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Preceding pages: Two American small combatants on hydrofoils, the 115-foot High Point (PCH-1) and the 71-foot Tucumcari (PGH-2) make agreeable patterns on a calm sea in Puget Sound. In low sea states, both vessels have made speeds in the neighborhood of 50 knots. When armed with modern weapons, craft such as these will be formidable opponents in the struggle for control of the narrow seas.
In the introduction to Part I of this discussion and catalog of small combatants published in the Naval Review 1972, the author stated that, for the majority of surface warfare functions in most of the strategic areas of the world’s seas, small combatants are as effective or more so than larger conventional warships and that they are considerably cheaper to acquire and operate. For navies whose primary task is coastal patrol and interdiction, large warships make no sense whatsoever. Those navies which have other tasks and, to carry out those tasks, build 4,000-ton escorts with the firepower of a 250-ton missile boat and ten knots less speed are quite possibly making a bad investment, for should the large, slow, under-armed, and otherwise vulnerable escort wander into the domain of the small combatant, the only warning of disaster might be a single brief alarm on the passive electronic detection system just before a supersonic, wave-hugging missile comes aboard; if the missile is a heat-seeker, there might be no warning at all.
turbine engines to choose from, with manufacturers
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and the United States able to provide engines in
if
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Soviets do not yet appear to employ gas turbines
smaller ships, although they are far and away the ma|
In the six years since the sinking of the Eilat, few navies have made much progress toward fleet-wide introduction of an effective antimissile defense. Styx, developed in the Soviet Union during the 1950s for use on board small combatants, is a widely-distributed and most formidable weapon—and the Soviets are hardly likely to have rested on their laurels over the last decade. According to the Indian press, two Pakistani destroyers and a wooden-hulled minesweeper were lost at sea to Styx during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war,
*«r
while damage to additional naval and merchant vessels in Karachi harbor may also have been the result of Styx attack from India’s eight early-model Osa boats
Added to the threat from Soviet surface-to-surfatf antishipping missiles are the numerous European systems of even greater sophistication, also designed to be launched from small craft. Missiles like Exocet and Otomat are available to any nation with the cash o< the credit to purchase them. Over three dozen navies now have or have on order surface-launched anti-shipping missiles, and most of these navies will deploy these weapons on ships of under 300 tons displacement Indeed, the oceanic choke points are in the main su$ ciently narrow that missiles launched from shore could close most of them.
Missiles are not the small combatants’ only sting- Modern guns like the Soviet 30-mm., the Swedish Bofors 57 and 76-mm., Swiss Oerlikon 35-mm., and Italian OTO Melara 76-mm. are being used around tbc world. Even the U. S. Navy, at last admitting d’c inadequacies of its own ordnance programs, has pur' chased the OTO Melara gun—although comment mig^ be made on its being selected as the single gun f°( use on both the 170-ton PHM and the 4,000-ton pl The torpedo is by no means an obsolete weapon eithef- and wire-guided torpedoes, assisted by radar, can deliv£( the largest of offensive warheads against a surface targe1. Fire control systems, principally those developed Western Europe, give small combatants the same degrt* of sophistication in fire direction as is found in man) of the latest destroyers. Considerable ingenuity has bee11 shown. For example, the American Mk. 92 uses ^ input from a small navigational radar through a cotf' pact computer to give a two-target, track-while-sc*11 capability. Even computerized tactical data handlil-j systems have been produced for small combatants, a” data-link communications even allow such systemst0 be located ashore while controlling naval actions ma11) miles distant.
The gas turbine would appear to be in the ascen ancy over the diesel as the preferred power plant f°r high-speed craft. Although diesels still have the dr where low speeds and fuel economy requirements pcr mit, there is no doubt that the gas turbine is superb for high-speed operations and is also easier to mainta111 Small warship designers now have a number of gJ
the United States, Great Britain, and Japan able 11 supply any need up to about 4,000 shaft horsepo"1'
13,000 to 20,000 shaft horsepower range. Curiously,
user of this method of propulsion for larger warship
Small Combatants—187 3 241
The hydrofoil and the hovercraft, long promising great increases in performance and capability for military uses, continue to be much discussed and eternally in development. The United States, while exceedingly cautious in its progress, definitely has the lead in hydrofoil technology and may now begin to reap some benefits for its labor through foreign sales of the new PHM. The small combatant hovercraft field is dominated by Great Britain; while a number of military craft have been sold, the concept of hovercraft-as-warship remains arguable.
Hardly more than a year ago, small combatant development in the United States was subject to criticism— principally because so little was being done when so much potential (and need) was evident. This is no longer the case. Reorganization and redirection of the Navy’s small combatant programs has resulted in a number of innovative projects. And, what is more important, these programs are resulting in hardware. Too often in the past the U. S. Navy has constructed and tested expensive prototypes without applying the lessons learned toward new platforms for the fleet. Today, craft like the PHM and the CPIC are ready for full production, and we may regain the lead lost to Western European and Soviet naval shipbuilders during the 1950s and 1960s.
Part I of "Small Combatants” described the efforts of the Soviet Union and her allies, Communist China, the Scandinavian neutrals, and the northern NATO members. This year’s discussion, Part II, deals with the design and development efforts of the principal remaining small combatant constructors; among these are Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United States. Again, the discussion limits itself to seagoing craft which, for practical purposes, means any vessel of more than 60 feet in length, and up to about 180 feet—or from 30 tons to 400 tons in displacement. Beyond a few major structural details of some of the more significant efforts, no attempt is made to describe the craft other than by size, armament, and performance. Tables with the illustrations provide additional data and order-of-battle summaries.
Great Britain:
The Royal Navy’s interest in "Coastal Forces,” which ended officially in 1957, underwent a slight renaissance in I960 after, most of the available boats had already been discarded, and more-or-less petered out in 1970 with the decommissioning of the last armed fast patrol craft. This lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Ministry of Defense does not extend to foreign sales, and British yards are among the world’s leading designers and builders of small combatants. Drawing on design experience dating back over 50 years, Vosper-Thorny-
croft division of David Brown, Ltd., of Portsmouth, and Brooke Marine, Ltd., of Lowestoft, offer a wide variety of compact, efficient, and economical warships ranging in size from 34-foot plastic harbor patrol launches through diesel-powered motor gunboats and gas turbine-powered fast patrol boats, to frigates and even 420-foot missile destroyers. Sales have been good, bringing continued prosperity to naval shipbuilders whose former principal customer—the Royal Navy—no longer buys sufficient new ships to support them.
During World War II, no less than 1,982 woodenhulled patrol boats and motor torpedoboats were constructed for the Royal Navy, and some of these lingered on until the 1958 axe fell. Initial postwar construction consisted of two competing prototypes from Vosper and Saunders-Roe (Anglesey), a division of the well- known aircraft firm. Vosper’s MGB-538 (later FPB- 1601), completed in 1948, was of all-wooden hull construction and was followed by a dozen development versions in the Gay class completed in 1953-54. MGB- 539 (later FPB-1602), completed by Saunders-Roe during 1951, was of composite construction with wooden planking on an aluminum alloy frame and lead to the similarly-constructed Dark class of 1954-58. The Vos- per-designed Gays continued the use of the wartime Packard V-12 gasoline engine, and most were laid up on completion, many never even having been placed in the water. Some of these craft are now appearing on the surplus market, and a few years ago one was interned at Gibraltar while attempting to reach rebel Biafra. The Gays employed a Vee-bottom, hard-chine hull form and were 75 feet long. Interchangeable armaments included (as a gunboat) a 4.5-inch/23-caliber gun forward and a 40-mm. or twin 20-mm. AA aft, or two 40-mm.; or (as a torpedoboat) two 21-inch tubes with a 40-mm. or twin 20-mm. forward. Three Gays gained a new lease on life as target tow craft, with Gay Charioteer still in use until 1970.
The slightly later Darks enjoyed the benefits of newer technology and were the only British torpedo- boats to employ diesel propulsion. The remarkable Napier Deltic engine had first gone to sea in the FPB- 5212, one of the several former German S-boats assigned to Great Britain after the War, and two of the 18-cylinder engines were used to propel the Darks to 40-knot speeds. Early Deities had a 2,500-b.h.p. maxi- mum/l,875-b.h.p. continuous rating, but more recent versions of the engine have been uprated to 3,800 b.h.p., yet still maintain a power/weight ratio around 4.1-lb./b.h.p. Since the demise of Napiers, the Deltic has been manufactured by Ruston-Paxton, Ltd. All but one of the Darks built for the Royal Navy were of composite construction, with the Dark Scout and five boats built for Burma having aluminum alloy skins as
well as framing. Four firms assisted Saunders-Roe in the construction of 19 Darks for the Royal Navy, but the final boat was never launched and four were discarded immediately after the 1958 edict. A number survive; four were sold to the Italian Customs Service in 1967, and two were still in Royal Navy service in 1970, while a number of others—like the Gays—are in storage for sale. Like the Gays, the Dark class had convertible torpedoboat/gunboat armaments, although with their lighter power plants, weight was freed and this permitted their armament to be increased by two 21-inch torpedo tubes. The 4.5-inch gun (which fired a heavy 45-lb. shell and with its low muzzle velocity had poor accuracy at longer ranges) was not used in recent years, and the Dark Gladiator and Dark Hero, the last active survivors, carried only a single 40-mm. mounting forward during their final commissions. Saunders Roe built one Dark for Japan and two for Finland in addition to the five for Burma. Except for the Japanese PTF, all these export units are still in service. •
Even before the Gays and Darks, British engineers had been working on the gas turbine engine, which promised to give increased power along with significant reduction in weight and space requirements. As early as 1947, work began in installing a Gatric gas turbine in place of the centerline Packard engine in MTB-5559- In conjunction with the two remaining gasoline engines, the gas turbine provided 2,300 s.h.p. and gave the 115-ton test craft a 31-knot speed. Lessons learned from MTB-5559 were then applied in the design of two large, single-unit fast patrol craft, the Bold Pathfinder and Bold Pioneer. Both used the same CODAG four-screw propulsion plant of two Metropolitan Vickers G.2 gas turbines (developed from the Gatric engine) of 4,500 s.h.p. each and two early-model Deities—the total of 14,000 h.p. being the most put into a small combatant until the American Asheville class a decade later. Speeds of over 40 knots were reached with these 150-ton boats, which differed in their hull forms and construction methods. The Bold Pathfinder, completed in July 1953 by Vosper, had round bilges (the only postwar Royal Navy craft to use that form), and was of composite construction, while the Bold Pioneer, completed January in 1953 by J. Samuel White & Company, Ltd. (Cowes), used hard-chine form and their hulls were of all-wooden construction. Both boats were a bit over 120 feet overall, with the Bold Pioneer at 25.5 feet being 5 feet beamier than her sister. As gunboats, they carried two short-pattern 4.5-inch/23-caliber guns and a single 40-mm. AA, while, as torpedoboats, they substituted four 21-inch tubes for the 4.5-inch guns and moved the 40-mm. gun to the foredeck. The Bold Pathfinder in 1957 was used for trials with an
experimental 3.3-inch dual-purpose gun, which was housed in an enclosed mounting and fired 17.25-lb. shells. The Bold Pioneer was scrapped during 1958; her half-sister survived until 1962.
A separate gas turbine propulsion experiment involved fitting two Rolls-Royce RM. 60 gas turbines of 5,400 s.h.p. each in place of the 8,000 s.h.p. steam turbine plant in the 260-ton Grey Goose, the last survivor of some seven steel-hulled fast gunboats built during World War II. Conversion work was undertaken by Vospers in 1952 with the boat being commissioned early in 1955. The new plant resulted in a 50% weight reduction and a 25% saving in space, and drove the 146-foot test boat at 36-knots. Although the RM. 60 was not used in later patrol craft, experience gained with the Grey Goose prior to her 1958 scrapping was applied to all later Royal Navy gas turbine-propelled ships and craft.
Fortunately, Vosper’s Brave Borderer and Brave Swordsman had been launched prior to the 1958 force reduction, or these invaluable craft might never have been completed. It had been intended that they should carry the new 3.3-inch gun, but at 8.5 tons the mounting proved too bulky and too heavy to be accommodated on the 110-ton boats, whose total armament payload was just over ten tons. The engineering plants were completely gas turbine, for even the two 40-ktv. alternators were driven by two 90-s.h.p. gas turbines. Main propulsion was by three Type-1250 Proteus, an aircraft engine marinized by Bristol-Siddeley Engines, Ltd., and powering three fixed-pitch, supercavitating screws. The Proteus is now the most widely employed marine gas turbine in the Free World and has been improved from its original 3,500 s.h.p. to a current 4,250. The horsepower/weight ratio (including primary and reduction gearboxes) is only about 1.3-lb/s.hp With a total of 10,500 s.h.p. available, both craft made well over 50 knots on trials. Later warship versions of the design all have the more powerful version of the Proteus and have reached as high as 57 knots. The Brave Borderer once maintained 42 knots against a 35-knot wind for over four hours, and both craft could still make 50 knots after ten busy years of service. Interchangeable armaments included a 40-mm. AA forward and either a similar mount or a twin 20-mm. aft, and either four 21-inch torpedoes in drop gear of ten ground mines along the craft’s sides. The range of over 440 nautical miles at 44 knots could be e*' tended by carrying self-sealing extra fuel tanks on deck in place of the mines or torpedoes. A civilian version of the Braves, using the same engines, was completed in 1961 for Stavros Niarchos, the tanker magnate, and named Mercury; with a 54-knot speed, she was the world’s fastest yacht. The Braves were the last offensive
Small Combatants—1973 243
high-speed small combatants to be constructed for the Royal Navy; they were placed in storage during 1970 for eventual expenditure as targets.
Vosper did not stop development of its promising concepts, however, and, soon after, they completed the Ferocity at their own expense for demonstration purposes. Although never purchased by any navy, she was leased to the Royal Navy for three weeks during 1967 as a substitute in the Irish Sea anti-smuggling patrol for the Braves, both of which happened to be in the yards at once. The Ferocity was used to prove the greater stress resistance of an all-wooden hull over composite construction (in which the materials have dissimilar stress properties), and all subsequent craft in the Brave series have been of all-wooden construction. The 88- foot, 80-ton craft had two screws, driven by two of the uprated, 4,250-s.h.p. versions of the Proteus. She additionally carried two 150-b.h.p. Daimler-Benz engines which could be clutched to the shafts for cruising purposes. The Ferocity carried the same armament as the Braves except that on the shorter hull two less mines could be accommodated. The craft was retired during 1969, but she had returned her builder’s investment because of a number of orders from foreign governments.
