For naval architects, the 2003 International Maritime Defence Show is a vitally needed exhibition, especially because it is going to become a regular, biannual event.

St.Petersburg holds nearly the whole research and design potential of the national shipbuilding industry and at least 50% of its production facilities.

St.Petersburg is one of the world's most beautiful cities; it is the magnificent Neva, the white nights, the parks and the palaces...

The naval show is just doomed to be a success.

  Bó the beginning of the 21st-century, a prevailing development vector in the majority of the national Navies has become driven by the needs of limited-scale warfare and the protection of economic interests of the country.

Surface combatants tend to be more and more adapted to littoral and fast-response operations. The desire for unification and cost reduction becomes more and more obvious in attempts to integrate similar ship types into a single class or even to go for multi-role ships that can execute most of the missions normally assigned to surface ships.

Expected multi-role surface combatants and their anticipated characteristics

	Destroyer	Frigate	Corvette	Boat
Displacement, t	5000 - 7000	2500 - 5000	1500 - 1800	50 - 300
Mam power	Gas turbine	Gas turbine	CODAG, diesel	Diesel
Speed, knots	28-35	About 30	Above 33	About 35

The basis for the evolvement of future ship architecture will still be marine and weapon engineering breakthroughs made in 1996-2002. However, new surface combatant development trends and advanced ship construction technologies are already gaining priority positions.

Naval architects of all times have always tried to reduce external characteristics of their ships, particularly the resistance, through hullform design. By today, the new demands of the Navies and the engineering progress have resulted in the appearance of surface ships with innovative hull configurations that reflect compromises between often contradictory specifications like, say. stability and performance. They have already produced combat wing-in-ground vehicles, hydrofoil ships and hovercraft, surface-effect and SWATH ships. A combat trimaran Triton is already undergoing thorough sea trials.

However, in spite of the fact that are no doubts in the engineering feasibility of unique target-dedicated requirements set to ships utilising unconventional lift

principles, classic displacing-type ships still have the right to live on.

A fundamental vector of the naval weapon progress in the 21st century will aim for integrated multi-purpose weapon packages that will particularly combine all onboard radars, both weapon control and surveillance ones.

Such multi-purpose suites capable of coping with all tasks assigned to surface ships will include the following components:

- integrated control system;

- attack weapon control loop;

- air defence control loop;

- anti-submarine, anti-torpedo and anti-sabotage defence loop;

- deck aviation control loop.

Such a multi-role ship weapon system will feature re-configuration capabilities in order to enable selecting the best suitable components for maximum utilisation of the ship's combat potentials.

Another important feature of the multi-role weapon suite will be real-time data links for getting information of any level from any available source.

The firepower of the future surface combatants will grow through increasing the variety of missiles placed in unified vertical launchers with the main types being far-range cruise missiles for land targets, anti-ship missiles and ship-to-air guided missiles.

Guided artillery shells of various designations will enable universal 122-155mm guns to remain the key close-range weapon in the 21st century. Small-calibre (20-40mm) AAA units will also continue to have their niche.

An obligatory component of the surface combatant

weapon package will be a utility helicopter carrying guided missiles or rockets, ASW torpedoes, bombs and countermine systems. A surface combatant may as well operate unmanned aircraft.

The antisubmarine weapon will be small-size 324-400 mm torpedoes. For self-defence purposes, ships will have also small-size anti-torpedoes, and mine detection and destruction hardware.

The MECO concept, i.e. weapon system arrangement in replaceable structural modules enabling to quickly make qualitative modifications of the ship as a platform for different kinds of weapons with minimum expenses, will surely see further development.

Finally, one should not fail to mention the continuing developments of high-energy weaponry like microwave weapons, high-power lasers or electric guns.

The growing cost of marine resources forces to look for ways to reduce crew numbers and the main ones are complex automation of engineering systems, integration of combat stations, computerised control, monitoring and technical diagnostics.

All told, surface ships will get longer endurance and better comfort conditions without additional expenses.

Ship speed predictions from the point of view of expanding operational area coverage and cutting clown response time remain at the level of 28-35 knots.

The principal alternative propulsion power system for surface combatants will be all-electric plants incorporating high-power asynchronous propeller motors driven by recuperation-type gas turbines. Practical design is also sure to see podded propulsors. Thanks to their benefits like simplified installation because of the absence of main engines, bearings and shafting or because of the opportunity to do without sophisticated steering systems, these easily controlled propulsion units are already becoming popular in both naval and commercial shipbuilding.

The progress in traditional propulsion systems will aim at further improving power plant economic efficiency through better utilisation of combined diesel and gas turbine plants, and waterjets.

When using high-power engines for the booster component of the power plant, it appears advisable to apply vented waterjets as booster propulsors. At speeds beyond 22 knots, the efficiency of such a propulsion plant is higher than of a conventional configuration with controlled-pitch propellers.

Future combat ships will incorporate comprehensive measures for damage control and survivability, including fire and explosion safety, active and passive protection measures like:

- Structural protection of vital weapon system components, power plant, controls, etc.;

- Distribution of electric power generation and auxiliary equipment compartments along the ship;

- Redundant power lines;

- Enhanced shock resistance of machinery, weapons, mechanisms, etc.

Designs of future multi-role ships utilise state-of-art achievements in above- and under water signature control, i.e. they extensively apply so-called stealth technologies reducing ship observability in all electromagnetic bands (radar, IR, optronic).

Approaches to radar cross-section (RCS) reductions include:

- Design of integrated architectural solutions that eliminate the dividing line between the hull and the superstructure;

- Radar-absorbing coatings applied to superstructure surfaces;

- Radar-absorbing composite structural materials for superstructures and masts;

- Retractable low-RCS multi-purpose antennas;

- Arrangement of hull systems inside the hull. Under the water, the acoustic signature can be reduced through various noise control measures, viz.:

- Propulsion system noise

- Low-noise five-blade fixed pitch propellers,

- Afterbody hullform optimisation,

- A-brackets for the tail shafts.

- Machinery noise

- Effective resilient mounting, including rafts for main and auxiliary machines,

- Special foundations and their vibration damping coating,

- Seawater system noise

- Low-head pumps,

- Soundproofing coatings for suction boxes, etc.

By today, the reliability of electronic digital data with structures and formats implemented and supported by computer applications has been accepted all over the world. The life-long information control system concept (CALS) born somewhere deep in the US Department of Defence has rapidly penetrated the civilian sector. The basic idea of this concept is to generate or to acquire information only once but to use it repeatedly.

The database generation process covers ship design, construction, service, upgrading, repair and scrapping. In the 21st-century shipbuilding, CALS technologies will enable to reduce time for ship construction preparations, to improve user/supplier relations, to cut total expenses and generally meet requirements associated with making new-generation surface combatants.

Evaluations of the dynamics in the strength of the world Navy indicates that in the future the number of the ships will become much smaller than today but that will not reduce the efficiency because design innovations anticipate higher than today characteristics of the 21st-century ships.