Die Schnellboot-Seite
Command and Control of the S-Boats in the Bundesmarine
While the S-boats of classes S 140, S 141, S 142, S 152, and S 153 only were equipped with radars of company Decca (Type 149 and Type 404) and later by company Kelvin Hughes (KH-14/9), the data of which were evaluated by hand on the Nedinsco plottingtable to build a situationpicture and only in the end of the 60es the boats were retrofitted with a true motion scope in the Ops-room, the boats of the 7. S-Squadron reconstructed to class 142 mod. had available the weapon-control-system WM-20 from company Hollandse Signaalaparaten (HSA) for guns and torpedoes.
Weapon-Control-System S 142 mod.
The weeapon-contol-system of the boats S 142 mod. consited of the Weapon-Control-System WM 20 with a combined antenna-system (Combined Antenna System, CAS) operating in X-band and assembled under a radom.
Cut through the Radom of WM-20 - Picture: HSA
In the ops-room was a horizontal tactical scope (Taktischer Bildschirm Horizontal,TBH), on which radartargets (air and surface targets) of the searchradar combined with the information from the IFF-system, the tracks of the firecontrol-radar and the tracks of the navigationradar KH-14/9 were displayed.
Firecontrol was performed from the artillery-command-console (Artillerie-Kommandogerät, AKG) for the two guns 40mm/L70 and from torpedo-firecontrol-console (Torpedo-Kommandogerät,TKG) for the two wireguided torpedoes DM 2 A 1 (SEAL, also known as Seeaal).
As an alternative procedure the guns coud be controlled from the artillery-aimingpillar OGR-7/2. As a back-up procedure the guns could be directed and fired by the gunners in the guns.
Command and Control System AGIS
With the command-and-control-system Automatisches Gefechts-Informations-System für Schnellboote (AGIS) the boats of class 143 got a system, which with assistence of a computer Univac type USQ 180 B produced a real time situation picture utilizing radardata and IFF-data from WM 27-27/52 DU, data from the navigationradar 3 RM/20, from the global positioning system (GPS), and from the Link 11 dataexchange-system taking into account remote data from other participating units of the navy or link 11-units from other NATO-nations. The user-software was produced by Kommando Marineführungssystem (KdoMFüSys).
Test of AGIS S 143 at KdoMFüSys, in front the TBH, in the rear TKGs and AKG - Picture: Bildstelle der Marine
Display of the tactical situation was performed on the tactical scope horizontal (Taktischer Bildschirm Horizontal, TBH) as the central point of the ops-room with the work-stations for the commanding officer, the weapon-control-officer and a radar-sergant. From the TBH tracks were released for transmission by Link 11 and tracks to fight were transferred to the weapon-control-consoles AKG, TKGs, and/or FKKG.
Fighting orders by the OTC (Officer in Tactical Command) - normaly the squadron commander - by Link 11 were displayed in the TBH and had to be directed to the weapons by the commanding officer or the weapon-control-officer.
Ops-Room S-Boat Class 143 - Picture: O. Rahardt
Weapn-Corner on a S-Boat Class 143 - Picture: O. Rahardt
On many boats aditionally a general operational plot (GOP) was run on a seachart.
GOP on a S-Boat Class 143 - Picture: I. Rahardt
The Command and Control System (FüWES) AGIS did not only control surface-surface missiles MM38 Exocet, the guns OTO Melara 76 mm and the torpedoes it also processed the intelligence data of the autonomous EW-system OCTOPUS, which was installed in five boats in 1992 and after the 3. S-Squadron was decommissioned in 2002 also in the other five boats in exchange for the older system SARIE-1.
For units without Link 11-equipment the boats could transmit Link 14-data via radioteletypewriter.
Command and Control System PALIS
Originally the plans for the boats class 148 were to instal a passive system, which was able to receive, prosess Link11 and Link 14 data and to display them (Passive Link Information System, PALIS). After studying the proposed solution the head of the Link-Department concluded, that the system could also be active with a little higher cost and some programming effort since the Link 11-terminal was able to decode and also to code Link 11-messages, the necessary software was to be adopted with minor changes from AGIS and the main problem was a Link 11-capable radio which had to be installed.
Thus a limited in capacity but fully operational command and control system could be implemented for the boats. The acronym PALIS was given a different meaning "Passive/Aktive Link Information System".
Ops-Room of a bBoat of Classd 148 - Picture: M. Rode
With the necessary update of the software because of the new radars also the integration of OCTOPUS was performed. The bearings reported from the ESM-part and their analysis were displayed on the multipurpose display-console (Mehrzweck-Darstellungskonsole, MDK) and their release for link 11-transfer was possible.