The Pfeil and the Strahl were ordered in I960 by the West German Navy as part of its Baltic fast patrol craft evaluation program and were eventually passed to the Greek Navy in 1967. The Pfeil was a 95-foot-long version of the Ferocity, but without the diesel cruise motors, while the Strahl was a near duplicate of the Braves, but with the improved Proteus engines and an enclosed conning position. Both now carry two single Bofors 40-mm. AA, and can carry four 21-inch torpedoes in drop gear if required. The Aiolos (cx-Pfeil) is credited with 50 knots, while the more powerful Astrapi (ex-Strahl) is rated at 55.5 knots.
Denmark ordered two boats from Vosper in 1962, combining the Brave hull form and three-engine plant with the Ferocity all-wooden hull and auxiliary cruise diesels. The first, the Sloven, was paid for with U. S. offshore procurement funds and had the hull number FT-821 assigned for accounting purposes. Four more sisters followed the early 1965 delivery of the Sjljven and the Sjridderen; these were license-built at the Royal Dockyard, Copenhagen, and completed in 1965-1967 under Vosper’s supervision, with many components supplied by British manufacturers. Two General Motors 6V72 diesels can be clutched to the outboard shafts to provide a cruising range of 2,300 nautical miles at 10 knots. The Sevens, somewhat heavier than their sisters in other navies, can reach 54 knots maximum speed. Armament accounts for most of the weight increase, as enclosed, heated tubes were provided for
the four 21-inch torpedoes (lately only the forward pair have been carried). Gun armament consists of two Bofors power-operated 40-mm./70-caliber AA, along with a remote, lead-computing director on the bridge. Denmark has now followed the Swedish lead and has installed fiberglass weather shields over the Bofors gun- mounts.
Four boats generally similar to the S^ljvens were ordered during 1964 by Malaysia and delivered mid- 1968. The armament, however, was of British origin, and the boats are normally operated with a 40-mm./60- caliber forward and a twin 20-mm. aft. During 1971, their torpedo capability was replaced by racks for eight wire-guided missiles, as on the Libyan boats described below. Special provisions in construction included air conditioning and sheathing the decks in cascover nylon. The sides and bottoms of all the wooden Vosper boats are sheathed with fiberglass. A similar boat, but without provision for either torpedoes or mines, was completed during 1967 as Pahlawan, for Brunei, a sultanate on the northern coast of Borneo. The Pahlawan received missile armament in 1972.
The last foreign sales in the Brave series were three boats ordered in 1966 by the former government of Libya and were equipped for firing French Nord (now Aerospatiale) SS. liM or SS. 12M wire-guided anti-shipping missiles. The craft have a stabilized visual sight protruding through the roof of the pilothouse, and the missiles are hung in racks of four on either side of the superstructure. The SS. 12M has a line-of-sight range of 3.4 miles and the hitting power of a 6-inch shell; the SS. llM is smaller and shorter ranged. As a shipborne weapon, however, the wire-guided missile is limited in value, as it requires the operator to have the target in sight at all times and needs great skill to operate. The Sebha, Susa, and Sirte were completed during 1968 and also carried 40-mm. AA guns fore and aft.
Vosper designed an improved hull form for further sales of its Proteus-powered fast patrol boats, but thus far has had sales only to the Royal Navy, in the form of three non-combatant Scimitar-class "High Speed Training Craft,” intended to simulate Soviet missile boats of the Osa and Komar types. Because neither of the Soviet designs can top 40 knots, the centerline Proteus was omitted on the British target boats, although foundations are in place should the Ministry of Defense later decide to re-enter the small combatant business. The boats, completed during 1970, are unarmed but otherwise resemble their progenitors, except that the bow has been given additional rake to keep them drier, increasing their length to 100 feet. Two 323-b.h.p. Foden diesels are fitted for cruising, and the usual Rover gas turbines power the two alternators. Mechanically actuated flaps are fitted to the lower edge
of the transom for adjustment of trim at higher speeds.
For nations desiring more economical patrol craft still capable of better than moderate speeds and carrying considerable firepower, Vosper designed a 103-foot motor gunboat with a mild-steel hull, wooden decks, and their own special roll-damping fins. The first of this class was completed in 1963, and the most recent was completed during 1972. Twenty-four in all were ordered by Malaysia, in three series beginning in 1961. The initial six (the Sri Kedah group) had their two Maybach MD 655/18, 12-cylinder diesels license-built by Bristol Siddeley in Great Britain, while the four 1963- order Sri Sabah group and the 14 Kris group ordered in 1965 had their engines built by the parent firm in Germany. The 3,500-b.h.p. plant drives two screws through a 1.5:1 reduction gearbox for a maximum speed of 27 knots and a range of 1,500 nautical miles at 17.5 knots. Air conditioning was provided for the 23-man crew, and there are even two 225-gallon-per-day evaporators. The craft normally carry two Bofors 40-mm. AA with 1,000 rounds of ammunition, plus one or two 2-inch rocket flare projectors. The final 14 boats differed externally in lacking hull portholes and the upper rubbing strake, giving the hull sides a bare appearance; additional tankage extended their range. All were delivered by 1968.
The next nation to order the craft was Trinidad and Tobago, in 1963. The Courland Bay and the Trinity differed from the Malaysian boats in having a single British 40-mm./60-caliber AA and in being powered by two Paxman V-12 diesels totalling 3,000 b.h.p., for a maximum burst speed of 25 knots and a speed of 23 knots at the engine’s 1,150-b.h.p. sustained rating; range at 13 knots is 1,800 nautical miles. Mounting only a single gun allowed a reduction of the crew to 17 total. After commissioning at Portsmouth in February 1965, the pair crossed the Atlantic under their own power. Two more, the Chagnaramas and the Bucco Reef, were ordered during 1970 for the small and efficient island navy. Kenya ordered three boats in 1964, and when completed in August 1966, the Chui, Ndovi, and Simba all traveled to Mombasa unescorted. They were duplicates of the Trinidadian boats, aside from the provision of an additional 40-mm. mount aft. Panama’s 1970 order for two boats armed with two single 20-mm. AA was filled with the delivery of the Panquiaco and the Ligia Elena in May 1971, bringing the total of 103-footers built to 33.
A slightly larger gunboat was provided by Vosper to meet Peruvian requirements for additional speed. The increased length of the 110-foot Velarde class was largely taken up by the greater engineroom space needs of twin Napier Deltic diesels for main propulsion and two Ford 6-cylinder diesel alternator sets. The 130-ton
boats, ordered during 1963, had a top speed of around 30 knots. All were completed in 1965 and made their 9,000-mile delivery voyage together. Although heavier armament could have been installed, they currently carry two single 20-mm. AA, two flare launchers, and two depth charge racks (indicating the presence of * small sonar). The Velarde was used briefly by her builders for trials with the Oerlikon twin 81-mm., unguided rocket launcher, but the weapon was not purchased by Peru.1 Deck fittings are present for mounting side launchers for 21-inch torpedoes.
Six 32-knot craft on the 110-foot hull were ordered by Singapore in May 1968, with four being built at the Vosper-Thornycroft Uniteers yard in Singapore. Main propulsion is by two Maybach 3,600-b.h.p- diesels, and the first boat completed, Independence, was armed with a Bofors 40-mm./70-caliber AA forward and a 20-mm. AA aft. The final trio carry a Bofors 3-inch low-angle gun forward, directed by the Hollandse Sig- naal Mk. 26 system, as on the Norwegian Storm class. All six were operational by the end of 1971.
Vosper’s latest conventional small combatant creation is again a private-venture craft, designed to stimulate sales for a larger and more heavily-armed small combatant concept. The Tenacity was launched 18 February, 1969 and completed early in 1970. Like the 103-foot and 110-foot designs, her steel hull is round- bilged in form, but unlike the PGMs, she incorporates gas turbines in her propulsion system. The plant is a CODOG arrangement, with three Proteus working through the usual Vosper Vee-drive. Two Paxman 6-cylinder diesels can be clutched to the outboard shafts for cruising speeds of up to 16 knots and a range of 2,500 nautical miles at 15 knots. The 12,720-s.h.p- Proteus installation produces a speed of 38 knots and reflects Vosper’s continued satisfaction with the reliability of the Rolls-Royce engines. The design is also offered with an all-diesel plant of four Maybach of Deltic engines. The Tenacity was equipped with mockup armament and electronics. Her demonstration suit included an imitation Oerlikon 35-mm./90-calibef twin AA mounting, four mock-up tubes for the Con- traves/Sistel Sea Killer Mk. 2 surface-to-surface missile (range: 12.5 miles), and a Contraves Sea Hunter track- while-scan radar fire control system. Alternate armament schemes are legion, and the hull can accommodate such modern fast-firing guns as the OTO Melara 76-mm./62-caliber Compact, or the Bofors 57-mm automatic or 3-inch/50-caliber automatic forward, while carrying anti-shipping missiles such as Exocet, Sea Killer Mk. 2 or Mk. 3, Penguin, Standard, of Gabriel aft. Any of the smaller radar fire control systems
1This weapon is installed on the three Manta<\zss torpedo boats of the Ecuadorian Navy, described in last year’s Part I.
Small Combatants—1973 243
with attendant data-handling computers can be fitted. The Tenacity has steamed many miles in demonstrations—including a visit to Denmark—but did not produce any sales until March 1972, when an order for six Otomat-missile-equipped examples was placed for the Venezuelan Navy. In March of 1971, the Tenacity herself was leased by the Royal Navy to supplement the three Scimitar-chss boats in the training role. Later purchased outright, she joined the Fisheries Protection Squadron during 1972.
Vosper-Thornycroft has also built a number of other gunboat designs in recent years, including six 100-foot custom launches for Libya powered by three Rolls- Royce diesels totalling 1,740 b.h.p. for 18 knots and a range of 1,800 nautical miles at 14 knots; the armament of the craft, which are configured primarily for habitability and seaworthiness, is a single 20-mm. AA. The Uniteers branch at Singapore has constructed an 87-foot gunboat design for the Royal Malay Marine Police and the Philippine Navy. Thornycroft designed and built eight smaller 78-foot versions for Kuwait prior to the merger with Vosper. In 1972, the first of seven 78-footers for the Hong Kong Marine Police was launched at Singapore, as was the first of three 91-foot, enlarged versions of the 87-foot design for Malaysia. The Keith Nelson division of Vosper-Thornycroft builds fiberglass-reinforced, plastic-hulled patrol craft in 57- 4l- and 34-foot lengths. The larger boat displaces 52 tons and carries two single 20-mm. AA; Abu Dhubai and the Bahamas, among others, have bought the design, which achieves 20 knots on two 375-b.h.p. Caterpillar diesels.
Vosper-Thornycroft’s chief rival in Great Britain is Rrooke Marine, whose Lowestoft yard has built steelhulled gunboats of up to 158 tons displacement and offers even larger craft. Small patrol craft are not neglected, and five small island-states or dependencies in the West Indies have each taken delivery of one 40- foot, 15-ton, 22-knot patrol launch since 1970. Brooke Marine’s larger gunboats are similar in concept to those °f Vosper, but the hull lines are characterized by a pronounced spray strake forward.
Four 107-foot-class gunboats were ordered by Paki- stan during October 1963 and delivered during 1965. Propulsion is by two Maybach diesels of 1,800 maximum b.h.p. each, for 24 knots. A fuel supply sufficient tQ allow unrefueled passage between West and East Pakistan was specified, and the range on one engine at 12 knots is a phenomenal 5,200 nautical miles with 34.5 tons of fuel which can be carried. Two manu- %-worked Bofors 40-mm./70-caliber AA with 480 rounds each are fitted. During the 1971 Indo-Pakistani 'Var, three were lost, with only the Rajshahi escaping.
Libya ordered four craft with a similar hull but
different propulsion system. The Gharian and the Khowlan were delivered in 1969 and the Sabrath and the Marawa in 1970. Propulsion of the 150-ton boats is a pair of Paxman Ventura diesels providing 4,800 total b.h.p. for 27 knots. Range on both engines at 14 knots is 1,800 nautical miles, or, on one engine,
12 knots for 3,150 miles. Unlike the Maybach-propelled Pakistani boats, the Paxman-engined craft have a short, streamlined exhaust stack. Their armament consists of a 40-mm. AA with 480 rounds forward, and a 20-mm. AA aft with 3,840 rounds. Two 2-inch rocket flare projectors with 20 total rounds and a Decca 975 radar are also on board. Four 107-foot boats were ordered for New Zealand and two for Nigeria during 1972.
The Royal Air Force provided the impetus for Brooke Marine’s latest PGM, the 120-foot model. The Seal, completed 1967, the Seagull, completed 1970, and the Sea Otter, completed 1971, are 158-ton, heavy weather aircraft rescue launches capable of 25 knots on their two Paxman 16YJCM diesels. The design for these boats was used as the basis for an export gunboat, offered with a variety of machinery and armaments, including missiles. One version, with a 16-cylinder plant, provides 27 knots, while a 12-cylinder version is projected at 23.5 knots maximum and 21.5 knots sustained. The economical range of both versions at
13 knots is about 1,300 nautical miles, and with reserve tanks in use, this is extended to 2,500 miles. A crew of 25 to 27 is required. In mid-1971, an order for three 120-foot gunboats was placed by the Sultanate of Oman, to complement the large patrol ship (originally intended as a Royal Yacht) Al Said, also built by Brooke Marine. The Royal Navy ordered four 120-foot gunboats during 1972 and is said to be considering construction of additional boats for patrol and reserve training duties to replace the converted Ton-class minesweepers now rather uneconomically employed in that function. The most recent order announced has been a single boat for Kenya.
The Ministry of Defense has not yet publicly expressed any interest in naval hydrofoils, and, indeed, there is no British experience with such craft other than a few small commercial models. British arms merchants, however, have put all of their eggs in the hovercraft basket.
