Wupeng Submarine Chaser/profile

This page is working in progress.

## Overview

“乌篷”(WūPéng)

(Allies：WuPeng/WuPeng Submarine Chaser/Black-awning Submarine Chaser)

Designation: Unmaned Submarine Chaser

Designer: Zhoushan Shipping Enterprises Company/716th Institute of Naval Equipment Research

Manufacturer: Zhoushan shipping Enterprises Company/Mingzhou Shipyards/Hangzhou Fisheries Bureau

Mass-Produced at: Fortress Dockyard

Creed: “Great Harmony of the world.”

Key Features:

>> 7C-2 “Minglang” light shockwave cannon

>>4G-5 "Waterlily" sonar buoy

>>4G-6 "Tingtao"sonar (Additional active sonar function for some variants)

>>6G-1 "Cormorant" shipborne intelligent control center

>>Lightweight nano hull suitable for mass production

>>Electric propulsion system and microwave transmission receiver

>>Shipborne high density superconducting battery

>>Automatic fishing net used in non-combat time、

## Background

**WIP！！！**

In the third year of a European war that was renowned for its scope and ferocity, a massive naval battle came to an end. The United Kingdom Navy managed to drive the overburdened Kaiserreich fleet back to its home port after a hard fought, and the Kaiserreich's attempts to break the United Kingdom's naval blockade were foiled. In order to recover from the failure of the fleet battle and to continue to advance its strategic objective of achieving a quick victory over the United Kingdom before the United States entered the war, the Kaiserreich embarked on their first major unrestricted submarine warfare in February of the following year.

As one of the main providers of humanitarian aid to European countries, the Celestial lost a lot of merchant ships and transport ships in Kaiserreich's operation; Even with the timely notification of the intelligence department and the escort of the navy fleet in the high seas, many innocent businessmen and sailors were sunk by the indiscriminate attack of Kaiserreich submarines after the ships entered the waters of the war zone. Although the efficiency of submarine warfare was greatly reduced after Celestial imposed economic sanctions, the United States took part in the war and the Allies changed their escort strategy, there is no doubt that it caused heavy losses to the United Kingdom in the early stage. In order to prevent the Celestial Empire from suffering the same huge losses in the future war, the general staff office deeply studied the relevant information of the unrestricted submarine warare submitted by all parties and the escort strategy implemented by the Entente in the later stage, and then submitted a report to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Military.

[image1]

In the report "the necessity of submarine warfare and anti submarine warfare", the strategists and other staff refuted the traditional idea that the Navy only needs to protect the main course, and concluded with "Protecte ship and crews, then the wolfs will be exhausted", advocating the construction of a sufficient number of anti submarine escort ships and a more professional escort system in case of emergency. The Celestial Ministry of Militar was greatly touched by this; Soon after, with the promotion of the chief of staff and several enlightened naval generals, The first batch of professional submarine hunting fleet were formally established. Since then, Celestial submarine chasers began their journey of "fishing in the abyss".

In the years before the beginning of the conflict in the north, the friction between the Celestial and its strong neighbors in the North intensified; Cargo ships on the North Pacific course have been tracked by underwater objects for many times, and unexplained  incidents of collision and damage have also occurred; For a time, the shipping activities of the North Pacific course and the Arctic Ocean were hindered, and the owners of ships were worried. In order to ensure the passage of trade lines in the northern waters, the Celestial Navy began to send professional anti submarine destroyers to escort cargo ships after being authorized by the Ministry of Military. However, in this experimental escort operation, the actual performance of anti submarine destroyers is not ideal: on the one hand, because of the poor sea conditions in the Arctic Ocean and the North Pacific, destroyers often dare not sail at full speed rashly; On the other hand, considering the defensive demand of Haishenwei, it is impossible for all destroyers of the North Fleet to deploy, which makes the density of warships participating in the escort quite low. The highest commander of the convoy at that time gave the conclusion in the report submitted to the Ministry of Military: "under the current conditions, the small-scale convoy could not effectively track or drive away the Soviet Union's advanced akura class submarines, which could also be said to be totally insufficient to maintain the demand of the course." To change this dilemma, the Celestial Navy needs a more flexible anti submarine escort vessel in a larger amount.