Antenna of the POLLUX-Firecontrolradar on a Boat of Class 148 - Picture: Lürssen
On the above picture the platforms for the artillery-aimingpillars Askania 76 are still existing but the pillars have been removed.
PALIS integrated the searchradar TRITON-G, the firecontolradar POLLUX, the navigationradar SMA 3 RM 20, the MM 38 EXOCET-system, the guns OTO Melara 76mm/L62 and Bofors 40mm/L70 and could display bearings of emitters transmitted from the ESM of OCTOPUS on the MDK and release them for Link 11-transmission.
EW-Corner with OCTOPUS-Console on aBoat Class 148 - Picture: M. Rode
Allocation of targets to fight with missiles or artillery could be performed by the MDK. Control and firing of missiles and guns were co-ordinated from the missisle-control-pannel (Flugkörper-Kommandogerät, FKKG) rsp. from the artillery-command-console (Artillerie-Kommandogerät, AKG). Until TRITON-G and CASTOR were retrofitted the guns could be controlled also from the optical aimingpillars Askania-76.
As fall-back procedure for the Bofors 40mm/L70 MEL Mod. 71 is was possible to control and fire the gun by the gunner in the mount.
Command and Control System AGIS S 143 A
The command and control system for s-boats class 143 A ("Gepard"-Class), the Automatic Command and Controlsystem (Automatisches Gefechtsführungssystem für S-Boote Klasse 143 A, AGIS S143 A) was a system, which integrated radar- and IFF-data of the WM-27/52 DU, of the navigationradar MSSR 2000 I, of the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and received Link 11-data by a computer of type Typ USQ 180 B and created a real time picture of the tactical situation. The user-software was produced by KdoMFüSys.
Display of the situation-picture was performed on the tactical scope horizontal (Taktischer Bildschirm Horizontal, TBH) as on the boats of "Albatros"-class, the central point with the workstations for the commanding officer, the weapon-control officer and a radar-sergeant. From the TBH targets were released for Link 11 transmisssion and allocated to the artillery-command-console (Artillerie-Kommandogerät, AKG) and to the missile-control-pannel (Flugkörper-Kommandogerät, FKKG).
As also in the "Albatros"-class orders by the OTC (Officer in Tactical Command) - normally the squadron-commander - were displayed on the TBH and had to be allocated to the weapon consoles by the commanding officer or the weapon-control officer.
Detected emitters by the autonomous ESM-part of the EW-system FL 1800 were displayed as bearings on the TBH and could be released for Link 11 transmisssion. 1993 until 1997 the close-in-weapon-system Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) was installed on the boats and integrated into the command and control system.
MSP-500 on the Rootf of the Bridgehouse S71 "Gepard" Picture: K. Scheuch
The MSP-500 consisted of a sensorpackage of a thermal image camera, a daylight camera, a laser distance meter, and a video tracker, additionally a firecontrol module for the OTO-Melara 76mm/L62 was available. The system could be used during day and night also under poor visibiity conditions.
Ops-Room of S71 "Gepard" at the Naval Museum - Picture: S. Kleinert
MSP-500-Konsole, AKG, and FKKG on S71 "Gepard" - Picture: U. Skrzypski
Radar- and Hotdog-REmote Control on S71 "Gepard" - Picture: U. Skrzypski
For the datalink transmissions the participating units (PUs) needed besides of link-capable HF- and UHF radios and receivers, a Link 11-terminal, which coded the Link 11-messages produced by the command and control system before they were transferred to the radio for transmission. Received messages were decoded by the terminal before they were processed by the command and control system as remote tracks.
All participating units in a Link11-net were called by the net control station (NCS) in round robin mode and invited to send their data. The own positon was referenced to the positon of a data link reference point (DLRP) and the tracks were reported with reference to the own ship's position.
Own targets (airtracks, surfacetracks, and subsurfacetracks) ESM-bearings, special points, and engagements in process were reported. Orders to fight a track could be transmitted by authorized units to other units. All tracks could be identified as "friendly", "hostile", or "unknown".
By joining all information distributed via Link 11 of up to 20 PUs a complex picture of the tactical situation could be produced which assisted the OTC in making his decisions.
Participating units in a Link 11-Net could be all NATO-units, ships, aircraft, landstations.
Thus it was possible that e.g. S-boats could simulated fight remote targets from an AWACS with missiles without using their own radar.
Datalink 14
For units without Link 11 equipment AGIS could provide so called Link 14 data via radio teletypewriter. The data consisted of information about type of track (airtrack, surfacetrack, landtarget), the identity (friend, hostile, unknown), position (latitude and longitude), course and speed.