British Hovercraft Corporation, East Cowes, Isle of Wight, has had substantial sales of the naval versions of their Warden (SR. N5), Winchester (SR. N6), and Wellington (BH. i) air cushion vehicles to the governments of Great Britain, Brazil, Italy, Iran, and India. During 1970-1971, several were ordered by African nations, and Bell Aerosystems, Buffalo, N.Y., has built B.H.C. designs under license for the U. S. and Canadian governments. The Imperial Iranian Navy is the largest
user of B.H.C. naval hovercraft, with a dozen in operation. Although the value of the short-ranged and noisy hovercraft as a patrol craft is still open to question (particularly where helicopters are available), B.H.C. seems well established as a successful marketer of a variety of designs.
The Warden is familiar in the United States for its service in Vietnam, where three each were operated by the Army and Navy, and for its current use by the U. S. Coast Guard, which acquired those formerly used by the Navy. Powered by a single 900-s.h.p. Rolls- Royce Marine Gnome gas turbine, the 6.7-ton craft can reach 60 knots under ideal conditions and can sustain up to 40 knots for 3.6 hours. The Warden can carry up to 15 troops and mounts a single machinegun in its "Interceptor” version. The U. S. license-built models had 1,150-s.h.p. General Electric gas turbines and were armed with a twin .50-caliber machine gun, two 7.62- mm. machine guns, and two 40-mm. grenade launchers.
The Winchester appeared in 1964 and serves with the Royal Corps of Transport in Great Britain, the Saudi Arabian Coast Guard, the Italian Navy, and with the Iranian Navy, where eight are operational. Two military versions are provided, the Mk. 4 "Fast Attack” and the Mk. 3 "Military Logistic”. The latter has a wider bow door than the former and a large hatch in the cabin roof for loading such items as a pack howitzer or military stores. Both the 12-bladed lift-fan and the four-bladed propeller are powered by a single Gnome, and the craft can reach 50 knots in calm weather. Service speed of up to 33 knots can be maintained for 3.6 hours. The Winchester weighs about 10.7 tons loaded. The installed armament is a single machine gun, and 20 troops can be accommodated.
The Wellington is a much larger craft weighing 48 tons. The first two for Iran were delivered early in 1971, and four more orders were placed shortly thereafter. The British government has also acquired examples of the design. A 3,400-s.h.p.-rated Rolls-Royce Proteus drives the 12-bladed lift fan and the four-bladed, controllable-pitch airscrew. The Rover gas turbines drive the generators. Maximum speeds of 65 knots are attainable in calm seas, and 35 to 50 knots can be maintained for from eight to eleven hours, depending on sea conditions and load. The "Fast Attack” version can carry a missile armament with a radar director, and the hold can accommodate a CIC and communications facilities. The "Logistic Support” model carries 170 fully- equipped troops or a combination of guns, vehicles, and some troops, in addition to two installed machine guns. The bow door becomes a loading ramp and leaves an opening 13.7 feet wide by almost 8 feet high. The Wellington thus surpasses the carrying capacity of most helicopters by some margin and begins to offer decided
payload advantages in both its military roles.
During 1971, Vosper-Thornycroft announced a naval version of their 76-ton VT-i, semi-amphibious hovercraft. The VT-i employs twin underwater screws for forward propulsion; while this prevents operating over land, it also greatly reduces the noise which air screws cause and which has been a drawback to both civilian and naval hovercraft. Powered by two Avco-Lycoming TF25 gas turbines, the craft would carry four Exocet missiles and a twin Oerlikon 35-mm. AA gunmount; carrying the same military payload of the Tenacity, i( weighs 120 tons less and still has a 600-mile range at 43 knots. Later versions of 170- and 400-ton size are also proposed.
Both Vosper and Brooke Marine have aggressive sales forces—aided by considerable assistance from the Ministry of Defense, whose attaches throughout the world actively promote the sale of British military equipment. Several smaller firms like Ailsa Shipbuilding in Scotland, and the Tailor Boatworks, also offer small combatants, and, of course, large shipbuilders like Vickers, Yarrow, and Cammell-Laird have had great success in getting orders for destroyers, destroyer escorts, and submarines, as well as offering overhaul anti modernization services.
France:
The principal rival to British yards has been France and the great success of the La Combattante II-class missile gunboat may have had some influence on Vos- per’s growing interest in constructing larger escorts anti destroyers at the expense of its more traditional product, the small combatant.
The French Navy had only one noteworthy small combatant operational during 1971—which hardly fleets the importance of French yards in the design and construction of coastal combatants for foreign customers, who range in size from one-ship African navi# to France’s big neighbor, West Germany. The French government officially sanctions this naval arms expo11 enterprise and since 1968 has sponsored a biennial naval exposition at which French shipbuilders and components manufacturers have demonstrated their warest0 admiring dignitaries and prospective customers.
Three French shipbuilders dominate small combatafl' construction: Chantiers Mecaniques de Normandie (C.M.N.) at Cherbourg, Chantiers Navals Franco- Beiges at Villeneuve-la-Garenne, and Chantiers Naval* de L’Esterel at Cannes. De L’Esterel began as a yad'1 builder and limits itself to mahogany-hulled patrol crab of up to 128 feet in length. Franco-Beiges builds sted' hulled craft and has constructed the largest French" designed patrol craft to date. C.M.N. is the largesto the three and builds in steel or wood, the latter 1,1
Small Combatants—1973 247
i special plastic-laminated construction of their own developing. The firm has been associated with the Lurssen works since the 1950s and since then has constructed craft to several of the German shipbuilder’s designs.
C.M.N.’s first effort in this field was the 32-meter- dass gunboat for the French Navy, of which ten were built. The design had been prepared by Lurssen, and the first pair were actually completed in Germany during 1958. Today three remain in French hands. The VC-4 went to the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) in 1962, but was returned in 1965 and then turned over to Senegal as the Sine Saloum. The VC-5 was transferred to Senegal during 1963 as Casamance; the FC-6 was transferred to Cameroon in 1964; the VC-7 went to Mauritania in 1966; the VC-8 to the Malagasy Republic in 1964; and the VC-9 was given to the Ivory Coast in 1963. Several of these have since been stricken. The steel-hulled craft displaced 88 tons full load and when new could make 28 knots. Their armament was two single 20-mm. AA. The principal visual characteristic of the design is a marked knuckle to the hull, while the superstructure has a large, typically German superstructure with a long, sloping deckhouse before the bridge.
The French Navy’s principal active small combatant
also a C.M.N. product, but one designed in France. This ship, La Combattante was authorized in I960 as the prototype for a class which never materialized. Completed in March 1964, the craft has operated Mainly as a test platform for anti-shipping missile systems. The hull is of laminated wood and plastic and ls unusual in having a convex section beginning a few feet abaft the stem in order to supress spray. Her overall feugth is 147 feet 8 inches, and full load displacement 15 202 tons. With a maximum speed of 23 knots, the etaft has a range of 2,000 nautical miles at 12 knots °n two SEMT-Pielstick 1,600-b.h.p. diesels driving con- trollable-pitch screws.
In 1967, C.M.N. delivered a derivative of the La Combattante design in the 133-foot motor gunboat Al Bachir for Morocco. Powered by two 1,800-b.h.p. SEMT-Pielstick diesels, the 154-ton craft has a 25-knot Maximum speed and a range of 2,000 nautical miles at 15 knots. She carries two single 40-mm. AA. A more Powerful 7,000-b.h.p. plant is offered for top speeds of ^ knots on a- version which also would carry eight Ss 12M wire-guided missiles. Another version has been Proposed as an ASW patrol craft with a platform for an Alouette-III helicopter; the helicopter would carry a single U. S. Mk. 44 homing torpedo or SS. 12M misses, while the gunboat herself would have two single 20-mm. AA and six SS-12M missiles.
La Combattante was armed with a 40-mm. AA for
ward and a trainable quadruple launcher and director for SS. liM missiles amidships. During 1966-67, the fantail armament position was used for a lightweight launcher for two SS. 12M or four SS. llM missiles; this weapon was then replaced by a 14-railed launcher for rocket flares, and this in turn, in 1970, by the prototype Exocet mounting.
Exocet is the most advanced anti-shipping, surface- to-surface missile in production in the West. The 17- foot, 1,600-lb. weapon carries a 330-lb. shaped-charge warhead and has a range of 20.5 nautical miles at Mach 0.96. The Aerospatiales product is inertially guided during the first phase of flight and, after clearing the launching ship, descends to a height of 15 or 20 feet above the sea for the remainder of its run, using a radio altimeter. The homing radar is switched on as late as possible, as little as five nautical miles from the target; this would provide only 25 seconds of warning, even to a ship equipped with ECM gear capable of detecting low-level flight. To date the missile has been ordered for the Greek, Malaysian, Peruvian, Chilean, Brazilian, West German, French, and British navies, with numerous others making inquiries. All Exocet-equipped small combatants use the Thomson-Houston Vega series shipborne integrated fire control system.
The most common platform for the Exocet will be C.M.N.’s La Combattante II. In its original form, this class was designed by Lurssen for construction in Germany for the Israeli Navy. International politics soon required that the 147-foot boats be built outside of Germany, and all 12 were constructed at Cherbourg. The first boat, the Mivtach, was completed during 1967, and the last five were liberated from the French arms embargo in the famous Christmas 1969 escape. The 250-ton craft are powered by four Maybach MD-871 diesels totalling 13,500 b.h.p. on four shafts. Referred to by Israel as the Sa’ar class, the boats have a top speed of 42 knots with a range of 1,000 nautical miles at 30 knots and 1,600 miles at 20 knots. A crew of 40 is carried. Their armament was convertible, with the earlier boats able to carry up to three Bofors/Breda 40-mm./70-caliber AA and the final six substituting an OTO Melara 76-mm./62-caliber Compact for the forward 40-mm. When the Gabriel anti-shipping missile became available, the after two 40-mm. positions were made interchangeable with two mountings (for three missiles each) in their storage/launch containers. The first six can also carry two additional Gabriel containers alongside the forward part of the superstructure. Gabriel is described by its manufacturer, Israeli Aircraft Industries, as being available in two different versions, both with the same 330-lb. warhead and guidance system. The lighter version weighs 880 lbs. and has a range of about 12 nautical miles, while a later version
has a larger propulsion section to extend the range to about 22 nautical miles. The missile employs command guidance with radar terminal homing and, like Exocet, uses a radio altimeter so as to follow a wave-skimming flight profile.[1]
Regardless of the virtues of Gabriel, it seems to have lost out in sales to the Exocet, and most nations ordering La Combattante II have chosen the French missile for their armament. During 1972, C.M.N. completed four of the class for Greece. The first, the Komothoi, was laid down in January 1970 and was launched a little over a year later. The other three boats, the Calypso, Euniche, and Nafsithoi, were laid down at three-month intervals after the first. The overall length of the steel-hulled boats had been increased to 154 feet and full load displacement climbed to 265 tons. The Greek boats are armed with twin Oerlikon 35- mm./90-caliber mounts fore and aft and are equipped for two pairs of Exocet containers, staggered amidships; they also carry two 21-inch torpedoes in stern tubes. Their top speed dropped to 40 knots, perhaps because of the increased displacement.
As discussed in Naval Review 1972, the largest order for the La Combattante II design was placed by West Germany in December 1970. Now it appears that eight of the 20 boats of the "Type 148” class will have their machinery fitting out subcontracted to the Lurssen yard in Germany. Thus, these eight will be launched as shells at Cherbourg, towed to Bremen-Vegasack to have their propulsion plants installed, run engineering trials, and then proceed under their own power back to France for installation of electronics and ordnance systems. Presumably this convoluted course of events satisfies West German shipbuilding honor and preserves political peace. For those who missed last year’s discussion, the Type 148 will carry four Exocet missiles, an OTO Melara 76-mm. Compact forward, a 40-mm. AA aft, and rails for eight mines. The first was to run trials in January 1973 and the last in December 1974.
The Malaysian government ordered four La Combattante II class missile gunboats from France early in 1971, two to be built by C.M.N., Cherbourg, and two to be built by Franco-Beiges. The Malaysian boats will have the same engines as the German boats and will carry an armament of one 57-mm./70-caliber. Bofors
dual-purpose mount forward, a Bofors 40-mm./70-mfl1' AA aft and two single Exocet launchers amidships; the lesser missile armament may be the result of the spiral' ing cost of the French missile, which, by mid-197b had reached an expected unit cost of over $270,000' During mid-1971, the Singapore press announced an order for two La Combattante II class missile boats to be built for that city-state in Germany by Liirssens. Si“ Wolf, the first, was delivered during mid-1972. To he armed with Gabriel missiles, she may be joined b) additional examples to be built in Singapore.
Two boats building for Argentina at Liirssens atf reported to be of the La Combattante II class, whik Spain is apparently interested in up to a dozen, to be built in France. The two 240-ton patrol craft pr0‘ grammed for construction for the French Navy probably also La Combattante IIs. If so, this would bring the total of this design built, building, or proposed to 62, divided among eight navies.
Chantiers Navals Franco-Beiges of Villeneuve-b' Garenne has prepared designs for coastal combatant* of up to 400 tons displacement and 216 feet overall length. The firm also supplies the 194-foot, E.D.I-C class, medium-landing ships to the French and other navies. Franco-Beiges’ most successful small combatant design to date is their P-48 class, the world’s largest conventional motor gunboat. To date five have been constructed, with the first, the Mailaka, being 1^ down November 1966 and delivered March 1968 a* a replacement for the 32-meter class gunboat of the same name in the small navy of the Malagasy Republic A sister named Le Vigilant was delivered May 19^ to the Ivory Coast as a gift of the French government and another, the Saint Louis, was delivered to Senegal in March 1971. Two more powerful, missile-armed versions of the class were delivered to Tunisia late ifl 1970 as the Bizerte and the Horriya.
