The birth of a legend
From analogue fire-control solution to today’s sophisticated combat management system, Saab’s 9LV has come a long way since it was first developed in the late 1960s. So, what is the secret of its longevity – and its popularity – with world navies? And just what exactly does the mysterious ‘9LV’ designation actually mean?
When the German Navy signed a deal with Saab to overhaul the command-and-control systems on its Brandenburg-Class frigates in 2021, it became one of the new members of a worldwide club. Under the agreement, all four of the German Brandenburg-Class vessels are being equipped with our famous 9LV combat management system, providing crews with extraordinary situational awareness and control. The move means that Germany is now one of more than 20 global navies to have taken delivery of a 9LV system, alongside other current users including Australia, Canada, Sweden and Finland.
Part of the reason for 9LV’s popularity with both ship crews and national governments is that it is intuitive and technically advanced solution. Easy to integrate with other solutions, it provides a user-friendly C4I capability that can be used on all modern naval platforms – from patrol boats and frigates to even larger ships and submarines.
And yet many will be surprised to learn that a system – which today is regarded as the benchmark for digital battle technology – actually started life as an analogue solution. Rather than using circuit boards and processors, the very first 9LV system 55 years ago relied on resistors and transformers to help crews identify, target and fire on enemies. And it did so remarkably well!
So just how did the 9LV system come to be? And what has propelled its evolution from old-world technologies to today’s advanced command and control solution?
Origins in the Netherlands
The origins of the 9LV story actually predate the establishment of Saab by many decades and lie in the nineteenth century in the Netherlands. In 1891, father and son entrepreneurs Frederik and Gerald Philips established a small lightbulb manufacturing business in the town of Eindhoven near the Belgian border. Their company, Philips, grew rapidly, and by the 1920s had diversified into manufacturing radios, electric razors and some of the first television sets sold in Europe. By 1923, Philips had set up a subsidiary company in Sweden, called Philips Sverige. The business thrived, and soon after the end of World War II it began supplying electronic equipment to the Swedish defence industry. By the 1950s, the company had become Philips Teleindustry AB (PTAB). By 1960, PTAB was producing equipment including torpedo fire control systems for submarines and torpedo boats from its facility at Stora Essingen in Stockholm.
Taking shape
The 9LV system really began to take shape in 1968. In that year, the Swedish Navy approached the defence industry with a request to produce a fire control system for its new Norrköping class torpedo boats. The system needed to provide ship crews with an efficient and dependable way to quickly identify, track and fire upon enemy aerial targets. While rival manufacturer HSA (also part of Philips) proposed a digital fire control solution using early computers, PTAB suggested an analogue system that used transistors and diodes. The analogue approach was based around older technology, but it was also highly agile, more reliable and easier to maintain than the clumsy digital solutions of the day. The PTAB fire control arrangement included an advanced magnetron surveillance radar, a Ku-band fire control director with an optical sensor, and an operating unit. Prioritising reliability and ease of use, the Navy awarded PTAB the contract in 1969, with work commencing at the company’s new premises at Järfälla (today owned by Saab). While the Swedish armed forces gave the project the designation Arte 722, inside PTAB the fire control unit grew to have another name: 9LV. While some find that designation mysterious, its origins are relatively straight forward. LV refers to luftvärn, which is the Swedish term for air defence. At the time of the system’s creation the Järfälla workshop was operational site number (nine) 9 for Philips. When you put them together, you get 9LV. The name really stuck when PTAB chose it as the export name for system when selling to nations inside and outside Europe.
Analogue but innovative
While the first iteration of 9LV relied on analogue technology rather than digital, it was highly innovative in a range of other ways. It employed hydraulic rather than electric motors to control the director platform, something that opened the way for faster and more accurate targeting. The use of hydraulics also eliminated the need for conventional bearings and gear boxes, reducing maintenance, and creating a hollow channel leading up to the radar cabinet where cables could be conveniently placed. Right from the start, the systems designers also recognised that technology was rapidly evolving and so took a modular approach to the 9LV’s design. Their configuration allowed Individual components to be easily swapped out and updated as more advanced solutions came to hand, ensuring the solution was always battle ready and up to date.
In parallel to supplying 9LV to the Swedish navy, PTAB also supplied a very similar system known as Rakel 203 to the Danish Navy. To help the Rakel 203 director cope with extreme movement when the ship was in high seas, designers introduced an innovative ‘link’ stabilisation system which sat between the deck and the director. It achieved its task very efficiently, and was then introduced into the Norrköping class vessels’ 9LV systems as well. Extensive environmental testing of the Danish system to meet NATO requirements also provided lessons that contributed to the quality of 9LV.
