After the official announcement by Lacroix Defense during DEFEA 2023 that the company’s decoy launching systems (DLS) and their ammunition will protect the future Greek FDI HN frigates, Naval News met with Renaud Thetiot, Lacroix Sales and Marketing Director, to learn more about their technology and capabilities. The French countermeasures specialist Lacroix Defense of the Etienne Lacroix Group showcased a real SYLENA Mk2, fully loaded with three kinds of decoys from the SEA-borne Countermeasures Lacroix Advanced Decoy (SEACLAD) family of ammunition, as the centerpiece of its booth.
“Chaff is definitely obsolete. That’s why when MBDA integrated the chaff discrimination technology in its Exocet family of anti-ship missiles, the French DGA said that we need a solution to protect our ships from such missiles. Then we started developing with them the new generation of decoys with radiofrequency corner-reflector (CNR) technology (360° omnidirectional RCS) able to defeat new generation of radar missile seekers. CNR decoys have an equal polarization ratio contrary to chaff. CNR decoys are broadband and are therefore effective in I, J and all the way up to K band. The FDI HN will be equipped with these new generation of decoys, the SEALEM electromagnetic (EM) decoys, and DLS, supplied by our company, which will protect the Greek frigates from all kinds of current and future threats.“
Renaud Thetiot, Lacroix Sales and Marketing Director
“A ship that is protected by chaff technology is not protected anymore!” emphasized Thetiot. In contrary, the corner reflector technology provides a credible target that mimics the ship radar signature in term of polarization, spectrum, morphology and is not identified by chaff discriminators and thus it protects efficiently ships. Lacroix does not mix CNR with chaff, in order to preserve the credibility of the decoy. Their decoying solution allows permanent monitoring of the missile and does not interfere with signal propagation, even after the deployment of the decoys, to enable the ship to use its jamming and hard kill capabilities (SEALEM has no impact on the radar of the launching vessel!).
Lacroix SEACLAD family of decoys are designed to protect surface vessels against modern anti-ship missiles fitted with RF (radar), IR and IIR seekers, TV and laser-guided missiles as well as against torpedoes. Specifically:
- SEALEM for RF band: 2nd generation broadband radio frequency corner reflectors against radar-guided missiles (chaff discriminator seekers). The decoys are rigid structural and not inflatable.
- SEALIR for IR band: spectral morphologic infrared imaging decoys against infrared missiles (multi-frequency seekers) .
- SEALAT-CANTO: broadband active acoustic torpedo countermeasure decoy (with Naval Group CANTO decoy), acting both as a jammer for dilution and as a false target generator for confusion. Note that in November 2020, Leonardo and LACROIX signed a strategic agreement which will see the partners working together to develop and integrate solutions in the naval countermeasures sector. This will see LACROIX’s SYLENA Mk2 DLS integrated with Leonardo’s MJTE (Mobile Jammer Target Emulator) anti-torpedo countermeasures.
- SEAMOSC for EO band: wideband optronic seeking decoy which provide masking and optronic screening capability (MOSC) against electro-optical and laser-guided threats.
Thetiot explained that Lacroix combines salvos of 4-6 CNR decoys with a single IR decoy in a incredibly fast firing reaction time, against an incoming threat. Lacroix’s IR decoy technology (SEALIR) relies on three core elements. First, SEALIR has an IR spectrum similar to a ship, which makes it effective against bi-colour seekers. Second, SEALIR technology offers long lasting effects with a single payload per engagement consistent with the increasing duration requirement to avoid discrimination based on strong level/time fluctuations due to firing renewal. Third, SEALIR is a morphologic funnel-like decoy capable of replicating the main signature contributors (exhaust & funnel) effective against IIR seekers.
Four SYLENA Mk1 launchers, each launcher fitted with twelve (12) SEALEM 08-02 and four (4) SEALIR 08-01, will equip each FDI HN frigate. The CANTO decoys will be fitted on the new CMLS launcher by Naval Group where each DLS will carry six (6) CANTO. SYLENA Mk1 can be easily upgraded to Mk2 with the installation of three (3) SEALAT-CANTO in the reserved space however there is no need for such an addition. SYLENA DLS are modern, modular systems, easy to install, easy to maintain, and reliable as they are fixed launchers (they are static mortars and not trainable launchers), do not require costly maintenance, are easy (and quickly) to reload at sea by the crew, are light, compact and fully blend in the design of modern stealth warships (low footprint on deck and non-trainable). SYLENA can be interfaced with most of the major Combat Management System (CMS) manufacturers and CSI integrators and can accommodate different configurations, with various numbers of launchers, above or below the deck, in a container version, and so on, which can be mission tailored specifically for the end-user requirements.
Over 150 ships have been equipped worldwide with Lacroix ammunition with over 50 ships with the new SEACLAD. SYLENA (and its ammunition) has been selected by several navies, shipyards and Combat Management System (CMS) providers and it has been integrated by at least five major shipyards: Naval Group (France), Fincantieri (Italy), Navantia (Spain), Daersan (Turkey) and ST Marine (Singapore). It is interfaced with four CMS and 3 R-ESM: Naval Group’s CMS SETIS, Leonardo’s CMS ATHENA-C, Thales’s CMS TACTICOS and R-ESM VIGILE, Navantia’s CMS CADIZ and Indra’s R-ESM RIGEL.
Regarding the SEAMOSC that can be fitted additionaly on FDI HN frigate, it is a new system that was presented for the first time during EURONAVAL 2022 in Paris. The new decoy is launched by a dedicated fixed DLS and can be added easily on FDI HN. Each SEAMOSC DLS carries nine (9) decoys to counter threats guided in the visible range (electro-optical device) or by laser which is ideal for vessels operating in the near-shore (littoral) environment.
Lacroix told Naval News that the under-modernization Hellenic Navy Hydra-class (MEKO 200HN) frigates can easily receive the SYLENA Mk1/2 DLS and therefore they can increase dramatically their survivability. As it was mentioned earlier, the SYLENAS has been integrated into Tacticos CMS which Hydras will receive during their MLU. SYLENA Mk2 DLS will provide the ships with the anti-torpedo defense which today lacks.
Finally, Lacroix mentioned that their systems are proposed for both two candidate corvette designs, Naval Group’ GOWIND and Fincantieri FCX30, for the Greek new corvette program (3+1). A model of GOWIND appeared in DEFEA 2023 with two SYLENA Mk2 DLS while the FCX30 model with four SYLENA Mk2 and two Leonardo octuple C310 DLS. The existence of Mk2 and C310 DLS which provide 12 plus 16 CANTO decoys respectively doesn’t make sense of course but this is just a model.
