Supreme Stealth Technology
The key to gaining a tactical advantage through stealth technology is invisibility. This is nothing new - for millions of years many animals in nature have used their colour to disappear against the background.
Usually it’s beneficial to clearly see and be seen, but in threat situations this can turn a conventional or an apparent stealth ship into a sitting duck. However, a ship like the Kockums Visby Class is very difficult to detect because of its Genuine Holistic Stealth – GHOST® – technology, which gives it greater operational freedom when countering a threat.
The Visby Class GHOST ®
The Visby is the first vessel in the world to have fully developed stealth technology. The goal is to reduce all its signatures to a minimum to avoid detection. The hull is designed with large flat angled surfaces.
Each piece of equipment that does not necessarily need be located outside the hull has been built in or concealed under specially designed hatches. Water-jet propulsion reduces the acoustic signature. And the engine exhausts have been concealed in hidden outlets under the water surface or at the stern of the vessel.
Minimal signatures
The Visby is built of sandwich-construction carbon fibrereinforced plastic (CFRP). In addition to the advantages already discussed above, this hull construction achieves significant hull signature reduction when it comes to:
- Radar - The shape and flatness of the composite structure, along with stealth adaptation of all on/above deck equipment including weapons and sensors, reduce the disclosure range by radar by 70%.
- Infrared - The insulating composite structures along with covered exhausts reduce the disclosure range by infrared sensors by 70%.
- Acoustics and magnetic - The non-metallic composite structure and waterjet propulsors reduce the disclosure range by hydro-acoustic sensors by 70 % and by magnetic sensors by 50%.
- Electrics - FPR sandwich gives a low Underwater Electric Potential (UEP) and Corrosion Related Magnetic (CRM) signatures.
- Pressure - Low pressure signal achieved by low displacement due to the light structure of FRP sandwich and narrow hull shape.
Kockums GHOST® technology is the nearest one has come so far in conferring invisibility to a surface vessel.
Page updated Monday, November 23, 2009.