The move to digital
The first version of 9LV proved highly successful in Sweden’s Norrköping Class vessels, but with times changing it was clear the next step was to digitalise.
When the Swedish Defence Force awarded PTAB the contract to supply a fire controlsolution for the Swedish Coastal Artillery and Hugin-class patrol boats in themid 1970s, work began on producing a new digital Mark 2 version. The analogue computer was replaced with an early digital computing solution, the first step down the road to today’s highly advanced solution. These deliveries also proved a success, and they opened the way for the export of 9LV to other European nations. Throughout the 1970s and early, versions of the 9LV Mk 2 system were supplied to the navies of nations including Finland, Norway and Yugoslavia. Meanwhile, PTAB became part of Philips Elektronikindustrier AB (PEAB).
As digital technologies improved and evolved, so did the 9LV. Started in 1983, the 9LV Mk 2.5 featured the high-level programming language RTL/2 to allow real-time computing and upgrades were undertaken to the hardware architecture. Deliveries continued to Swedish and international customers.
A full combat management system emerges
A major turning point towards the respected combat management system 9LV has become today came in the development and delivery of the 9LV Mk 3 from the late 1980s until the early 2000s. As part of a major redesign, the new programming language Ada was used to operate small location-independent applications, beneath a fully distributed system based on Ethernet LAN. Multi-function consoles were introduced to allow operators to perform all key tasks from any position. These changes effectively transitioned the 9LV from being mainly a fire control system to a command-and-control system, with huge tactical advantages and benefits for crews.
The first Mk 3 systems were used with Swedish Gothenburg class and Danish Flyvefisken class vessels, The impressive array of features also made the Mk 3 an attractive option for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), which in the late 1980s chose 9LV as the combat management system for its new ANZAC class of frigates. The roll-out of 9LV in Australia (by what was by then known as Bofors Elektronikindustrier or BEAB) led ultimately to the formation of Saab Australia, a thriving business that now employs over a 1000 people. Today, the current version of Saab 9LV – known locally as AusCMS – is either in use or planned for use across six RAN surface warship classes. 9LV Mk 3 was also selected for use by the Swedish Navy for use in its Visby Class corvettes. In 2000, 9LV officially became part of the Saab family when Saab AB acquired Celsius, a descendent of the original Philips Sverige company.
Today and into the future
From 2008, the 9LV system evolved further with the development and production of the current generation Mk 4. With collaboration between different allies and defence partners crucial for customers, the Mk 4 was designed to have a more open architecture and uses Java programming language for some elements.
Our competence with 9LV today lies in not just creating and delivering world-leading combat management systems composed of consoles, displays and data links. We also have decades of experience in delivering and integrating complete combat system solutions around 9LV. These can be structured to incorporate an extremely wide range of sophisticated sensors and weapons systems, with our open architecture approach ensuring both Saab and competitor systems can be quickly and effectively integrated. We provide customers with comprehensive design, procurement, systems integration and maintenance solutions.
Currently, in addition to the program to deliver systems to Germany’s frigates, we are supplying 9LV combat systems for the, among others, Finnish Navy’s planned Pohjanmaa-class corvettes. 9LV components are also used on-board some of the Royal Canadian Navy’s Halifax class frigates in combination with multi-role Sea Giraffe radar antennas, and on Norway’s recently commissioned Jan Mayen-class of offshore patrol vessel.
One of the later orders is for the future PES frigates for the Colombian Navy, marking Saab’s biggest naval deal to date in Latin America.
Product Manager for 9LV, Johan Hägg, says he expects 9LV to be playing a role in empowering world navies for many years to come.
“With a 9LV onboard, you have that extra edge needed in tight tactical situations,’” he says. “We know 9LV is respected by the crews that use it, and we’re innovating and responding to new challenges so that it can continue to earn that respect moving forward. We’re now implementing new technologies to further strengthen the growing number of 9LV-equipped ships, whether they have a fire control system, a combat management system or the complete and well-balanced combat system solution.”
Johan says much of the current success of the system is due to the excellent basic design 55 years ago.
That combination of a solid legacy and constant innovation make 9LV what it is today.
“Some of those early breakthroughs are still in place today, although of course they have been greatly refined – things like the hydraulic motors and the link system,” he says. “Then you have later improvements like highly automated engagement functionalities and optimizations beyond the capability of an operator. That combination of a solid legacy and constant innovation make 9LV what it is today.”