Zhoushan Shipping Enterprises Company was acutely aware of this demand, and soon launched a light anti submarine boat called "Tinggao". This type of anti submarine sonar boat is transformed from a small fishing boat which was widely praised made by Zhoushan. It is equipped with the old passive and active sonar which have been nearly eliminated by the navy, and it is transformed from manned operation to remote control operation by the mother ship. Due to the transformation from civil ships, these sonar boats can well control the cost, and have much better flexibility and large-scale deployment potential than traditional destroyers. Considering the possible development prospect of this kind of small boat and the suggestion from the navy, the Ministry of Military acquiesced in the existence of this strange "Product" using obsolete armaments, but required the navy to provide two or three additional weapon observers for each freighter carrying "Tinggao". When passing through the "dangerous" sea area, the mother ship would put down the boats, which just like bodyguards protecting the mother ship in the middle. After detecting the existence of suspicious targets, the coordinate data will be transmitted to the adjacent naval ships or the naval aviation team on patrol synchronously through radio and maritime satellite.

[image2]

With the acquiescence of the Ministry of Military, many registered companies of ocean going freighters began to purchase these boats under the recommendation of the navy; Therefore, during this period, a mother ship carrying four "Tingggao" became the standard configuration of cargo course in northern Celestial course; Even the Celestial North Fleet purchased a batch of contact boats to replace some of the contact boats. The rapid and flexible deployment of them greatly improved the efficiency of the escort mission in the northern waters, and the covert activities of the akura submarine from Soviet Arctic Fleet in the northern waters were effectively curbed. In one escort mission, there was even an incident in which an akura was besieged and intercepted by more than a dozen "Tinggao" and destroyers, and finally forced to surface and scurry northward under surveillance. The Celestial navy is quite satisfied with this. As an excellent representative of the army-aided private company, Zhoushan has been praised and strongly supported by the navy, and has become one of the important enterprises in the Celestial that supply products across the military and civil sectors.

After the end of the northern conflict, the activities of the Soviet Navy in the northern waters also stopped; In the face of Celestial "slow and inefficient response" action, Moscow showed great restraint in the next few years. The performance of the "Tinggao" anti-submarine boat in the anti-sub escort operation left a deep impression on the Celestial Navy; It seems that small submarine chaser with low price and rapid production has its own unique features in anti-sub operations, and the maintaining effect of a large number of submarine chasers on the sea blockade is beyond the traditional frigates and destroyers. In order to maintain the restrictions on the increasingly large submarine forces in the north and on the other side of the ocean, and to provide a safe deployment area for the upcoming secret submarine project and future finished products, the Celestial Navy decided to launch the research and development plan for the new generation of submarine chaser; It is worth noting that the Celestial Navy hopes that the new submarine chaser will have a certain of autonomous combat capability - the purpose is to minimize the personnel and resource allocation required by the mobile forces that cruise between the islands and reefs for a long time.

Zhoushan Shipping Enterprises Company has been paying attention to this project from the very beginning; If they can successfully become the manufacturer of the next generation of submarine chaser, it will be great good news for the further development of them. However, as a traditional civil company founded by producting fishing boats, Zhoushan has almost never been in touch with the real research and development and manufacturing of military equipment; But this is a formal tender, opportunism in this event is like self destruction. It can only head-to-head compete with other veteran military manufacturers. When Zhoushani s about to miss this opportunity, the chance brought by 716th Institute of Naval Equipment Research has changed all this.

716th Institute is the state-owned Institute in charge of the new submarine chaser project. It is famous for the design of light warships. They spoke highly of the former "Tinggao" and said: considering the special role played by "Tinggao" in the northern conflict before, if Zhoushan can unreservedly support their various changes in the project, the 716th Institute is willing to enter into a cooperative relationship with Zhoushan; Zhoushan naturally agreed to this condition, and the new generation of Celestial submarine chaser was born.

Benefitted from the complementary technology of Zhoushan Company and 716th Institute, this type of submarine chaser has achieved a perfect balance of excellent performance, low price and quick assembly in design; The excellent cost performance has moved the Celestial Navy, which is busy in building large ships and confidential projects. Zhoushan Company stands out among a group of veteran military manufacturers with its unique advantages; This new submarine chaser project was given the official project number of 1C642, and the intensive prototype development work began immediately.

