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Combat Fleets

By A. D. Baker III, Editor, Combat Fleets of the World
November 1995
Proceedings
Vol. 121/11/1,113
Article
View Issue
Comments

Commencing this June, U.S. Navy patrol craft Typhoon (PC-5) and Scirocco (PC-6) made a Mediterranean deployment, the first overseas voyage for units of the still-building Cyclone (PC-1) class. The Typhoon had been repainted in a three- tone light blue/light gray/dark gray cam­ouflage scheme that was nonetheless unlikely to conceal the 331-ton ship from modern sensors or alert lookouts. Canvas covers the main armament, a Mk 38 Pintel mounting forward for a Mk 88 Bushmaster 25-mm chain gun and a newly installed, stabilized Mk 96 mount with the same gun plus a co-mounted 40-mm Mk 19 grenade launcher atop the after deckhouse. Crewed by 4 officers, 2 chief petty officers, and 24 other en­listed personnel, the Navy’s smallest commissioned ships carry a “payload” of nine SEALs and their six-meter rigid-inflatable raiding boat. At the end of 1995, only one ship of the class, the Shamal (PC-13), remains to be commissioned. Under still-extent regulations, the class should have been numbered PC-1651 through PC-1663 in a series extending back to World War I.

When HMS Andromeda “paid off in April 1993, she was the last of 28 Royal Navy Leander-class frigates to leave service. One of a group of five converted in the early 1980s to carry the Sea Wolf surface-to-air missile system, the 2,680-ton ship was placed in reserve until sold to India this spring for a nominal sum. After a 12-week activation overhaul, paid for by Great Britain, she emerged at the end of July as the training frigate Krishna, seen here at Devonport in mid-August. All arma­ment-including the sextuple Sea Wolf launcher and its associated Type 910 radar director, four Exocet missiles, two sets of triple antisubmarine torpedo tubes, and four 20-mm cannon—had been deleted. The Krishna makes an appropri­ate training ship, as she has a steam tur­bine propulsion plant virtually identical to that in six Indian-built Leander variants and the three Godavari-class frigates.

Used submarine for sale, in excel­lent condition and with all the latest equipment. Decommission­ed in July 1994 after 22 years in commission and placed in land storage at den Helder, the former Royal Netherlands Navy subma­rine Zwaardvis is estimated to have at least 13 years of service remaining. The 2,640-ton (sub­merged) ship and her sister, the Tijgerhaai, decommissioned this summer, have not found buyers despite an intensive sales effort and an affordable proposed elec­tronics update. Also seeking new homes are the four Royal Navy Upholder-class diesel boats completed in 1990-93. Decommission­ed in 1994, the 2,400-tonners have been unsuccessfully offered to a number of countries under a variety of creative schemes. Canada became the latest to turn them down when, on 28 July, its Defence Minister announced that the country had higher procure­ment priorities. The quartet, which cost more than $1.5 billion to build, were then said to be on offer to Chile and Portugal. This summer, Singapore’s Ministry of Defence denied reports that it was planning to purchase used German Type 206 submarines, six of which are available for sale. Despite ongoing building programs in more than a dozen countries, the number of submarines worldwide continues slowly to decline as older units fail to be replaced one-for-one by new construction.

 

A. D. Baker III

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Digital Proceedings content made possible by a gift from CAPT Roger Ekman, USN (Ret.)

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