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Fassmer / SH Defence - The Cube™ Multi-Purpose OPV

New cutting-edge equipment solution allows Navy and Coast Guard vessels to change purpose in less than 4 hours – without costly rebuilding between missions. modern naval vessels must be capable of carrying out different missions and roles in both peacetime and wartime. This calls for solutions that enable them to quickly adapt to any new mission without a costly rebuild.

This is why SH Defence developed The Cube™, a flexible and cost-saving modular equipment solution that enables a vessel to act as warship on one mission, minesweeper on another – and humanitarian aid vessel or any other role on a third.

All it takes is a change of modules to load the vessel with the equipment needed for a new function. It could be a module with a decompression chamber for diving missions, a module to deploy and recover scientific equipment, working crane modules, weapon systems, surveillance equipment or fast attack boats or RIBs.

SH Defence is a result of three decades of turnkey equipment and service solutions to various national navies, delivered by the central organisation SH Group. Founded in 1974, SH Defence currently employs about 320 qualified employees at the headquarter in Denmark.

The new department has its own in-house engineering department with state-of-the-art design tools, modern production facilities and test grounds operated by a highly experienced workforce with security clearance.

The product line covers among others: launch and recovery systems for drones, diving equipment and mini-subs, winches, A-Frames, lifting decks and platforms, handling systems, hydraulic power units, steering gear and control systems, Bulkhead doors, side/bow and stern ramps and special marine cranes.

The service part covers, among others: Inspection, repair, overhaul and root cause investigations on all kind of hydraulic and electric equipment. Pre-manufacturing, mounting, flushing and pressure test of pipes and hoses, valve overhaul, In-situ machining, Laser measuring and alignment.

“Traditionally naval vessels are built to serve one single purpose. But a fleet consisting of fixed-purpose vessels is both inflexible and extremely costly to operate and maintain in today’s world. We are changing that course by making it fast and easy to exchange equipment of any vessel and thereby making it multi-functional. Vessels prepared for The Cube can carry out any mission”, explains René Bertelsen, Director of SH Defence.

The US Navy's Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) are lightweight high-speed vessels designed to perform a variety of missions, currently including Mine Countermeasures (MCM), Surface Warfare (SUW), and Anti-submarine Warfare (ASW). The LCS consists of two distinct parts—the ship itself (called a seaframe because of its ability to carry interchangeable payloads similarly to an airframe) and the interchangeable package of sensors and weapons that it carries and deploys, called a mission package. The US Navy wanted to field an affordable utility ship that would be able to handle some of the day-to-day tasks and responsibilities of the Navy, including missions such as counter-piracy patrols and foreign nation training exercises that are relatively low risk. As the number of frigates has declined over time, these missions are increasingly being performed by more expensive and capable ships — destroyers and cruisers — which the Navy states are in high demand for more stressing operations. Each LCS seaframe has reconfigurable spaces where the mission modules are carried. These spaces are equipped with standardized connections for ship services including power and cooling. The mission module designs are based on standard shipping containers that are outfitted with a variety of unmanned systems, sensors, and weapons that can be loaded onto and off of the seaframe. An LCS Mission Packages (MP) is designed to execute a specific ship mission, such as MCM. A Mission Package includes multiple Mission Modules that, together, constitute the equipment necessary to perform the specific mission. Mission Modules are brought on board an LCS seaframe prior to deployment to equip the ship for a specific mission. The handling and movement of modules on a seaframe can occur both in port and at sea. Safe, efficient, and timely movement of Mission Modules is critical to mission objectives. LCS would have interchangeable mission systems in the form of mission modules rather than fixed mission systems as is generally the case with other Navy surface combatants. These modules would give the Navy flexibility to change equipment in the field to meet different mission needs, and to incorporate new technology to address emerging threats.