[image3]

Unlike the automatic weapons in the general sense of the Celestial, 1C642 needs stronger self-control and reaction ability; This is inseparable from the complexity of its anti -sub escort mission. In some cases, it may even need to independently complete the command of search and destroy or cover retreat issued by the commander through the combat command system. In order to meet this demand, designers choose the "cormorant" shipborne intelligent control center specially developed by Yanshi innovation scientific research company; Compared with the traditional intelligent center, this intelligent center using simulated neural network technology has stronger learning ability and higher intelligent, which can better meet the operational needs of the navy. However, in the review of the Ministry of Military before the formal applicating, "cormorant" encountered trouble.

The ethics committee, which has a special position in the Ministry of Military, noted the new unmanned submarine chaser program in its routine review of the new armament program. Due to the distrust of lethal highly self-control weapons, the vigilance against the possibility of artificial intelligence mistakenly hitting civilians, the prevention of enemy hackers and spies' sabotage, and the actual wrong operation in many tests, the committee did not agree to the formal application for the "cormorant".

"We must not let a stack of code full of murderous intent be responsible for the safety protection of Celestial long coastal defense line and nearly one million offshore workers. As a paragon of general military and civilian equipment in the Celestial, this boat (the result of 1C642 project) should be not only a good fisherman for catching sharks and fighting waves, but also a safe house for shelter from wind and rain; It can't be just a killing machine looking at the deep abyss."

According to the style of the ethics committee, it is worthless to bargain with them; This decision became the first major setback of 1C642 project, and affected the development direction of unmanned equipment reform in the future Celestial... Of course, for the project team at this time, they have to find a way to satisfy the Committee; Whether it's Zhoushan, 716th Institute and Yanshi, which needs to promote its latest equipment, or even the Celestial Navy, they all hope that "cormorant" can serve 1C642 project in a better way.

After the recovery, all the people in the project team began to show their magic power: On the one hand, under the proposal of a main planner in Yanshi, the engineers added new functions related to humanitarian rescue to the intelligent center program, which enabled the unmanned boat equipped with cormorant to independently carry out maritime rescue tasks for civil commercial ships and fishing boats; Zhoushan quickly installed a civilian intelligent center with the same program on the latest rescue ships, which won the praise of the fishery administration. On the other hand, 716th Institute has found some "helpers" in its own system. Under the leadership of Celestial Information Technology Center, a number of institutes have recompiled a new algorithm for "autonomous patrolling and effective monitoring of large numbers of small vehicles over a wide area", which is very important for the Celestial, and a remote control terminal network based on the base station of field command system is made; As a result, the existence of this special system perfectly solves the problem that the autonomous control network of small autonomous vehicles is frequently attacked by hostile forces, and "cormorant" is naturally written into the terminal code of this network. Finally, with the support of the navy, the cormorant intelligent center successfully passed the follow-up review of the ethics committee of the Ministry of Military in the name of "enhanced battle command system terminal", and was formally applicated on the 1C642 project.

While the "soul" of the project is being re forged, the progress of 1C642 in the aspect of shape and structure is not lagging behind: in order to ensure that the production cost and process complexity of the product are appropriate, Zhoushan boldly adopts the new light nano material hull after a series of experiments. This new material, developed by the Celestial and the Rising Sun, has excellent physical and chemical properties that traditional materials can't match while keeping the manufacturing cost unchanged. It has greatly improved in strength, toughness, temperature resistance and corrosion resistance. Through the transformation of civil ship design and the use of new nano materials, Zhoushan Company has greatly improved the performance of 1C642 project products on the premise of maintaining low resource cost, low technology cost and low time cost, which provides guarantee for subsequent large-scale production and smooth progress of large-scale application.

Under the cooperation of the project teams, the prototype 1C642 was launched in Zhoushan port for the first test sail in the next month after the successful review. Equipped with the latest all electric propulsion system and microwave power transmission receiver, 1C642 can reach a high speed of 58 knots under the support of the surging power of the shipborne high density superconducting battery; Thanks to a large amount of space made by all electric power, It can carry the latest 4G-6 "Tingtao"sonar and several 4G-5 "Waterlily" sonar buoies".

