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NATO named this unusual Soviet guided-missile corvette design the Dergach class. Based in the Black Sea, the 700-ton prototype is the world’s largest surface effects ship, deriving lift from air trapped between the twin hull walls and flexible skirts fore and aft. On cushion, the 212-foot long by 56-foot beam ship is powered by gas turbines driving two sets of tandem propellers mounted on the end of struts that pivot out of the water during slow- speed, hull-borne operations. The Dergach is heavily armed, with eight SS-N-22 Sunburn supersonic antiship cruise missiles flanking the superstructure, an SA-N-4 Gecko surface- to-air missile system aft, a 76-mm. dual-purpose gun forward, and two 30-mm. Gatling antiaircraft guns. An
Dwarfed by the Military Sealift ' Command hospital ship Comfort (T-AH-20), the 17,933-ton full load Royal Australian Navy replenishment oiler Success provides fuel to the larger vessel, on board which served a 20-person Australian Defence Force medical team in support of Operation Desert Storm. Other United Nations coalition medical services afloat in the area included the Royal Navy aviation training ship Argus (with a 100-bed hospital occupying part of the hangar deck and served by 148 medical and dental personnel and four Sea King helicopters for Medevac duties) and the Polish Navy cadet training ship Wodnik, which was disarmed, painted white, given a helicopter platform, and sent to the Middle East in late December with a 17-man medical team in company with the armed salvage ship Piast as escort. The Success was relieved on-station at the end of January 1991 by the 40,870-ton oiler Westralia, which has been given a helicopter platform and facilities to accommodate refrigerated provisions vans on deck.
Proceedings / April 1991