Integrated Masts A Game Changing Innovat
Integrated Masts A Game Changing Innovat
Integrated Masts A Game Changing Innovat
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Abstrad: Ships were first used by man for trade and saw •
• pirates. This in turn lead to innovations and the
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innovations purely out of necessity. Innovations such as •
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improvisation of merchant ships with armour plates and
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sails, steam en~ine, screw propellers, and steel armour •
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weapons and ~ave birth to a new class of ships, to be
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platin~ (that subsequently resulted in the use of steel for •
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used for military purposes alone, called the "warships".
ships) chan~ed the way ships were used and built and •
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Once born, to make the resultin~ warships faster, bi~~er,
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~ave birth to a new class of ships, to be used for military •
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and powerful, while maintainin~ their numero uno
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purposes alone, called the warships. Warship specific •
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position in the world, there has been a lon~ and
innovations, such as the ~un turret, aircrafts at sea, •
continuous creation and adoption of innovations. Such
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nuclear propulsion; and the more recent ones of •
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innovations have helped in increasin~ the warship's
inte~rated eledrical propulsion, bio fuels, carbon fibre
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future competitiveness and to create new opportunities.
composite strudures, inte~rated masts to name a few, •
• One needs to mention here that innovation is a process
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followed. •
of developin~ new ideas (such as inventions) into
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1. Introduction
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2. Motivation for development
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Ships have been used by mankind for over 10,000 years. •
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The development of the ship's mast can be broadly
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They have been important contributors to colonisation • broken into two eras. The first one motivated by the
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world commerce being controlled by ships, a need arose • development of technolo~y in the field of electronl ..
for merchant ships to proted themselves from sea
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• We will discuss the influences in both these eras thill It,t!
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to the developments in a ship's mast.
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Functional requirement •
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With the advent of en~ine- powered warships in the 19th
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use [see Fi~ures l(b) and 21. with the len~th of the mast
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communication that used si~nal fla~s, a secondary
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Figure 3(a): Chinese Keying Junk Figure 3(b): Chinese junk with multiple masts
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- ...
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With the introdudion of the diesel en~ines, the topside • 20th century, was due to the development of eledronics.
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• Wire rope "fan" type antenna, are installed onboard for •
• transmittin~ is 292 to 312 MHz.
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medium- and hi~h-frequency (300 kHz to 30 MHz) • Radars are used to determine the ran~e, an~le, or
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covera~e. They consist of one or more len~ths of flexible •
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velocity of objects usin~ radio waves and can be used to
wire ri~~ed from two or more points on the ship's •
• detect aircraft, ships and ~uided missiles. They produce
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superstructure and strun~ either vertically or horizontally •
• electroma~netic waves in the radiO or microwave
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from a yardarm or mast to outri~~ers, another mast, or to •
• domain usin~ an antenna for both transmittin~ and
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the superstructure. As compared to past practice, wire •
• receivin~. Two types of antennas may be used:
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antennas are not used extensively today on board ships. •
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• Reflector mirror antenna
In place whip and dipole antenna assemblies are used •
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3. Developments In the beelnnlne of the 21st century •
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the USA, UK and Netherlands, with some demonstration
By positioning all these equipment on the masts, it was • structures having been reported. Since the material used
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Fli;lure 11: Advanced Enclosed Mast Fleure 12: Advanced Technoloi;ly Mast
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Advanced Enclosed masts •
• holds up the top half. The lower half is made out of
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.. .-.
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processing cabinets that need to be simply bolted or •
• access to the mast from inside the ship.
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welded to the ship, hooked up to the power supply, •
The entire mast is available in different sizes to suit
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coolant system and data transmission to be made •
• specific class of ships [see Fi~ure 14]. Two known
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operational in only two or three weeks' time. Compared •
• companies that manufadure such integrated masts
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to the one year that is conventionally necessary to install, •
• today include the Thales group, Netherlands (produd
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integrate and test all the separate systems, this is a huge • name - I-mast) and the Leonardo Group (earlier
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time and money saving option, for the Navy as well as the •
• Finmeccanica), Italy (product name - Unimast).
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shipyard. •
Introduced in December 2007, the I-Mast 400 is the first
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The first "Integrated mast" was designed by Mis Thales, •
• member of the I-Mast family and designed for the Patrol
Netherlands with an entirely new approach as compared •
• Ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The I-Mast 100,
to existing masts. This mast integrates the sensors into •
introduced in September 2009, is the second member of
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the structure itself. A central mast strudure is used to •
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the I-Mast family designed for smaller, corvette-Sized
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house all the radar, optronic, and communication •
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vessels with I-Mast 500, introduced in Odober 2014 and
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sensors along with the cabinets and peripherals. This •
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designed for frigates and (small) destroyers. Similarly, the
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mast, which is available in standard sizes, is assembled •
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Unimast 300 first introduced by the company in
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and tested while the ship is under construdion as a •
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September 2013 is designed for frigates or similar type,
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single entity. When the ship is ready, the mast module is •
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the Unimast 200 for patrol vessels, corvettes or similar
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integrated with the ship system usin~ a plu~-and-play •
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type while Unimast 100 is designed for corvettes, landin~
methodology. The mast module is fully air ti~ht and •
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ship tank, or similar types.