[image4]

In the aspect of detection and identification of anti-sub operations, 4G-6 "Tingtao" active and passive integrated sonar system and 4G-4 "Waterlily" active sonar buoy almost symbolize the peak of Celestial anti-sub technology. If the passive sonar part of "Tingtao" is only the military enhanced version of those civil transport boats in those years, the active sonar part that can be added with a little change is the result of integrating the latest technology: with the help of the Celestial hydrological department and the navy, the database with massive voiceprints can help the analysis host of "Wupeng" to quickly lock and mark the target and identify the type of the target, so as to provide more accurate strike guidance for other units. After precise frequency modulation, the directional infrasound wave of the "Waterlily" sonar buoy can even cause forced resonance inside the hostile vessels' hull to reduce the enemy's speed, and affect the normal operation of some high-precision equipment or special systems by disabling the crew. Moreover, with the help of a special long-range algorithm network, the targets marked by the two active sonars will be exposed to the vision of the whole fleet, and the Xuanming class battlecruisers on the battlefield can even launch long-range missiles to strike multiple targets beyond the horizon under the guidance of the markers.

[image5]

[image6]

The outstanding performance in the test sail and the exellent detection equipment made it obtain the approval of the formal manufacture and at the same time, it got the name of "Wupeng" (black roof), which is taken from the shape of the boat. It seems that a new type of unmanned submarine chaser which perfectly meets the requirements of the navy was born. But the R&D team can not relax yet, because a big problem is still there - they need to find a suitable weapon for the boat before it is in service.

As a light unmanned submarine chaser with a displacement of less than ten tons, Wupeng is unable to be equipped with mass of heavy weapons. It can't carry enough anti-sub torpedoes because of the load limitation, and the anti-sub rocket that it can barely carry can't damage the imaginary enemy efficiently, the Akula submarine with double hull has excellent anti damage ability; Due to the limitation of displacement caused by product requirements and design ideas, light submarine chasers often have no ability to directly threaten the target submarines. They can only attack enemy submarines by means of poking and asking for fire assistance, which directly affects the operational efficiency of Wupeng. 716th Institute is not satisfied with this situation. Engineers hope to develop a new weapon for Wupeng, which enables her to hunt and kill the wolfs in deep-sea alone and protect the safety of Celestial shipping course, rather than being used as cannon fodder for anti-sub investigation of fleet.

An windfall made 716th Institute's hope come true: a fisherman from the south ocean area unexpectedly caught a strange dolphin in hot zone near the equator. The investigators sent by the Celestial second pacific patrol fleet confirmed after field research that this was an allied scout dolphin; These specially trained dolphins with special equipment can follow the instructions of the trainers and use their harmless biological appearance to cover up various detection methods of the sea blockade, and then break into the defense line and perform various investigation tasks... or even combat tasks. After sneaking into the waters of the Celestial, this dolphin stayed for a period of time to replenish its energy by feed on the fish, but it and shoal of fish was caught by the fishing boat.

Soon, the dolphin and its new WP100 sonic disruptor were sent to the 716th Institute's laboratory. The 716th Institute immediately started to study and imitate sonic disruptor; By referring to the principle and design of sonic disruptor, 716th Institute successfully created a new generation of specialized anti-sub equipment: 7C-2 "Minglang" pulse shockwave cannon (referred to as shockwave cannon). Compared with its prototype carried by marine mammals, "Minglang" has higher power and longer range, and can effectively damage a variety of units, including submarines and surface ships; When attacking underwater targets, because of the good mechanical wave transmission ability of dense seawater, "Minglang" can cause more damage effect; Correspondingly, however, the shockwave cannon is powerless to targets in the air. It should be noted that due to the influence of the huge volume fixed under the boat on the maneuverability of Wupeng, even if the shape of the boat is streamlined to a certain extent, the cannon will still be automatically stored inside the bottom of the boat when it is moving; According to the test, forced rapid maneuvering in the case of extending "Minglang" will cause the hull structure to tear, so Wupeng can't fire on the move.

[image7]

[image8]

After solving the problem of armament, the complete "Wupeng" unmanned submarine chaser soon began mass production, and immediately put into the regular patrol of the navy and the anti-sub exercises of the fleet. In the actual combat, the Wupeng is often carried by destroyers and battlecruisers, and released after approaching the warning sea area, forming a anti-sub circle which can reach more than ten nautical miles. A large number of Wupeng can carry out the "needle in a haystack" type of meticulous search through their shipbrome sonar and sonar buoys, making all underwater units from the Allied dolphins to the Soviet akula submarines no more invisible; The special remote control algorithm network based on blockchain technology and with the ability of big data integration and analysis can also share the targets "salvaged" by this big net with the whole fleet, and mark them on the terminal of the battlefield command and control system.