The basic design displaces 250-tons full load and ■* 156 feet long. The craft are each armed with two singk 40-mm. AA with 800 rounds each; the Bizerte and the Horriya added two quadruple racks for SS. 12M wire- guided missiles and have a stabilized sight within the forward portion of the superstructure. The boats lacking missiles are powered by two 1,200-b.h.p. diesel* driving two shafts. Maximum speed is 18.5 knots and range at 15 knots is 2,000 nautical miles. The Tunisian boats have two Mercedes-Benz V-16, turbocharged diesels of 2,000 b.h.p. each, yielding a maximum speed of 23 knots and a range of 2,000 nautical miles at id knots. All five have a steel hull, with the Tunisian palf lacking bow bulwarks as on the others, but having bilge keels added to reduce rolling.
Chantiers Navals de L’Esterel at Cannes has bud1 wooden-hulled patrol craft for the French, Spanish'
Small Combatants—1973 249
Lebanese, Venezuelan, Tunisian, Moroccan, and other African governments. Although de L’Esterel offers a 131-foot missile boat design with two Exocets, the largest boat they have built to date is the 110-ton, 121.4-foot Tarablous, completed in 1959 for Lebanon. The craft is armed with two single 40-mm. AA and two machine guns. Two Mercedes-Benz diesels give a maximum speed of 27 knots and a range of 1,500 nautical miles at 15 knots.
The first of de L’Esterel’s 105-foot class were the VC-11 and VC-12 for the French Navy, completed in 1958. The VC-11 was transferred to Tunisia in 1959, and the VC-12 went to Morocco in I960; Tunisia subsequently took delivery of three additional boats. The 80-ton craft were armed with two single 20-mm. AA. They were propelled by two diesels for a maximum speed of 30 knots and a range at 15 knots of 1,500 nautical miles. Two sisters, the Tichit and the Dar El Barka, were built in 1969 for Mauritania, and the President Albert-Bemard Bongo was completed for Gabon in February 1972.
The 45-ton de L’Esterel patrol boat is typified by the V-101 through V-106, built for Tunisia. Powered by two General Motors diesels totalling 960 b.h.p., the 88-foot boats can reach 25 knots and have a range of 250 nautical miles at 15 knots. The design has also been built with two Mercedes-Benz diesels totaling 1,330 b.h.p. for 29 knots. The armament is a single 20-mm. forward. De L’Esterel has also built an 82-foot bunch class for the Venezuelan National Guard, commencing in 1954 and with the latest deliveries coming as recently as 1969. These 50-tonners are powered by two diesels and can achieve 35 knots. Also available from the firm is a 60-foot customs launch design powered by a variety of General Motors or Caterpillar diesels.
One other French yard deserves mention as the constructor of the only motor torpedoboats built in France since before World War II. Between 1950 and 1956, Ghantiers de Meulen completed six 85-foot Ayah-class torpedoboats for Israel. These craft were originally powered by four 1,130-b.h.p. gasoline engines on two shafts, but several were later re-equipped with two Napier Deltic diesels for a total of 4,600 b.h.p. and a maximum' speed of 42 knots. Their most recent Ornament was a 40-mm. AA forward and a single 20-mm. AA aft, with two Italian 17.7-inch torpedo tubes angled outboard on the fantail.
Plans to construct a 56-ton, 50-knot naval hydrofoil for the French Navy began in 1966, with a number °Lfirms, including C.M.N., participating. During 1970, considerable publicity was given to the latest version °f the proposed craft, the SA-805. A 78-ton design, the craft would have a pump-jet propeller mounted on the
single after foil, powered by gas turbine engines. The length would be 91 feet, and expected speeds are 47 knots in calm seas and 40 knots in a Force 5 wind, with a range of 500 nautical miles at 45 knots and 1,375 nautical miles at 11 knots on the auxiliary, hull- borne diesel engine. The armament illustrated included a twin Hispano-Suiza 30-mm. AA forward with 3,594 rounds and two single cells for Exocet missiles aft. Thus far, however, the only hardware to be ordered is a 3.5-ton test craft which began trials at the end of 1971.
France’s SEDAM ("Societe d’Etudes et de Develop- pement des Aerglisseurs Marines”) is a major producer of commercial hovercraft and has prepared designs for a military version of their 32-foot Naviplane 102, 3-ton hovercraft. Two examples were ordered in 1968 for the French Navy. Capable of 68-knot speeds, the craft have only a 1.8-ton payload.
With the exception of high-speed diesels and small marine gas turbines, French industries produce all of the necessary components to build and arm any type of small combatant. Whether or not the French Navy turns to significant numbers of coastal combatants for defense in the future, foreign orders seem destined to provide continuing prosperity for the three major French builders of small combatants.
Italy:
The Italian peninsula, jutting into the Mediterranean with the Adriatic Sea to the east and, to the south and west, sheltered by the three large islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, is ideally situated for protection by coastal combatants. The exploits of Italian torpedo- boats and other small craft in both World Wars attest to the value of these ships in Italian defense. The Italian Navy operated over three hundred small combatants at the close of World War I and at its high points in World War II had nearly 150 such craft. Even after the war, large numbers of such craft were retained, supplemented by 20 war-built U. S. Vosper 70-foot and Higgins 78-foot torpedoboats. But since then there has been little new construction. Only six new boats were built, though four Italian and one ex-German torpedo- boat were rebuilt and modernized.
By 1972, the Italian Navy’s coastal combatant force has shrunk to 12 boats: Two Freccia class, two Lampo class, the Folgore, the four rebuilt Italian boats, and three of the Higgins boats; additionally, one Winchester-class hovercraft built in England operates in a test status. Despite the absence of any substantial force, for several years, Italian interest in coastal warfare has been on the increase, and in 1971 the ordering of a Boeing-Alinavi, Tucumcari-class hydrofoil was coupled with a reported decision to go ahead with the
completion of two currently incomplete Freccia-class fast patrol boats.
The first postwar project of Italian design was the 167-ton MC-490, a 122-foot torpedoboat approved in 1950 and completed in July 1955 by C.R.D.A., Mon- falcone. The composite-construction hull was based on the lines of the World War II German S-31 class. The craft was lengthened to 129 feet in 1956 by the addition of a fixed stern flap. A complete reconstruction from 1962 to 1964 saw the craft lengthened again to 141 feet overall, and her displacement grew at the same time to 198 tons. The original propulsion plant was four Daimler-Benz diesels totalling 9,000 b.h.p. for 34 knots. Re-engined with four 3,000-b.h.p. 20-cylinder Daimler-Benz diesels, the newly-renamed Folgore could reach 38 knots and had a range of 1,400 nautical miles at 20 knots. Currently she carries two Bofors 40-mm./70-caliber cannon, whose Breda mountings permit the guns to fire over 30 rounds under director control before the crew has manned them. Four
17.7- inch torpedoes can be carried, two fired from tubes and two dropped from side-launchers.
Three 52-foot craft built for Israel by Cantieri Bag- lietti in 1956-57 were the last torpedoboats built by the Italian firm whose designs had been the mainstay of Italian forces during World War II. The Ophir, Shva, and Tarshish displaced 25 tons and were powered by Packard gasoline engines for 40-knot speeds. The boats were armed with a 40-mm. mounting amidships and 20-mm. AA fore and aft; they could also carry two
17.7- inch torpedoes in side-launchers by reducing their gun armament to one 20-mm. AA.[2][3]
The 325-ton Sentinella, completed in 1956 by C.R.D.A., Monfalcone, was rebuilt and rearmed several times prior to being discarded in 1970. The craft is important for having conducted seagoing trials of the OTO Melara 76-mm./62-caliber Compact gun. This watercooled weapon has a sustained firing rate of over 80 rounds per minute from a 115-round ready service magazine. The 7.4-ton mount requires no on-mount personnel, and the 13.7-lb. shells have a surface range of over 14,000 yards. Two of these excellent weapons were purchased by the U. S. Navy in 1972 for evaluation for use on the PHM and PF projects. The ship herself was originally conceived as an ASW craft and
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carried a fixed Hedgehog forward, a rack with nin£ depth charges aft, and two twin depth charge mortal Also on board were two 21-inch ASW torpedoes on a rack at the stern and a twin 40-mm. AA mounting with a U. S. Mk. 51 director. Originally the l63-f°°[ craft was driven by four Daimler-Benz diesels develop ing about 10,000 b.h.p. total for a maximum spe^ of 30 knots and a range of 3,000 nautical miles at id knots. In 1961, the Sentinella was re-engined with fou1 more powerful diesels from the same manufacture whose 12,000-b.h.p. total boosted the speed to 32 knots; the mortars, depth charge rack, and torpedo# were replaced with a larger rack, carrying 20 depth charges, and four single K-guns. In 1965, the ship w# renamed Fulmine and retyped as a motor gunboat, all ASW gear being removed. The OTO Melara gun wa$ installed in 1966.
Four torpedoboats built in 1942-43 were recoH’ structed and modernized in 1958-1961 by Baglie^1 and by the Picchiotti Shipyard, Viareggio, as MS-0> 473, 474, and 481; they were still in service in 19% although not in the best of condition. These woodenhulled 92-foot boats were rearmed as convertible gunboat/torpedoboats displacing 72 to 77 tons, depending on the armament carried. They were re-engined with three ASM-185 gasoline engines, which gave a top spee^ of 33 knots and a range of 340 nautical miles.
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As gunboats they carry two 40-mm. Bofors AA; aS torpedoboats they can substitute two 17.7-inch torpedoes in side-launchers for the after 40-mm. gun, and as minelayers they can carry both guns and eight small mines. The craft are displacement-hull boats and atf unique for their type in having bulwarks extending ad from the bow over about a third of their lengths.
The convertible steel-hulled Lampo class was planned to consist of four boats, but only two were completed' the Lampo in 1963 and the Baleno in 1965—both a' the Naval Arsenal at Taranto. Each took five years to construct. These were the first Italian naval craft to employ gas turbines in their propulsion systems. A Metropolitan-Vickers gas turbine of 4,000 s.h.p. was geared to the centerline shaft, and two Fiat diesels o* 3,600 b.h.p. each drive the outboard shafts. Maximum speed is 39 knots. At 36 knots, range is 380 nautical miles, and at 20 knots on the diesels alone the range is 920 nautical miles. The 197-ton Lampos are 141 f#1 overall. As gunboats, they carried three single Bofon 40-mm./70-caliber guns with Breda mountings. A[4] torpedoboats, the after two guns are dismounted and replaced by two 17.7-inch torpedo tubes; two additional 17.7-inch torpedoes in side-launchers can be carried forward. As minelayers, they accommodate som£ 14 mines.
The Italian Navy’s newest small combatants, two U1
Small Combatants—1973 251
number, were again intended to be four. The Freccia was completed during 1965 by Cantieri del Tirreno, Riva Trigoso, and the Saetta was completed the next year by C.R.D.A., Monfalcone. The Dardo was begun but not completed, and the Strale was never commenced. Employing the Lurssen-developed Jaguar hull lines, the craft are of all-metal, aircraft-type construction. They are powered by a Proteus gas turbine on the centerline shaft, and two Fiat X1832 diesels on the outboard shafts. The 3,800-b.h.p. diesels are believed to have the lowest weight of horsepower ratio of any Western marine diesel. The total plant provides a maximum speed on the order of 40 knots and a range of 960 nautical miles on the diesels alone. The armament is convertible: as gunboats, three Bofors/Breda 40-mm./7O-caliber cannon are carried, while four 21-inch torpedo tubes or 14 mines can be carried in lieu of the after two gunmounts. Amidships, where the second gun would go, the Saetta carries a five- tubed, trainable mounting for Contraves/Sistel Sea Killer Mk. 1 antishipping missiles. The solid-fueled missile has a range of about seven miles in its single- stage Nettuno version and is a command-guidance beam rider. In 1971, the two-stage Vulcano (Sea Killer Mk. 2) with a 12-mile range, entered service with the Italian Navy, and a Mk. 3 version with 27-mile range is being developed. The X-band Contraves Sea Hunter radar fire control system is mounted on both boats.
Another, more advanced missile development for use in small combatants is the Otomat, a joint venture of Italy’s OTO Melara and France’s Engins Matra—hence the name. The Otomat, when operational in 1973, will possess performance and hitting power superior to any other Western surface-to-surface naval missile. Propelled by two drop-off solid fuel boosters and an 880-lb. thrust turbojet sustainer, the 15.8-foot missile carries sufficient fuel for a range of over 100 nautical miles at Mach .9 and carries a 460-lb., semi-armor-piercing, shaped charge warhead. To use this considerable endurance, a down-range aerial or submerged target acquisition source would be required, but even without these, Otomat would be able to take advantage of a passive electronic bearing. An all-Italian version of Otomat, named Tesio, was reported during 1972; this weapon would use ah Italian-built radar seeker and may replace some or all of the 50 Otomats announced on order for the Italian Navy in 1972.
The design characteristics for six missile boats to be built for the Italian Navy had not been released at time of writing. A likely candidate would be the 230-ton, 152-foot craft proposed early in 1972 by Rivo Trigoso Shipyard, Genoa. Offered for export sale, the craft would carry four Otomat launch cells aft (each weighing 2,750-lbs. with missile) and an OTO Melara 76-mm.
compact gun forward. Projected with a propulsion plant of four 3,500-b.h.p. MTU diesels, the design could reach 42 knots and have a range of 550 nautical miles at 30 knots or 1,600 nautical miles at 14 knots. The Italian Navy, known to be interested in gas turbine propulsion, might substitute alternate engines or might prefer some other design altogether. Indeed, if the Alinavi hydrofoil project and the U. S. PHM project are successful, Italy may well become the possessor of Otomat/Tesio-armed, U. S.-designed hydrofoils.
Italian manufacturers like Breda, OTO Melara, Nuovo San Giorgio, and Contraves produce many advanced ordnance and electronics systems suitable for employment on fast patrol craft. Should the Italian Navy be able to go ahead with a new coastal combatant program in force, the technology and production capacity to build the craft are already available within Italian borders. With seven of the existing small combatants in hopelessly obsolete condition, any new building program—no matter how modest—is long past due.
Japan:
Between 1956 and 1962, Japan constructed or purchased ten prototype motor torpedoboats without any of the designs ever going into series production. Since then, seven of these craft have already been discarded or down-graded to fast launch status. Until recently, however, priority has been given to constructing destroyer types and submarines for the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), but now plans are being made to build up a force of fast small combatants ideally suited for local defense of Japan’s long coastline. Unfortunately, budget cuts have delayed much of this new program.
