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By A. D. Baker III, Editor, Combat Fleets of the World
The Indian Navy’s 1,350-ton Khukri, first of a class of five indigenously designed and built missile corvettes, seen during May 1990 at the Malaysian Royal Fleet Review at Penang. The 299-foot Khukri is armed with Soviet weapons: four SS-N-2 series missiles, a 76-mm. gun, and two 30-mm. Gatling guns. There is a helicopter platform, but no shipboard antisubmarine weapons are displayed.
The Indonesian-built Kerapu (seen here) and Kakap also attended the Malaysian Fleet Review. They are a 425-ton patrol and search-and-rescue version of the Singa (see below) armed with a single 40-mm. gun and two machine guns, and equipped with a helicopter platform. The 191- foot craft were designed by West Germany’s Liirssen and built by P. T. PAL at Surabaja. Four vessels of this version are in service.
A more heavily armed patrol boat version of the same basic type as the Kerapu is the Singa, which with her sister Ajak, was also at Penang. The Singa is powered by the same twin MTU diesel plant for 27-knot maximum speeds but mounts a modern Bofors 57-mm. Mk 2 dual-purpose gun forward, a 40-mm. gun aft, and two tubes for Indonesian-made 21-inch wire-guided torpedoes. A more extensive electronics array is fitted, including an H.S.A. M-22 radar and an LIOD optronic gun director.
One of the smallest foreign visitors to Penang was the Jayasagara, a 330- ton, 15-knot craft commissioned on 9 December 1983 at the Colombo Dockyard. Crewed by four officers and 52 men each, the Jayasagara and her 129-ft sister (the Sagarawardene) are the largest warships yet built in troubled Sri Lanka. They are armed with twin, Chinese-supplied, 25-mm. and 14.5-mm. gunmounts.
The Liirssen-built, 600-ton missile corvette Victory made the short journey from Singapore to Penang. Capable of carrying up to eight Harpoon missiles (but seen here with only four), the 206-foot, 34-knot Victory also carries a 76-mm. OTO- Melara gun, six antisubmarine torpedo tubes and two machineguns, and has provision for a Mk 15 Phalanx close-in weapon system aft. Five additional units of the class have been launched by Singapore Shipbuilding at Jurong.
M. LOUAGIE
ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVY
Many Royal Malaysian Navy units, from frigates to auxiliaries, were present at the Royal Naval Review, including the Todak (seen here) and the Pari; named for local species of fish, they are part of a sextet of gun-armed, 255-ton patrol boats completed in Malaysia 1976-77 with assistance from Liirssen. Note that both the 40-mm. gunmount aft and the 57-mm. mount forward are equipped with Bofors rocket flare launch rails. The 147-foot craft are capable of 34 knots.