safety.”

KHI is committed to building submarine components and assembling every second Soryu even though KHI makes no profit in submarines. KHI sees submarines as an important part of doing business with the Japanese Government. KHI realises this is part of the framework within which it can sell more profitable defence products to the Japanese government including surface ships, aircraft, helicopters, rockets, satellites, replacement engines of all types and other equipment. 

The Japanese Government will also appreciate KHI's efforts in helping to make Japan's first major defence sale (to Australia) possible. That is - if Japan is chosen.

Pete

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pete,
On ships, motor boats there are benefits to having a CP propeller when trying to operate a diesel at its most optimum point by monitoring for example the exhaust gas temperatures but I believe (I may be wrong) that all submarines use fixed pitch propeller.
KQN

Ztev Konrad said...

"KHI 4 stroke diesels for surface ships" - I hope that includes submarines as there are specific requirements for warships and even more for submarines.
a 4 stroke diesel for a modest ship such as a ferry would be of no use, as would be the gigantic 2 strokes for cargo ships.
Not sure why a diesel has to be 'faster' ie with higher RPM to charge a Li battery? Would that just mean the generator part was sized for a higher current? In any case they are usually software controlled to allow them to operate over a range of loadings.
The RAN I understand has damaged its Collins diesels by poor operating procedure, interestingly Hedemora is now Australian owned. Will scaling up the smaller TKMS designs again run into the same problem Kockums did when it used a locomotive/drilling rig diesel from Hedemora ( their previous sub diesels were much smaller).

In some ways the use of superlatives from the Collins class- best conventional submarine - most advanced combat system etc- is being repeated, but of course it was all hubris

Anonymous said...

Well the cynic in me says that at least this delay will give Japan more time to "walk the talk" on their strategic partnership, which right now is nothing more than hot air and cozy ministerial meetings.

I was shocked to find out that to this day there is zero cooperation between the JMSDF and RAN, if you exclude showing up at some of the same multinational exercises (Rimpac) and a few port visits in Japan.

By contrast, it's the French who are exercising with RAN ships in the South China Sea and Persian Gulf, deploying amphibs to Australia, patrolling Australian EEZs in the Indian Ocean, intercepting drug runners headed for Australia, cooperating on disaster response in the South Pacific etc.

And just this past week the French were in the South China Sea with the world's most advanced ASW frigate training Malaysia's submarine force (against China obviously)...

It's all well and good to hope that Japan will throw her weight around if the balloon ever goes up, but at least for now there's precious little real commitment on show.

-HK


Pete said...

Hi KQN

Such is the usual (literally shrouded in) secrecy of the latest propeller technology the range of technical options cannot be pinned down with certainty. Fixed, controllable pitch, variable pitch may all be possible depending on a submarine maker's requirements.

This small paragraph from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propeller#Skewback_propeller is interesting:

"An advanced type of propeller used on German Type 212 submarines is called a skewback propeller. As in the scimitar blades used on some aircraft, the blade tips of a skewback propeller are swept back against the direction of rotation.

In addition, the blades are tilted rearward along the longitudinal axis, giving the propeller an overall cup-shaped appearance. This design preserves thrust efficiency while reducing cavitation, and thus makes for a quiet, stealthy design.[16]

A small number of ships [and maybe subs] use propellers with winglets similar to those on some airplanes, reducing tip vortices and improving efficiency."

And then there are shrouded impellers or propulsors http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/systems/shrouded-propulsor.htm :

"A shrouded propulsor is a directional collar around the submarine's propeller. It lowers the passive sonar signature of the sub and provides improvement over exposed propeller designs in both efficiency.

The Improved Los Angeles (SSN-751 onwards) have a shrouded propulsor, as do all subsequent classes of American attack submarines. At least one Russian KILO has had its propeller replaced by a shrouded propulsor, which is now used by new US and British nuclear submarines.

A shrouded propulsor is identical to a standard shafted propeller, with a cylindrical ring of metal attached at the the tips of the propeller blades around the full circumference....much more"

See "Further Reading" in http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/systems/shrouded-propulsor.htm right sidebar.

Regards

Pete

Anonymous said...

MoD does not use ”New Snorkel System” but “ Snorkel Generation System”. The Snorkel Generation System is as same as existing system consisted of peripheral equipment (e.g., controllers), new generation system and snorkel system. The new generation system is consisted of diesel generator, active anti-vibration system, inlet/exhaust silencer and sound insulator of generator room.

Change of tender method from open to selective tendering is expected by expression of Snorkel Generation System. Although specialized equipment such as active anti-vibration system is required and there is no competitor, the open tendering is adopted for purchase of 12V/25/25, because the diesel generator belongs to general industrial equipment. In the open tendering, MOD must disclose requirements of the diesel generator and accept the cheapest generator even if in the case of unwanted product or manufacturers. In Snorkel Generation System for which selective tendering will be definitely adopted, KHI can freely select diesel generator (= KHI generator) as a part. MOD can exclude MTU, MAN or nightmared Chinese-MTU, hide requirement of the generator and avoid meaningless time-wasting open tendering.

A brief report on the development of Snorkel Generation System (budget 6.1B yen) shows some hints on the next generator. Unless major amount of budget is spent for the core diesel generator, the Board of Audit (BoA) would think the development is inefficiency. 60-70% of budget (ca.4B yen) may be spent for the generator. The cost of diesel generator is expected to be much higher than other costs (active anti-vibration system, etc.). As the cost of 12V/25/25 is 2B yen, the cost of the new generator is much higher (>1B yen=+50%) than 12V/25/25. As BoA thinks that performance improvement of +50% is just reflection of increased budget and not development, I expect three times improvement in diesel performance.

Pete said...

Hi Anonymous [3/3/16 7:38 PM]

Thankyou for the information on the Snorkel Generation System.

Regards

Pete

Anonymous said...

Pete

Elegant fashion, tasty bread and cakes, open-minded people, mild weather, most European-like city in Japan, modern CBD, richness of tourist attraction and nature, its compactness for metropolis, these features make Kobe the most attractive city in Japan to live.

If allowed the opportunity, you can watch submarine from the Harbarland, one of the most popular attraction in Kobe.

Regards

Pete said...

Hi Anonymous [at 3/3/16 11:03 PM

Thanks for the tip. Harborland, Kobe looks quite an attraction - see

http://www.harborland.co.jp/en/

Regards

Pete