PT-1 and PT-2, completed in 1957 by Hitachi at Kanagawa, were of wooden construction. PT-3 and PT-4 were sisters built of aluminum by Mitsubishi at Shimonoseki and also completed during 1956; PT-3 and PT-6, again finished in 1956, were steel-hulled and were built by Azuma Shipyard. These six craft all used two 2,000-b.h.p. Mitsubishi-designed, 20-cylinder diesels for a maximum speed of around 30 knots. At 70 tons full load the aluminum boats were five tons lighter than the wooden ones and were 3 feet longer at 85 feet overall; they were also a knot faster. All had a range of 700 nautical miles at 18 knots and were armed with two single 21-inch tubes, a U. S. Mk. 3 40-mm. AA and two Mousetrap ASW rocket launchers. PT-1 and PT-2 were discarded 1971 and the other four were downgraded to service craft.
Aluminum construction having been found the most satisfactory, two more boats of that type were ordered from Mitsubishi, which has constructed all subsequent
PT-types. Completed in 1957 and 1958 respectively, the 104-ton PT-7 and PT-8 employed three 20-cylinder diesels for a 33-knot top speed. The 111-foot craft carry sufficient fuel for 1,000 nautical miles at 18 knots. Armament was increased to two single 40-mm. AA and four 21-inch torpedo tubes. In 1969, the centerline diesel in PT-7 was replaced by a gas turbine for trial purposes. Despite its low power, the turbine demonstrated the feasibility of the concept, and before it was removed in 1970, plans had been made to gear two such turbines to one shaft in future construction. Next in numerical order came PT-9, a twin Deltic-powered Dark-class PTF ordered in Britain in 1954 from Saunders Roe for comparison with Japanese hull and diesel design practices. She was delivered in 1957, and aside from briefly mounting two torpedo tubes, was never armed. She was stricken in March 1972. In 1962, PT-10 was finished. Three Deltic engines and an improved and broadened hull form gave the aluminumhulled craft a speed of 40 knots. At 120 tons full load and 105 feet overall, PT-10 carried a helicopter dipping sonar and four ASW homing torpedoes, as well as two 40-mm. AA. Thereafter, no new torpedoboats were to be completed for nine years.
During the 1960s, Japanese high-speed patrol boat development was largely carried on for Japan’s equivalent of the Coast Guard, the Japanese Maritime Safety Agency (JMSA). A series of "Special Rescue” craft were built during the period, using light alloy hulls of varying form and construction, by Mitsubishi and Hitachi. Although most were intended for top speeds in the vicinity of 20 knots, the Akagi, completed in 1965, was capable of 28 knots. These craft were assigned to ports with difficult entrances and were intended as quick-reaction rescue launches with great seaworthiness. A single 12.7-mm. machine gun was mounted aft. The Maritime Self Defense Force, or Navy, itself continued a modest high-speed boat development program in the form of a series of six aircraft rescue launches and a special fast fireboat. The experience gained with these naval rescue launches, plus Maritime Safety Agency developments, were available to the Maritime Self- Defense Force in 1967 when it again became interested in high-speed combatant craft.
Two lines of development are being pursued—again through prototypes. The jet-propelled, 80-ton test craft Hayate appeared in March 1970 as the forerunner of a proposed series of much larger hydrofoils for antisubmarine and patrol duties. The 79-foot Hayate initially achieved 50 knots on the 13,000-lb. thrust of her General Electric CJ 805-23B turbojet alone (this is the same engine which powers Japan’s F-104J interceptors), but late in 1970 the craft underwent modification for the next phase of her testing, in which a Tucumcari-
style pump system was installed. The Hayate employs surface-piercing foils forward and a steerable, fully- submerged centerline foil aft. A 180-b.h.p. inboard- outboard motor is used in the hull-borne mode. The craft is limited in endurance because of the enormous fuel requirements of her turbojet engine. Despite her apparent success, only two of a planned fourteen 180-ton missile-carrying hydrofoils will be built under the Fourth Defense Buildup—and these are not to be begun until 1974.
The other direction for research was yet another torpedoboat prototype, PT-11, completed on 27 March 1971 by Mitsubishi at a cost of about $1 million. PT-12, a sister, was completed a year later, and PT-li during late 1972. The principal difference between PT-11 and PT-10 is the employment of gas turbines in the propulsion system. Two gas turbines of 2,5$ s.h.p. each on the centerline shaft are combined with two diesels on outboard shafts for a total of 11,200 horsepower. Speeds are in excess of 40 knots. The armament duplicates the suit on PT-10, but on future craft more sophisticated weaponry is expected to be employed, possibly including missiles. At one time no less than 14 PT-11 class boats were programmed, but the recent severe defense budget cuts may have postponed or cancelled their construction. Coupled with the delay in commencing the 180-ton hydrofoil missile gunboats, this would be a severe blow to the Japanese coastal forces. Japan’s territorial waters would provide an ideal operating area for such craft, if proper tactics were to be devised. Significantly, the original eight FT boats, continually plagued with engineering plant deficiencies, operated all together only once—in 1959- If current trends continue, the JMSDF will continue to consist largely of major escorts, unsupported by an adequate logistics force, while the relatively cheap, highly effective, and truly defensive small combatants are neglected.
Other Nations:
Many other countries have been involved in construction of coastal warfare craft. Three projects are worth noting here; Canada’s Brad d’Or, a 235-ton prototype ASW hydrofoil, was acknowledged to be the world’s fastest warship, prior to her 1972 layup. Designed by De Havilland Aircraft Company of Canada, the 151-foot craft was fabricated at Marine Industries, Ltd., Sorel, Quebec. The contract was let in 1963, but because the ship was delayed by a serious fire in November 1966, she was not commissioned until September 1968. She ran her first foiling trials in April 1969' The ship conducted many trials, including a foiling cruise to Bermuda during the summer of 1971. The foils are of the surface-piercing type and are non-
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retractable; the forward foil structure acts as the rudder and carries about 10% of the hull weight while foiling. The after foils span 66-feet and draw 23-feet 6-inches at rest. Speeds of 62 knots and more have been reached on the main gas turbine, a 22,000 s.h.p. Pratt & Whitney FT4-A-2, which drives two controllable-pitch screws at the ends of the lower legs of the after foils. A 2,000-b.h.p. Paxman diesel provides hullborne propulsion, driving two featherable screws mounted halfway down the upper legs of the after foils, for speeds of over 12 knots. A United Aircraft 390 s.h.p. gas turbine drives the ship’s service generator while foiling and can also be geared to the hullborne-mode screws. There is also a 190 s.h.p. gas turbine emergency generator. The Bras d’Or was completed without armament, but plans called for the installation of no less than 12 U. S. Mk. 32 ASW torpedo tubes in sets of three. A towed variable-depth sonar transducer was to be added in a well at the stern. She has already absorbed more funds than the average destroyer now consumes in the course of construction, and her complex design is not likely to win orders from foreign customers in competition with simpler, but equally successful U. S. designs. Moreover, changing Canadian ASW tactics rendered her superfluous; although she will be retained in storage, it is unlikely that the Bras d’Or will ever be reactivated.
Australia built 20 steel-hulled Attack-c\iss motor gunboats to local design between 1966 and 1969- Fifteen are for service in Australian waters, and the other five were designated for operations along the New Guinea coast. Two yards participated: Evans Deakin & Company, Pty., Ltd., Brisbane; and Walkers, Ltd., Maryborough. Most of the craft carry a 40-mm./60 Mk. 7 mounting forward, two machine guns, and a 2-inch rocket flare launcher on the fantail. Four boats are unarmed and serve as reserve training craft. The Attack class is powered by two Paxman diesels for a top speed of 24 knots.
Between 1967 and 1971, Golciik Navy Yard launched ten steel-hull, 170-ton submarine chasers for the Turkish Navy and a further eight, configured as gunboats, for the Turkish Gendarmerie. Engineering assistance for the 132-foot boats was provided by the Societe Alsacienne des Constructions Mecaniques de Mulhouse (S.A.C.M.), which provided two diesels for each boat; the total of 4,800 b.h.p. gives a 22-knot speed. The naval AB-25 class carries two Mousetraps forward and a 40-mm. AA aft, while the Gendarmerie units (j-2i through J-28) have 40-mm. guns fore and aft. Combined with the current construction of two destroyer escorts, these craft give Turkey a creditable naval shipbuilding capability.
Several other nations, including Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, and Burma have built
small combatants of their own design, and other countries are beginning to follow suit.
United States:4
Other than to evolve a series of motor gunboats for transfer to foreign navies under the Military Aid Program, the U. S. Navy showed little interest in small combatants between the end of World War II and the beginning of this country’s serious involvement in Vietnam. The war in Asia brought new and massive emphasis on rapid production of a variety of craft, makeshift at first, but later developing into numerous specialized designs for riverine and coastal warfare. The U. S. Navy has decided to retain a small capability to conduct riverine warfare, and riverine craft will not be discussed here. But coastal craft will be discussed, for interest in vessels suitable for coastal warfare is increasing—both for U. S. purposes and for potential transfer to foreign allies.
The last five motor torpedoboats constructed in World War II were turned over to the Republic of Korea in January 1952, and during the 1950s, only four prototype PTs were built. All had four Packard V-12 gasoline engines on four shafts for a total of 10,000 b.h.p. and a maximum speed of 43 knots. Though their hull forms varied, all were built of aluminum. The PT-809 was launched by Electric Boat on 7 August 1950 and, although stricken in 1959, was retained and later became the Secret Service escort unit for the Presidential yacht; she is still in use. The PT-812 was launched in February 1951 by the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. In 1957, her two outboard gasoline engines were replaced by two 4,000-s.h.p. gas turbine engines at Philadelphia. Stricken from the Navy List in 1959, PT-812 was operated by the U. S. Army until 1967. The craft, minus the two gas turbines, was then turned over to South Korea. Apparently she was nearly worn out, for the newly-renamed 01 Pe Mi was stricken for good in 1968. PT-810 (launched 2 June 1950 by Bath Iron Works with a partially riveted hull) and PT-811 (launched 30 November 1950 by John Trumpy & Sons) gained a new lease on life in 1962 when a need for a fast patrol boat was realized. After being rearmed as gunboats, they were reactivated as PTF-1 and PTF-2. Both carried two single mountings for 40-mm./60- caliber cannon and two pair of 20-mm. AA. Their Vietnam service lasted until 1 August 1965, when they were stricken for use as targets. The PT-809 "class” was 105 feet overall with a 22-foot beam, and they averaged 94 tons full load.
* For an earlier discussion of this subject, see Capt. Richards T. Miller, USN: "Fighting Boats of the United States,” in Naval Review 1968, pp. 296-329.
How the U. S. Navy acquired 20 85-ton Norwegian Nasty-class PTFs was described last year. In order to meet an expected requirement for additional craft, the Navy accepted an offer from Sewart Seacraft Division of Teledyne, Inc., Berwick, Louisiana (builder of oil-rig crew boats and the famous Swift boats for the Navy), for four commercially-designed fast patrol boats. These 105-ton craft were an enlarged version of Sewart’s 65- foot and 85-foot patrol craft (see below), powered by the same Deltic diesels as the Nasty class. Termed the Osprey class by their builder, PTF-23 through PTF-26 were completed 1967-1968. Their aluminum hulls were 95 feet long (15 feet longer than the Nasty) and they were given the Nasty armament of one 40-mm./60- caliber mounting aft, an over-and-under .50-caliber machine gun/81-mm. mortar forward, and two single 20-mm. AA just before the bridge. As "off-the-shelf” items, the Ospreys were not built to Navy specifications and contained a number of components which were non-standard; for these and other reasons, they have not seen much service.
The functional successor to the PTF will be the new CPIC (Coastal Patrol and Interdiction Craft), the first of which was scheduled for completion in November 1972. The aluminum-hulled, gas-turbine propelled CPIC is one of a small spectrum of craft being planned to fulfill the coastal warfare needs of both the United States and its foreign allies. Others proposed are the SWA (L) (Shallow Water Attack, Light), the SWA (M) (Shallow Water Attack, Medium), and the CP (Coastal Patrol ship). The 71-ton CPIC is propelled by three Avco-Lycoming TF-25 gas turbines on three shafts, able to provide 45 knots in smooth water. "Take-home” and low-speed cruising powers will be supplied by two General Motors diesels propelling retractable outboard drives. This compact, but extremely powerful, plant leaves most of the boat free for armament.
Two pairs of twin 30-mm. guns, two pairs of twin 7.62-mm. machine guns, and two 40-mm. grenade launchers can be carried by the 71-ton CPIC. Other armament payloads—including missiles—could be accommodated within the generous 9-ton payload limit. The enclosed 30-mm. mounts are positioned one forward and one aft, controlled by the Mk. 92, two-target, track-while-scan radar fire control system and two Mk. 35 periscopic gun directors. This class has excellent potential for export and is one of the few contemporary U. S. designs whose capabilities and performance are superior to those of its foreign competitors.
The largest operational coastal combatant type in the U. S. Navy is the PG, or gunboat, some 17 of which are included in the 245-ton Asheville class. The Ashe- villes, just over 164 feet in length, were constructed by two U. S. firms with considerable experience in small
combatant construction—five by Peterson Builders, Inc., Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and 12 by Tacoma Boat Building Company, Tacoma, Washington. The ships were originally typed PGM, accounting for PGM hull numbers between PGM-83 and 102 (PGM-91 was a MAP transfer PGM for Vietnam, hence no PG of that number). The Asheville (PG-84), was commissioned on 6 August 1966, and the last unit of the class in February, 1971. The Benicia was leased to the Republic of Korea on 2 October 1971 and renamed Paekku.
For high-speed operations up to about 40 knots, the Asheville's use a single General Electric gas turbine geared to both controllable pitch screws. Normal patrol speeds up to about 14 knots are achieved on the power of two Cummins diesels. An important characteristic of the Asheville plant is that, owing to the sophisticated clutching system, when switching from one form of propulsion to the other no speed is lost. The Tacoma (PG-92) and later units are considered a different class by the Navy, as they embody considerable improvements in the turbine gear box and plant arrangement.
