Jane's : Naval market in Asia-Pacific on a rising tide

The Asia-Pacific region will overtake Europe and the US
as the world's single largest market for new-build naval
platforms and systems within the next five years,
according to projections prepared by naval analysts and
advisers AMI International.

Major naval modernisation programmes being pursued by
China, India and South Korea are seen as the key drivers
to this continued growth.

Speaking a day before the start of the IMDEX Asia 2005
conference and exhibition, AMI senior analyst Robin Keil
said that while about US$9 billion is currently spent
annually on new naval materiel in western Europe, the
market was "stagnant and likely to decline in the coming
years". Meanwhile, the amount being invested annually
in new warships and outfitting in the US "is likely to
stay at a constant US$10-11 billion for the foreseeable
future".

Example of technology with the Sylena soft-kill system
aimed at small ships

French pyrotechnics group Etienne Lacroix, working in
association with EADS Defence and Communications
Systems, has unveiled a new multimode soft-kill decoy
system specifically designed to protect smaller surface
combatants such as patrol vessels, fast attack craft and
corvettes.

Known as Sylena, the new system combines a below-decks
control processor with multiple compact fixed launchers
firing SEALEM radio frequency (RF), SEALIR infra-red
(IR) decoy rounds and deck-edge SEA MOSC optronic
screening/masking devices. According to a Lacroix
spokesman Serge Bidan, the low size, mass and radar
cross-section (RCS) of topside launcher equipment has
been designed to minimise ship fit impact and maintain
stealth attributes aboard low-RCS ship designs.

A typical Sylena configuration for a patrol craft would
use two launchers plus four SEAMOSC screening
'suitcases', with the number of launchers increasing to
four for fast attack craft and corvettes. Lacroix said
that the new suite could provide protection against
between six and 12 threats without reloading."

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