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forms part of the ship's citadel, providing environmental •
The Integrated mast is one single mast that is designed to
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protedion against shock, blast, vibration, solar radiation, •
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perform a multitude of adivities such as search
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temperature, uptake efflux, eledromagnetic radiation •
(horizontal, surface and volumetric), tracking (high diver,
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and chemical, biological, radiolo~ical or nuclear •
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hi~h manoeuvring, low altitude and external cueing),
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weapons. For facilitating placement of internal • detedion (both jammer and clutter) and communication
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equipment over the four deck levels (a top deck, upper •
• [see Figure 15]. Broadly the equipment that are mounted
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antenna deck, lower antenna deck and an equipment •
• are the same irrespedive of the manufadurer of the mast
deck), an external load-bearing steel strudure is •
• [see Figure 16]. The type of systems in the Mast is
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provided. A shielded dud or "backbone" routes cablin~ •
• completely up to the customer. Although the Integrated
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and cooling circuitry up through the centre of the mast to •
• Mast contains mostly the OEM systems, it is possible to
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serve individual equipment. The equipment deck which •
• use customer-furnished or third party systems too.
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houses all the processing cabinets provides the only •
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The i-mast series(lma~e Courtesy: www.thales~roup.com) The Unimast series (lma~e Courtesy: www.leonardocompany.com)
Fi\1ure 15:
Mast trackln\1 features
(Image Courtesy:
www.leonardocompany.com)
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ifF
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Fi!!ure 18: The mer!!ln!! of the mast and the superstructure - Zumwalt class ships
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5. Conclusion •
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confidence that this concept has become a reality from
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strudure_ The initial masts were simple with their use • desi~n to be able to offer a solution that is sufficiently
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limited to hoistin~ sails while today's masts carry • flexible to fit a variety of vessel sizes and satisfy differin~
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complicated equipment and sensors for surveillance and • customer requirements.
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communication _ This evolution of masts from a •
• The need for such an innovation has been driven
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protrudin~ stand-alone strudure to a one that mer~es •
• primarily due to the need of navies to focus on littoral,
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with the main hull is noteworthy and cannot be taken as •
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low-intensity conflids, counter-piracy, anti-dru~ and
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the last of the innovations. •
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expeditionary operations wherein unhindered
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Chan~in~ technolo~ies
sometimes force disruptive
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availability of sensors is essential. As new demands arise,
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case of the inte~rated mast. One can say with this development.
References
1. Agarwala, Nltin; Integrated masts - The Next Generation Masts, Seminar on 'Weapons, Sensors & Electrical Challenges in Ship Building - Future
Trends' , 22-23 Mar 2013, INS Valsura, Jamnagar; wetrpublished and available at https://defencyclopedia.com/ 2015 / 08/ 28/ integrated-masts-the-
next-generation-design-for-naval-masts/
2. Agarwala, Nitin; Integrated masts - Future of Reliable Naval Weaponry, Seminar on ' Naval Weaponry through lhe Ages' , 16-17 Oct 2015, Indian
Naval Academy, Ezhimala, Kannur, available at https:/ / www.academia.edu/ 22051358/ lntegrated_Masts_ Future_oCReliable_NavaLWeaponry
3. Baron, Nell T, Bird William R, Potter, Patrick, Rockway, Dr John W, Stetson, Neal K; Naval topside design: learning from the Past. Shaping the Future,
Naval Sea Systems Command Report. 2002, available at http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/ tr/ fulltext/ u2/ a399982.pdf
4. Jasper van der Graaff, Frank leferink; Validation of Naval Platform ElectromagneticToolsviaModel and Full-scale Measurements, IEEE Journal, 2004
5. Kane C E, Fixter G and Pogson G; The Advanced Technology Mast for HMSArk Royal
6. Koko T S, Brennan D P, luo X, Norwood M E, Jiangl and Akpan U 0; Modelling and Analysis Capabilities for lightweight Masts, Defence R&D
Canada, Contractor report, available at http: // ic cm-central.org / Proceedings / ICCM17proceedings/Themes /
Industry/ MARINE%20COMP05ITES/ A4.2%20Kane.pdf
7. MacDonald, G; Cost Benefit Evaluation Methodology In Warship Survivability Design
8. Meloling John H.; Advanced Enclosed Mast/Sensor (AEM/ S) System, Communication Systems Technologies, available at https://
www.academia.edu/7463897 / Advanced_Enciosed_Masc Sensor_AEM_S_System
9. Miller, Paul; Design Criteria for composite masts, The 12th Chesapeake Sailing Yacht Symposium
10. Preston E law Jr; Accommodating antenna systems in the ship design process, US Department of Defence study, available at
http://www.dtic.mil/ dtic/ tr / fulltext/u2/ a05870 5.pdf
11. Savage C l and Kimber A; When is a mast a mast! The Impact of Integrated masts on platform design and classification, RINA Warship, 2010,
avai lable at https://www.bmtdsl .co.uk/med ia/6097 879/ BMTDSl-When-is-a-Mast-a-Mast-Confpaper-RI NAWarshiP-Jun 1O.pdf
12. Smith J S, Robb M D, Duffy AHB, Thomas A and Nisbet C; An experience of Modularity through design, International Conference of Engineering
design, Glasgow, Aug 2001, available at https:/ / strathprints.strath.ac.uk/6732/ 6/ strathprints006732.pdf
Cdr (Dr) Nltln Agarwala was commissioned In the Indian Navy in 1993_ He is a Naval Archited from the Cochin University of
Science and Technology with design, industry, academic (both teaching and research), inspedion, maintainer and a policy
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maker experience in shipbuilding. He was a part time Research Fellow with the NMF before becoming a full time
researcher In November 2017 on deputation from the Indian NaVY.He has authored over 35 papers for various technical
I conferences and journals both national and International and was awarded the HR Memorial Award 2016-17 by the Institute
of Marine Engineers India for the best technical paper published In Marine Engineers Review In 2016. He is presently
writing a book entitled MDeep Seabed Mining In the Indian Ocean: Economic and Strategic Dimensions·
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