Aside from some engineering problems in the first group, the weak point of the Asheville class has always been the armament. Not only is it light for the size of the boat compared with European designs, but also it consists of weapons developed a quarter century ago or more. On the foredeck is an enclosed single mounting 3-inch/50-caliber semi-automatic dual purpose gun. This weapon requires a crew of seven and has a rate of fire less than half that of modern automatic European guns of the same caliber and lesser weight. On the fantail is an antique 40-mm./60-caliber and on. the upper deck abaft the pilothouse are four .50-caliber machine guns in a pair of twin mountings. On all but two of the class, the 3-inch gun is controlled by a Mk. 63 fire control system, consisting of a radar antenna mounted on the gun barrel and a lead-computing sight atop the bridge; this system is nearly totally ineffective against surface targets, which are engaged under local control from the gunmount. Two boats, the Anteloft (PG-86), and the Ready (PG-87), have the vastly superior Mk. 87 track-while-scan radar fire control system—3 license version of the Hollandse Signaal M22 system widely used in Europe. The radars are enclosed in an egg-shaped plastic dome and additionally replace the small navigational radar found on the other 15 ships-
It is because of their better fire control that the Antelope and the Ready were rearmed during 1971-19?' to include two launchers for surface-to-surface version of the Standard missile. (During the spring of 19"l” the Benicia undertook comparability firing trials with the missile, but she had no control capability.) equip any of the rest of the class would have require^
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backfitting the heavy and expensive control system, but the latest version of the missile fortunately does not require this equipment. The Standard is launched from two enclosed cells on the fan tail; these elevate to fire over the superstructure. Reload missiles can then be slid into the launch cells from storage boxes on deck ahead of the launchers. This arrangement is adapted from the General Dynamics Tartar-Bullpup surface- to-surface missile system, which was developed for the West German Navy’s coastal forces but abandoned in 1971 in favor of the longer-ranged and more advanced Exocet. The normal Asheville gun armament is to be retained, (except for removing the 40-mm. gun in the Antelope and the Ready) but the considerable weight of the new equipment and armament may reduce the ships’ speed, range, and stability.
Arming the Asheville class with missiles is the outgrowth of Admiral Elmo Zumwalt’s 1971 experiment in sending two of the class, the Surprise and the Beacon, to the Mediterranean to shadow Soviet missile ships. This they were able to do, but, unfortunately, as then armed, the ships posed little (if any) threat to the vastly more powerful Soviet ships. The Ashevilles have also been used with considerable success as carrier plane guard off Vietnam.
The next step for the U. S. Navy is the introduction of the hydrofoil, propelled by gas turbines and armed with missiles. Four different developmental prototype hydrofoils have been built since I960. These follow the successful Denison completed for the Maritime Administration by Grumman in 1962. Unlike that vessel, which used surface-piercing foils, all the Navy craft employ fully-submerged foils fitted with automatic controls to maintain their stability. The technology of these boats places the U. S. Navy at the forefront of world naval hydrofoil development, even though both Communist China and Soviet Russia operate far greater numbers of naval hydrofoils.
The 110-ton High Point (PCH-i), designed by Boeing Aircraft and built by J. M. Martinac at Tacoma, was completed in 1963. Her single forward foil and paired after foils retract vertically for hullborne operation. She bas two Proteus gas turbines which drive four screws mounted on the after foils and has attained 48 knots. Hullborne propulsion for the 115-foot boat is furnished by a 600-b.h.p. diesel driving a retracting screw. Conceived as a prototype antisubmarine craft, the High Point has tested small towed bodies to simulate variable-depth sonar and carries four fixed Mk. 32 tubes for Mk. 44 or 46 homing torpedoes. As of May 1972, foe craft had operated some 719 hours on foils. She emerged from her first major overhaul in November *972 with a new, fully-steerable forward strut and lengthened after struts with gull-wing foil surfaces.
After verifying the predicted performance improvements, she will act as a developmental platform for the new PHM program. Ultimately she may serve as a crew trainer for larger hydrofoils.
The Navy’s second developmental hydrofoil was the much larger Plainview (AGEH-i), completed in 1968 by Lockheed at Seattle. Conceived as a test platform and ASW craft, the 310-ton Plainview is not only the world’s largest naval hydrofoil; she is also the world’s largest and most complex seagoing hydraulic system. Currently, this 212-foot ship is powered by two LM-1500 gas turbines delivering 28,000 s.h.p. to the two 4-bladed supercavitating screws at the ends of the paired forward foils. Now capable of 50-knots, the Plainview is intended to be able to reach 80 knots when two additional LM-1500S are added and the foils are converted from subcavitating to supercavitating form. The foils swing upward to retract, and the forward pair support 90% of the ship’s weight when foiling. The after foil acts as a rudder. Two small retracting, outboard type screws, driven by diesels, drive the ship in the hullborne mode. This ship has been armed with two sets of triple Mk. 32 ASW torpedo tubes and has fired torpedoes successfully while travelling at over 40 knots. To date, she has completed only her smooth water trials; after a repair period commencing in August 1972, she will begin rough water trials, moving to the open ocean at the end of 1973. While progress in testing the five-year-old craft might seem slow, it must be remembered that the Plainview is an extremely complex example of engineering and requires thorough testing in each stage of her evolution.
Two competing hydrofoil gunboat designs came next, with both being completed during 1968. The Flagstaff (PGH-i), was designed and built by Grumman Aircraft; the Tucumcari (PGH-2), was designed under Boeing management and built by Gunderson Brothers at Portland, Oregon. Although similar in displacement, the craft differ entirely in concept and layout. The 57-ton Flagstaff uses a Rolls-Royce Marine-Type gas turbine to drive a single screw mounted on an after foil; 70% of her hull weight is borne by the two forward foils. The 58-ton Tucumcari uses a single Proteus gas turbine geared directly to a Byron Jackson dual element, double suction centrifugal water pump, which discharges from two nozzles beneath the hull; the water intakes are on the after foils, which support 70 percent of the hull when foiling. The Tucumcari’s single forward foil pivots to act as a rudder. Both craft use General Motors 6V-53 diesels to drive a Buehler water pump for hullborne propulsion—two sets in the Flagstaff and one in the Tucumcari. To date, the maximum published speed of the craft while foiling has amounted to 51 knots.
At first both boats were given the same armament, consisting of a 40-mm., forward, four .50-caliber machine guns in two twin mounts on the bridge, and an 81-mm. mortar aft (amidships on the Flagstaff, which has her intake/exhaust structure right aft). They carried this armament during their initial trials and during an arduous test and evaluation deployment to Vietnam during 1969. In 1970, the Flagstaff was fitted with a 5-ton, 152-mm. M-60 tank turret on the foredeck in place of the 40-mm. gun. This low-velocity gun, although capable of firing Shillelegh missiles, was used by the Navy to fire standard 50-lb. shells to 5,000-yard ranges. Firing trials took place off San Clemente Island during June 1971, with the craft making her maximum speed. The Flagstaff proved to be a superb gun platform, even through turns. The only concession to the weight of the cast armored turret was to replace its roof with a plexiglass bubble. The PGH-i operates with Coastal and Riverine Squadron One at San Diego and is used in Fleet exercises to simulate high-speed attackers.
The Tucumcari was used during 1971 for a demonstration tour of NATO nations and, for the trip, shipped an armament of six 20-mm. cannon in three twin mounts in addition to her 40-mm. antique. Boeing’s sales efforts have borne fruit for, as we have seen, the Italian Navy has ordered one modified Tucumcari, to be built in Italy by Boeing’s subsidiary, Alinavi. The planned armament will be exceptionally heavy for so small a craft, with an OTO Melara 76-mm./62-caliber Compact gun forward, and two launch cells for surface-to-surface missiles aft. The PGH-2 operates from Little Creek, with Coastal and Riverine Squadron Two.
The culmination of the experience gained with these remarkable and, in the main, highly successful hydrofoil craft will be the Patrol Hydrofoil (Guided Missile) (PHM). Not only does the U. S. Navy have a requirement for such a craft, but several of the NATO navies have also expressed serious interest. The PHM will be a true offensive warship for use in attacking enemy surface forces as well as for patrol and surveillance. Final designs had not been set at time of writing, but the two prototypes will be in the neighborhood of 120 feet long and will displace no more than 170 tons. Generally, the PHM will be an enlarged Tucumcari, with similar performance, powered when foiling by an LM-2500 gas turbine. The armament will ultimately include four Harpoon surface-to-surface missiles and an OTO Melara 76-mm. Compact gun. The crew will be four officers and 15 enlisted men.
Larger and faster hydrofoils are also under consideration, the Developmental Big Hydrofoil (DBH) and the Developmental Fast Hydrofoil (DFH). So far, these exist only as projects, but the former may eventually
\
result in 750-ton craft for patrol and ASW duties. Progress in U. S. hydrofoil design often appears agonizingly slow, and proponents of these versatile and impressive craft often despair of seeing production hydrofoil combatants enter service.
The Navy has lost interest in surface effect craft and air cushion vehicles for small combatant duties. The three patrol air cushion vehicle (PACV) used in Vietnam were turned over to the Coast Guard. The four air cushion amphibious assault landing craft (AALC to be completed in 1974 are essentially LCUs with an air cushion to allow both high speeds and operations ashore as well as afloat. The developmental prototypes, SES-100A (by Aerojet General) and SES-iooB (by Bell), are rigid sidewall surface effect craft whose ten-ton payload consists of instrumentation; they are intended to test concepts for far larger vessels and have no naval or military value in themselves.
Aside from a few Swifts and some even smaller coastal and riverine craft retained for training and evaluation, the vessels just described comprise the entire small combatant program in the U. S. Navy. All the rest of over-600 Swifts, PBRs, ASPBs, and the like have been turned over to South Vietnam and to other Southeast Asian navies. But the need for continued development of such craft has been recognized, and a small number of boats of each new design will be incorporated into the U. S. Navy.
The largest patrol craft built under the Military Aid Program are the PGMs—Motor Gunboats—some 71 of which have been funded since 1951 for the use of 14 nations. The first ones, PGM-33 through 38 were wooden-hulled, 143-ton gunboat versions of the 110- foot subchaser of World War II, completed from 1954 through 1956 for the Philippines. The next group, PGM-39 through 42, for the Philippines, and PGM-43 through 46, plus 51 and 52 for Burma, were versions of the U. S. Coast Guard 95-foot Cape-class cutter. The Philippine boats had two Mercedes-Benz diesels, while the craft for Burma had four Detroit Diesel engines. The PGM-39 class were originally armed with ASW ordnance, including depth charges and Mousetraps; they are now equipped purely as gunboats, the Philippine boats with two 20-mm. AA and the Burmese with two 40-mm. guns. PGM-47 through PGM-50 were the U. S. Offshore Procurement boats of the Danish Daphne class and little U. S. equipment or design influence was employed in their construction. Ethiopia got the next three, PGM-53, 54, and 58 all of the PGM-39 class and completed in 1961-1962; like the others, initially they carried ASW ordnance but now are armed as gunboats; two additional Ethiopian Navy 95-footcrs are former U. S. Coast Guard boats of the same class.
Beginning with PGM-55 through 57 for Indonesia,
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the "MAP-gunboat” underwent a design change. The craft was lengthened to 101 feet in order to accommodate more men, more fuel, and more ordnance. The Indonesian Silungkang, Waitatiri, and Kalukuang were in a sense intermediate craft, as they carried only two twin .50-caliber machine guns on completion in 1961. All later U. S. built boats have carried a 40-mm./60- caliber Mk. 3 gun forward, four 20-mm. in a pair of twin mounts aft, and two single .50-caliber machine guns beside the bridge (the boats for Turkey and Iran also carried depth charges and Mousetrap and are distinguished by having their 40-mm. mount aft).
The trio of craft for Indonesia and PGM-59 through 70 for South Vietnam were engined with two Mercedes-Benz MB-820 diesels of 975 b.h.p. each. All subsequent PGM-59 class boats have been powered by the rather unlikely-sounding combination of no less than eight General Motors 6V-71 diesels, geared four per shaft. These are the same power units employed during World War II to drive LSILs and LSSLs. Two additional diesels in the single engineroom drive the two generator plants, and the total of ten going at one time must present an ear-splitting aggregation. The ships have a top speed of only about 18 knots. Range at 10 knots is over 1,500 nautical miles.
Further boats of the PGM-59 class have included PGM-71, 79, 107, 113 through 117, and 123-124 for Thailand; PGM-72 through 74, 80 through 83, and 91 for South Vietnam; PGM-75 and 76 for Ecuador; FGM-77 for the Dominican Republic; PGM-78 for Peru (with PGM-111, a duplicate, built in Peru with H. S. aid during 1970-1971); PGM-102 for Liberia; PGM-103, 112, and 122 for Iran; and PGM-104 through 106 and 108 for Turkey. PGM-109 and 110, and 118 through 121 are PGM-39 class craft completed during 1971 in Brazil; they are armed with an over- and-under .50-caliber machine gun/81-mm. mortar forward and two single machine guns aft. The PGM-59 hull has also been used by the U. S. Navy for a recent ^hes of torpedo retrievers.
In addition to the PGMs listed above, the U. S. Coast Guard has provided two 95-foot Cape-class cutters to Haiti and, during 1968-1969, transferred nine further boats of that class to South Korea. The Coast Guard also has transferred all 26 of the 82-foot cutters serving Goast Guard Squadron One in Vietnam to the South Vietnamese Navy. Large numbers of the Coast Guard ■fO-foot utility launch design have also been transferred abroad for use as patrol craft, principally in Latin America.
The PGM-39 and PGM-59 classes were built by Tacoma Boat; Marinette Marine, Marinette, Wisconsin; J' M. Martinac Marine, Tacoma, Washington; and Peterson Builders, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, with the
latter providing the largest number. While sturdily constructed and very seaworthy, the craft are obviously underpowered by comparison with their foreign contemporaries. Their armament, though simple to maintain, is obsolescent.