[image9]

Due to the excellent performance of cormorant intelligent center, Wupeng has a lot of agility and alertness that other autonomous weapons can't match, and even can complete the anti-sub hunting task without command. With the powerful firepower, combat effectiveness far beyond the traditional anti-sub weapon pulse shockwave cannon and the flexible tactical style provided by the cormorant, Wupeng is like a fish in water in the anti-sub operation. Even the Soviet Union's most well-trained Akula submarine forces did not want to encounter Wupeng in the mission. Under the encirclement and hunting of these excellent "mastery fisherman", no matter how cautious and ferocious the "big fish" are, they will not escape.

In addition to following the fleet, Wupeng can also perform many regular tasks, including all-weather patrol of maritime cordon, patrol of maritime operation areas in key areas, and independent escort of medium and short distance shipping or auxiliary escort of ocean shipping. After Wupeng was equipped with naval fleets, the number of reports on the discovery of Akula submarines and dolphins, which had been haunted in the vast waters of the Celestial, rapidly dropped to the point of near extinction; Moreover, several strategic deployment locations in the ocean are also fully emptied for use. In addition, due to the humanitarian rescue program added in cormorant , Wupeng can not only complete the escort task excellently, but also rescue the victims and drowners immediately after some accidents. There are more and more unmanned boats cruising in the Celestial waters with lanterns floating, maintaining the peace and stability of this azure area.

In order to commemorate that strange event that changed the fate of Wupeng, Zhoushan company kept a complete set of automatic fishing nets on each Wupeng submarine chaser. In the free time of sailing, the crew who want to taste the fresh can order the Wupeng to catch the freshest seafood; This makes the it not only an excellent wolf hunter and lifeguard, but also a qualified fisherman; Sailors in the fleet sailing on the vast blue plains no longer have to worry about the Monotonous canned food after the fresh supplies are ran out.

**Translation completed, but no image inserted.**

## Notes From the Field

**The more, the better** - Thanks to the Zhoushan Shipping Enterprises Company's control of costs and manufacturing difficulties, many private shipbuilders have joined the mass production, making the Wupeng the cheapest unit in the Celestial Navy.

**Metal breaker** - With its unique mode of action, the shockwave cannon equipped by Wupeng is able to deal effective damage to most units in the water. No matter the Allied scout dolphin, Soviet Akula submarine or a large surface ship not lurking in the deep blue, the "Minglang" is capable of shattering them all equally. It is worth noting that it can deal more damage to underwater targets due to the difference in the area covered by water.

**Ocean waves observer** - Wupeng is equipped with the most advanced sonar system in the Celestial. With the excellent performance of the "Waterlily" and "Tingtao", even the stealthiest of deep-sea killers will be nowhere to hide. If necessary, the sonar system led by Wupeng can also guide destroyers and battlecruisers to fire anti-submarine rockets and missiles to kill the enemies with greater efficiency.

**Magical buzzer** - What is the most advanced piece of equipment that the Wupeng is equipped with? The answer would have to be the "Waterlily", a tailor-made sonar buoy for the boat. Applying cutting-edge technology, the lantern will perform active sonar tasks over a wide area while continuously emitting specially tuned high-energy infrasound to targets captured by the active sonar. This peculiar 'magical sound' is absorbed and amplified by the metal hull of the hostile targets, which disables the crew, resonates with the structure and disrupts the signals of the target vessels, disabling the target's special abilities while reducing its speed and operational effectiveness.

## Notes

This article is an unofficial translation.

## Remarks

1. ↑ The Chinese text is "鸣桹" , Knocking on the side of the boat to make a sound in order to frighten the fish into the net.
2. ↑ The Chinese text is "听涛"，listening to the waves.
3. ↑ Cormorant is a kind of water bird. Domesticated cormorants have been used for fishing.
4. ↑ The old name of Vladivostok before the cession in the 1860 (Qing Dynasty, our time line).
5. ↑ “听篙”, the source is unknown
6. ↑ Should be the reference of once Chinese fisherman caught American underwater drone.
7. ↑ The Chinese text is "观海听涛", is the title of the calligraphy work presented to former president Obama in 2009.