As indicated above, Sewart Seacraft and its competitor Swiftships, Inc., have produced a line of patrol craft for foreign aid transfer. Their products break down into four classes: The 40-foot aluminum launch, the 50-51- foot Swift classes, the 65-foot "Commercial Cruiser” class, and the 85-foot "Commercial Cruiser” class. The 40-foot class resembles a large cabin cruiser and displaces about 10 tons loaded. The speediest of the U. S. Foreign Aid boats, this class can top 30 knots and has a range of several hundred miles at 16 knots. Powered by two General Motors 6V-71 diesels, the craft normally are armed with two machine guns. Recipients of the design include Iran, Paraguay, Venezuela, and South Korea.
The Sewart Swift boat is the best known U. S. coastal patrol type, from her exploits on Market Time operations in Vietnam. Swift boats have also been built for direct transfer to foreign clients, with deliveries to the Philippines, South Vietnam, and Thailand beginning in 1968. Six new boats were completed for Cambodia during 1972. Several crew-boat configured Swifts were also sold to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (now Zaire) during the 1960s. Both Philippine and South Vietnamese Navy yards have produced prototype ferro-concrete-hulled Swifts.
Next largest in Sewart’s line is the 65-foot "Commercial Cruiser,” of which one was built for El Salvador and nine for South Korea. The craft have a 33-ton full load displacement. Three General Motors diesels drive the craft at 26-knot speeds, while range at 17-knots is over 1,200 nautical miles. The South Korean boats carry two single 20-mm. AA and the others three .50-caliber machine guns. Generally similar craft with heavier armaments were delivered to Israel and Zaire.
Six 65-foot boats of a different design were ordered during 1971 from Swiftships for the Philippines, with an additional trio contracted for in 1972. This "Mk. 1 Military Assistance Patrol Boat” resembles an enlarged Swift and carries the same armament. While providing a more comfortable ride over greater distances than the Swift, she unfortunately has the same propulsion plant and is not exactly speedy. To remedy this, a Mk. 1 Mod 1 version has been proposed, powered by two General Motors 8V-71T1 engines of 600 b.h.p. each. Adding a third such engine produces the Mk. 3, of which up to 16 examples may be built for the U. S. Navy. Top speeds would approach 30 knots and an Antisubmarine Warfare armament is proposed for the craft, whose unorthodox layout includes the locat-
ing of a pilothouse off the centerline to starboard.
A new entry in the export patrol boat field, Halter Marine of New Orleans, delivered three armed oilfield crewboats to Guatemala early in 1972 for service on that country’s Pacific coast. These speedy, 65-foot boats carry three machine guns.
After the Swift boat, the 85-foot "Commercial Cruiser” is Sewart’s most widely distributed design. The first three were completed for Jamaica in 1966-1967, and since then Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Uruguay have each received one, with a second boat for Guatemala under construction during 1972. The Dominican Republic received three during 1967-1968, and a fourth was delivered in May 1972. The 85-footer is less powerfully engined than the 65-foot patrol boat, with only two 550-b.h.p. General Motors diesels to provide 23 knot top speeds. Sustained speed is 18 knots, and range at 12 knots is over 400 nautical miles. Re-engined with three diesels, the Jamaican boats should reach 25 knots without difficulty. The armament on all units is three single .50-caliber machine guns.
As can be seen from the above catalog of patrol crafts, U. S. designs have been hampered by the absence of domestically-built high-speed diesels and the general obsolescence of U. S. ordnance. With these faults, it is no wonder that European, and even Soviet, patrol craft are preferred by the smaller navies when their resources permit. An obvious saving grace has been the leadership of U. S. gas turbine technology, which will permit the skipping-over of diesel propulsion for future craft. But even here, the U. S. Navy has, until recently, had to rely on foreign turbine manufacturers for engines of less than 4,000 s.h.p. Ordnance has been restricted to weapons designed during or before World War II, with the exception of the new 30-mm. gun to be employed on the CPIC. In itself, age is no particular handicap, but the deficiencies of such weapons as the 40-mm. Mk. 3 and the 3-inch/50-caliber guns are found in the large crews needed to service them and in their firing rates, which are half those of similar-sized weapons in other navies. The introduction of the OTO Melara 76-mm. Compact automatic gun, to be employed on the PHM and the destroyer-sized PF, goes a long way to remedy the lack of a modern medium- caliber gun in the U. S. inventory, but operational deployment of this excellent weapon is several years away. The sad tale of U. S. surface-to-surface missile development is too long to relate here, but the Harpoon is still in the future; in the meantime we will have to rely on a system already rejected elsewhere.
Balanced against these discouraging areas is the general excellence of U. S. hull design and manufacturing processes and the significant lead held in the design of hydrofoil stabilization systems. In general, U. S. craft
have also proved easier for developing nations to maintain than some of the more advanced European designs, and the supply of spare parts is always flowing. Indeed the United States is probably the most conscientious of arms suppliers, if not always the most technically up-to-date.
Conclusions:
Major navies normally define their primary task a5 "control of the sea”—ideally, wherever and whenever national needs dictate. Usually minor navies have been content to perform a defensive role, limiting themselves to attempting to control waters contiguous to their own coasts. In the open ocean, the large navies have felt it necessary to have large ships in order to meet their requirements for endurance, firepower and- increasingly important of late—habitability. Small navies, quite logically, have come to realize that small ships with sufficient firepower are entirely adequate for defensive needs.
The Soviet Navy, moving out onto the sealanes of the world, has lessened its emphasis on coastal defend combatants in favor of an increasing number of major surface combatants with which to wage political warfare in far off seas. Yet the U.S.S.R. continues to build torpedo and missile boats, inshore ASW craft and minesweepers, and vast numbers of patrol boats. The U. $ Navy, for many years a purely big-ship fleet, relearned in Vietnam that small craft are necessary to carry out a number of tasks for which large ships are unsuitable Thus, both of the world’s premier fleets are tending toward a more balanced combatant capability. Other major, if considerably less powerful, fleets like those of Great Britain, Italy, West Germany, and France, they haven’t long since learned the lesson, are begin- ning to do so.
The small navies, meanwhile, continue to order large numbers of fast small combatants from European ship yards, where designers appear to know how to suppl) craft attractive to navies with modest means and responsibilities. The Soviets have continued to offer the same old designs to foreign clients for the last decade and may be said to be falling behind. The United States, a definite late entry in the field, has recently made enormous strides toward providing a spectrut11 of craft for all needs and can be expected to rega111 a leading position as a supplier of defensive warship8.
The small combatant cannot perform all surfaee naval tasks. She can, however, perform most tasks ;lj well as larger ships when limited as to her area 0 responsibility; for some functions she is obviously sU perior, and for all tasks within her capabilities, she >- obviously cost-effective when compared with naaj°( units employed on the same duties.
Major Small Combatant Designs Operational, 1973
GREAT BRITAIN
Type: PTF—Fast Patrol Boat Class: Dark
Countries operating or acquiring: Great Britain: 19 (all stricken) Italy: 4 (ex-British)
Burma: 5 Finland: 2 Japan: 1 (stricken)
Displacement: approx. 70 tons full load
Length: 71 feet, 6 inches Beam: 19 feet, 10 inches Propulsion: two Deltic diesels =
5,000 b.h.p.
Speed/Range: 42 knots max.; 36 knots sustained Armament: varies; see text
A Dark-class torpedoboat of the Royal Navy
Type: PTF—Fast Patrol Boat Class: Brave (and later developments)
Displacement: 110 to 114 tons full load
Countries operating or acquiring: Great Britain: 2 (stricken) Greece: 1 (ex-German) plus 1 Ferocity Denmark: 6 Libya: 3 (missile-armed) Malaysia: 4 (missile-armed) Brunei: 1 (missile-armed)
Length: 98 feet, 10 inches Beam: 25 feet, 6 inches Propulsion: three Proteus gas
turbines = 10,500 to 12,750 s.h.p.
Ved/Range: 50 to 57 knots max.;
44 knots = 440 nautical
miles T/>e Handalan, Malaysian Naty
Ornament: varies; see text
type: PTF—Fast Patrol Boat LTass: Scimitar
^placement: 102 tons full load ^igth: 103 feet, 6 inches Beam: 27 feet, 8 inches Propulsion: two Proteus gas
turbines = 8,500 s.h.p.; two Foden diesels = 646 b.h.p.
Wd/Range: 40 knots max.; 35
knots = 450 nautical miles
(1T.5 knots = 1,500 n.m. on cruise diesels) lament: none
Type: PGM—Motor Gunboat Class: Vosper 103-foot Displacement: 123 tons full load Length: 103 feet Beam: 19 feet, 10 inches Propulsion: two Maybach MD-655/18 or Paxman 12YJCM diesels = 3,500 or 3,000 b.h.p.
Speed/Range: 25 to 27 knots max.;
13 knots = 1,500/1,800 nautical miles Armament: Generally: two 40-mm. AA (see text)
Countries operating or acquiring:
Malaysia: 24
Trinidad and Tobago: 4
Kenya: 3
Panama: 2
Countries operating or acquiring:
Peru: 6 Singapore: 6
Type: PGM—Motor Gunboat Class: Vosper 110-foot Displacement: 130 tons full load Length: 110 feet Beam: 21 feet
Propulsion: two Deltic or two Maybach MD-872 diesels = 6,200 to 7,200 b.h.p.
Speed/Range: 30 to 32 knots max.;
15 knots = over 1,000 nautical miles Armament: varies, see text
Type: PTFG—Guided Missile Patrol Boat
Class: Tenacity
Displacement: 220 tons full load Length: 144 feet, 6 inches Beam: 26 feet, 7 inches Propulsion: three Proteus
G.T. = 12,720 s.h.p.; 2 Paxman diesels Speed/Range: 40 knots max.; 15
knots = 2,500 nautical miles
Armament: Surface-to-surface missiles aft, gunmount forward. See text.
—*.—. Countries operating or acquiring■'
Type: PGM—Motor Gunboat Class: Brooke Marine 107-foot Displacement: 143 tons full load Length: 107 feet, 3 inches Beam: 20 feet
Countries operating or acquiring: Pakistan: 4 (3 lost) 107-foot version Libya: 4 107-foot version New Zealand: 4 107-foot version
Great Britain: 4 (plus 3 for the R.A.F.) 120-foot version Oman: 3 120-foot version Kenya: 1 120-foot version
Propulsion: two Maybach MD665/18 or Paxman 16YJCM diesels = 3,600 to 4,800 b.h.p.
Speed/Range: 24 to 27 knots max.
See text.
Armament: two 40-mm. or one A Brooke Marine 107-footer, Libyan Navy
40-mm., one 20-mm. AA
Type: PACVG—Guided Missile Patrol Air Cushion Vehicle Class: Vosper VT-1 Displacement: 100 tons full load Length: 93-feet, 6 inches Bam: 43 feet, 6 inches Propulsion: Two Avco-Lycoming TF-35 gas
turbines = 5,000 s.h.p. Speed/Range: 43 knots = 600 nautical miles
Armament: four Fxocet SSM one twin Oerlikon 35-mm./90 AA
FRANCE
Countries operating or acquiring:
France: 10 (3 remain) Senegal: 1*
Cameroon: 1* Mauritania: 1* Malagasy Republic: 1* Ivory Coast: 1*
♦ ex-French
Type: PGM—Motor Gunboat Class: C.M.N. 32-Meter Displacement: 88 tons full load Length: 105 feet, 10 inches Bam: 19 feet, 3 inches Propulsion: two Mercedes-Benz diesels = 2,700 b.h.p. Speed/Range: 27 knots max.; 22
v knots = 800 nautical miles
Armament: two single 20-mm. A A
Type: PGM—Motor Gunboat Class: La Combattante Displacement: 202 tons full load Length: 147 feet, 8 inches Beam: 24 feet
Propulsion: two SEMT-Pielstick diesels = 3,200 b.h.p. Speed/Range: 23 knots max.; 12
knots = 2,000 nautical miles
Armament: (1971) one Exocet SSM;
quad SS.ll/l2M launcher one 40-mm. AA
Countries operating or acquiring: France: 1
Type: PTFG—Large Guided Missile Patrol Boat Class: La Combattante-U Displacement: 265 tons full load Length: 154 feet, 2 inches Beam: 23 feet, 4 inches Propulsion: four Maybach MD872 diesels = 14,000 b.h.p. Speed/Range: 40 knots max.; 20
knots = 1,600 nautical miles
Armament: two or four Exocet SSM two gunmounts (see text) two 21-in. torpedoes on some
Countries operating or acquiring:
Israel: 12 (early version) Greece: 4
West Germany: 20 Malaysia: 4 Singapore: 2 or more Spain: 6 or more (on order) Argentina: 2 France: 2 (planned)
Type: PGM—Motor Gunboat Class: P-48
Displacement: 250 tons full load Length: 155 feet, 10 inches Beam: 23 feet, 8 inches Propulsion: two MGO type ASHR, V-16 diesels = 2,400 b.h.p. (see text) Speed/Range: 18.5 knots max.; 15
knots = 2,000 nautical miles
Armament: two single 40-mm. AA (two quadruple SS.12M SSM racks)
X
ITALY
Countries operating or acquiring: Italy: 2 (2 additional planned)
Type: PTF/PTFG—Fast Patrol Boat/Large Guided Missile Patrol Boat Class: Saetta
^placement: 210 tons full load length: 149 feet, 7 inches fieam: 24 feet
Propulsion: two Fiat X1832 diesels, one Proteus G.T. = 11,850 h.p.
P^d/Range: 40 knots max.; 30
knots = 960 nautical miles
lament: two or three single
40-mm. AA; four 21-in. torpedo tubes or one five-celled SSM launcher; mines
Tv
ype- PTFG—Large Guided Missile Patrol Boat j^.aSS' ®ava Trigoso 230-Ton placement: 230 tons full load ngrh: 152 feet, 5 inches p^arn. 23 feet, l'l inches r°Pulsion: four MTU type
20V672TY90 (ex-MB 5180) diesels = 14,000 b.h.p.
rl/Range: 42 knots max.; 39
knots = 550 nautical miles: 25 knots = 900 n.m.; 14 knots = 1,600 ^ n.m.
arnent: four Otomat or Tesio SSM one 76-mm/
62 OTO Melara Compact
JAPAN
Type: PTF—Fast Patrol Boat Class: PT-ll
Displacement: 130 tons full load Length: 114 feet, 10 inches Beam: 30 feet, 2 inches Propulsion: two IM300 gas
turbines = 4,600 s.h.p.; two Mitsubishi 24WZ-31MC diesels = 6,600 b.h.p. Speed/Range: over 40 knots max. Armament: two single 40-mm. AA four 21-in. ASW or anti-shipping torpedoes
CANADA
Type: PCH—Hydrofoil Submarine Chaser Class: Bras d’Or
Displacement: 235 tons full load Length: 150 feet, 9 inches Beam: 21 feet, 6 inches (hull) Propulsion: one Pratt & Whitney FT4-A-2 G.T. = 22,000 s.h.p.; one Paxman 16YJCM diesel = 2,000 b.h.p.
Speed/Range: 62 plus knots max.; 12 knots cruise Armament: (Proposed) four triple
Mk. 32 tubes for Mk. 44 or Mk. 46 ASW torpedoes
AUSTRALIA
Type: PGM—Motor Gunboat Class: Attack
Displacement: 146 tons full load Length: 107 feet, 6 inches Beam: 20 feet
Propulsion: two Paxman 16YJCM diesels = 4,000 b.h.p. Speed/Range: 24 knots max.; 15
knots = 1,200 nautical miles
Armament: one 40-mm. AA;
two light MG (four disarmed)
UNITED STATES
Countries operating or acquiring: United States: 4
Type: PTF—Fast Patrol Boat Class: Sewart Osprey, PTF-23 Displacement: 75 tons full load Length: 95 feet Beam: 24 feet, 5 inches Propulsion: two Deltic diesels = 6,200 b.h.p.
Speed/Range: over 40 knots max. Armament: one 40-mm. AA; two single 20-mm. AA one 81-mm. mortar/50-cal. machine gun combination
.dfln OT | III | * |
-■■■---------------------------- |
Countries operating or acquiring: United States: 1 (additional planned)
Profile of the fully-equipped CPIC
Type: PTF—Fast Patrol Boat Class: CPIC (Coastal Patrol and Interdiction Craft)
Displacement: 71.4 tons full load Length: 99 feet, 2 inches Beam: 18 feet
Propulsion: three Avco-Lycoming
TF25 G.T. = 5,400 s.h.p.; two General Motors diesels
Speed/Range: over 40 knots max. Armament: two twin 30-mm. AA; two twin 7.62-mm. machine guns; two Mk.
19, 40-mm. grenade launchers (missiles may be added later)
Type: PG—Patrol Gunboat Class: Asheville (PG-84)
Displacement: 245 tons full load Length: 164 feet, 6 inches Bam: 23 feet, 9 inches Propulsion: one G.E. LM1500
G.T. = 13,300 s.h.p.; two 'Cummins V-12 diesels = 1,450 b.h.p. Speed/Range: over 40 knots max.; 14 knots cruise Armament: one 3-in DP; one 40-mm. A A two twin .50-cal. machine guns (four STANDARD SSM being added to U. S.
Navy units)
Type: PCH—Hydrofoil Submarine Chaser
Class: High Point (PCH-1) Displacement: 110 tons full load Length: 115 feet Beam: 31 feet
Propulsion: two Proteus 1273 G.T. = 7,800 s.h.p. one auxiliary diesel = 600 b.h.p.
Speed/Range: 48 knots max.; 12
knots max. hull-borne Armament: four fixed Mk. 32 ASW torpedo tubes
Countries operating or acquiring' United States: 1
Type: AGEH—Hydrofoil Research Ship
Class: Plainview (AGEH-1) Displacement: 310 tons full load Length: 212 feet Beam: 40 feet, 6 inches (hull) Propulsion: two G.E. LM1500
G.T. = 28,000 s.h.p.; two auxiliary diesels = 1,200 b.h.p.
Speed/Range: 50 knots max. Armament: two triple Mk. 32 ASW torpedo tubes
Countries operating or acquiring United States: 1
Type: PGH—Hydrofoil Gunboat Class: Flagstaff (PGH-1) Displacement: 57 tons full load Length: 74 feet, 4 inches Beam: 21 feet, 4 inches (hull) Propulsion: one Tyne 621
G.T. = 3,620 s.h.p.; two G.M. 6V53 diesels = 300 b.h.p.
Speed/Range: 51 knots max.; est. 14 knots hull-borne Armament: 1972—none
1971—one 152-mm. cannon; two twin ,50-cal. machine guns 1968—one 40-mm. AA; two twin ,50-cal. MG; one 81-mm. mortar
Countries operating or acquit' United States: 1
Type: PGH—Hydrofoil Gunboat Class: Tucumcari, PGH-2 Displacement: 58 tons max.
Length: 71 feet, 10 inches Beam: 19 feet, 6 inches Propulsion: one Proteus G.T. = 3.040 s.h.p.; one G.M. GV53 auxiliary diesel = 600 b.h.p.
Speed/Range: over 50 knots; est. 12 knots hull-borne Armament: 1971—one 40-mm. AA;
three twin 20-mm. AA 1968—one 40-mm. AA; two twin 50-cal. MG; one 81-mm. mortar
Type: PHM—Patrol Hydrofoil (Guided Missile)
Class: PHM 1
Displacement: 170 tons full load Length: approx. 120 feet Beam: approx. 25 feet Propulsion one General Electric LM2500 gas
turbine = 22,000 s.h.p.; two diesels = b.h.p. not available
Speed/Range: over 50 knots max.; 14 knots hull-borne max. Armament: four Harpoon SSM
one 76-mm./62-cal. OTO Melara Compact
Type: PGM—Motor Gunboat Class: PGM-39/U. S. Coast Guard 95-ft.
Displacement: 110 tons full load Length: 95 feet Bam: 19 feet
Propulsion: two or four diesels (see text) = 2,200 b.h.p. Speed/Range: 20 knots max.; 10
knots = 1,500 nautical miles
Armament: see text
Countries operating or acquiring:
United States: 26 (retained in 4- U.S.C.G.)
Philippines: 4 Burma: 6
Ethiopia: 5 (2 ex-U.S.C.G.) Brazil: 6
South Korea: 9 (cx-U.S.C.G.) Haiti: 2 (ex-U.S.C.G.)
The PC 11 of the Ethiopian Navy
Type: PGM—Motor Gunboat
Class: PGM-59
Displacement: 130 tons full load
Length: 101 feet
Beam: 22 feet
Propulsion: two Mercedes Benz
MB820 diesels = 1,900 b.h.p., or eight G.M. GV-71 diesels = 2,000 b.h.p.
Speed/Range: 18 knots max.; 10
knots = 1,500 nautical miles
Armament: normally one 40-mm. AA; two twin 20-mm. AA; two single ,50-cal. MG (depth charges on some)
Countries operating or acquiring: Indonesia: 3 South Vietnam: 20 Thailand: 10 Ecuador: 2
Dominican Republic: 1
Peru: 2
Liberia: 1
Iran: 3
Turkey: 4
Type: PB—Patrol Craft Class: Sewart 65-ft.
"Commercial Cruiser” Displacement: 33 tons full load Length: 65 feet Beam: 16 feet, 4 inches Propulsion: three G.M. 12V-71T diesels = 1,590 b.h.p. Speed/Range: 26 knots max.; 17
knots = 1,200 nautical miles
Armament: two single 20-mm. A A or three single ,50-cal. machine guns (Swiftships variant: three twin ,50-cal. MG)
Type: PB—Patrol Craft Class: Sewart 85-ft.
"Commercial Cruiser” Displacement: 42 tons full load Length: 85 feet Beam: 18 feet, 8 inches Propulsion: two G.M. 16V71
diesels = 1,100 b.h.p. Speed/Range: 23 knots max.; 12 knots = over 400 nautical miles Armament: three single .50-cal. machine guns
Countries operating or acquiring■'
Dominican Republic: 4 Jamaica: 3 Guatemala: 2 Nicaragua: 1 Uruguay: 1
Small Combatants—1973 269
Bibliography:
The paper was prepared employing only published, unclassified sources, both printed documents and photography. The interpretations are those of the author alone and do not necessarily represent those of the Department of Defense.
Sveriges Flotta. General continuing source on Swedish Navy activities.
U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, March 1971 for Wm. D. O’Neil, "Gun Systems for Naval Air Defense;” also 1970 article by H. T. Lenton, "The Missile-Armed Fast Patrol Boat;” also Sidney Gladwin, "Missile Armament for the FPB;” also 1967 article on the Asheville-chss gunboat.
Periodicals:
Armed Forces Journal: for Nihart, Brook, "Harpoon: the Navy’s Answer to Soviet Missile Boats,” 16 November 1970, pp. 22-23.
Aviation Week and Space Technology, 5 June 1972, "Italy Develops Variety of Tactical Missiles.”
Plight International, 3 October 1970, p. 575 for "Exocet or Martel.”
French Shipbuilding News, March 1971, "New Orders” describes Type 143, and La Combattante IIs for Greece and Malaysia in considerable detail. Good source for other foreign-order combatant data.
Interavia, "Una Nuova Motocannoniera,” February 1972, plus various issues for characteristics of European and Warsaw Pact ships, ordnance, electronics and missile systems.
International Defense Review,]une 1971, p. 239, "Small Warships 1971” and p. 244, "Armament & Fire Control.” Various earlier issues for characteristics of ships, ordnance systems, electronics, etc.
Marine Rundschau, various issues for data on German and other European activities.
The Motor Ship, July 1955, pp. 146-150, "H.M.S. Dark -Aggressor Commissioned,” on Dark class and Deltic diesel.
Naval Record, September/October 1967, Vol. 2, #5, "Special Light Naval Craft Issue.” Not defunct, as stated last year; just rather sporadically published. Edited by H. J. Lenton.
Navy International (U. K. Navy League publication), June 1970, "Ferocity, Tenacity, Duplicity?” and "Look, no teeth” on Sabre class; November 1970 for "Exposition Naval, Le Bourget 1970.” and "Exocet” by John Marriott. Good source for current U. K. naval and merchant marine activities.
New York Times for "Navy Hydrofoil Fires 6-Inch Gun,” 6 June 1971, and "New Missile Boats Being Built in Israel” (AP), 21 March 1972.
Ta Revue Maritime, 1971, p. 251 for Type 148 characteristics, and p. 428 for Sa’ar data.
Revista Maritima—various issues for worldwide construction information.
Shipbuilding and Shipping Record, 7 August 1970, for "High Speed Training Craft for Royal Navy from VT”; March 1965, pp. 26-32 for H. T. Lenton, "Post-War Developments in Naval Light Craft”—mostly Royal Navy. Used to be a good source for naval ships but now confined mostly to commercial vessels.
Sekai no Kansen (Ships of the World) "High Speed Boats of the JMSDF” by Mosatushi Ishida, May 1971. Plus various articles on Asian craft. Probably the most useful periodical on warship developments published anywhere.
Books, Annuals, Reports, Etc.:
Bagnasco, Erminio, I Mas e le Motosiluranti Italiane. Rome: Ufficio Storico Della Marine Militaire, 1967.
Jane’s Fighting Ships, editions of 1939, 1940, 1947-1948, 1957-1958, 1964-1965, 1969-1970, 1971-1972; various editors. London: Sampson, Low, Marston & Co., Ltd., U. S. Navy Section excellent, remainder less so.
Jane’s Surface Skimmers, 1971-1972; ed. Roy McLeavy. London: Sampson, Low, Marston & Co., Ltd., 1970.
Jane’s Weapons Systems, 1972; ed. R. T. Pretty and D. H. R.
Archer. London: Sampson, Low, Marston & Co., Ltd., 1970. Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force, Ships and Aircraft, editions of 1959, I960 & 1961. Tokyo: 1959-1961.
Les Flottesde Combat, 1972; ed. Henri le Masson. Paris: Editions Maritimes et d’Outre-Mer. 1970. Excellent on French and Soviet navies.
Lenton, H. T., Warships of the British Commonwealth, rev. ed. London: Ian Allen & Co., Ltd., 1970. Third edition now available.
Morison and Rowe, Ships and Aircraft of the U. S. Fleet.
Annapolis: U. S. Naval Institute, 1972.
Terzibaschitsch, Stephan, Schiffe und Flugzeuge der U. S. Flotte.
Munich: J. F. Lehmanns, 1966.
Trewby, G. A., Marine Gas Turbines in the Royal Navy. American Society of Marine Engineers, paper G2-GTP2, 1970. Weytr’s Warships of the World, 1971, ed. Gerhardt Albrecht. Annapolis: U. S. Naval Institute, 1971. Also earlier editions.
The author also wishes to express his appreciation for the advice and guidance offered by Commander Detlow M. Marthinson, U. S. Navy, OP-03Z the Pentagon and to Dr. David Jewell of the U. S. Naval Research and Development Center, Carderock, Maryland, for information on U. S. hydrofoil programs.
[1] It might be best to mention here in passing that Israel itself was reported in March of 1972 to be building a new class of missile boats. Six enlarged Sa’ars, some 180 feet long, arc being built, the greater length to be used for additional fuel storage and for addition of a second OTO Melara 76-mm. Compact gun aft. Such a craft would be over 350 tons displacement and, indeed, may be based on the 400-ton gunboat design offered by C.M.N. in France. Allegedly the class will be deployed in the Red Sea area, although, with Israeli shipbuilding capability at Haifa, the ships face a long journey around Africa with few friendly ports for rest and replenishment before reaching their final operating base.
[2]More recently, Baglietti completed two 40-ton, 66-foot fast cutters for
the Italian Customs Service (Guardia Finanza) during 1971. Using aluminum alloy construction, the craft achieve 31 knots on 5,400 b.h.p. delivered by a pair of C.R.M. 18-cylinder diesels. The four Dark-class torpedoboats purchased from Great Britain for the Guardia Finanzc were rc-engincd similarly during 1969, while two larger cutters completed in 1969 by Cantieri
Picchiotti have three such engines. These craft, plus a World War II-vintage Fairmilc D-class patrol boat and two former U. S. 136-foot Y\1S are armed with one 20-mm. AA each. Another quasi-military organization, the Port Captains Service, operates 35 speedboats and seven rescue lifeboats.