The newest of the world's naval cadet sail training ships, Brazil's Cisne Branco was launched by Damen Shipyard, Gorinchem, the Netherlands, on 4 August 1999. A participant in this year's OPSAIL, the 1,038-- ton (full-load displacement), white-hulled Cisne Branco (whose name means "white swan" in Portuguese) is seen here entering Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 16 June with most of her 2,195-square-meter suit of sails spread. A fully rigged ship, the Cisne Branco nonetheless requires a crew of only 8 officers and 14 enlisted personnel plus as many as 55 cadets. Capable of 17 knots when under sail, the 213-foot (hull length) ship also has a 1,060-horsepower Caterpillar auxiliary propulsion diesel and even a 4011-horsepower bow thruster for harbor maneuvering. Fitted out after launch at Amsterdam by Nista B.V, the Cisne Branco was designed after a 19th-century Dutch merchant vessel.
The U.S. Navy coastal patrol boat Shamal (PC-13) displays the new, 9-foot vamped stern grafted on to accommodate the Combatant Craft Retrieval System (CCRS), essentially a ramp for stowage, launching, and retrieval of a fast rigid-inflatable combat assault boat; a door closes across the transom stern. The first of three CCRS conversions contracted last October to the builder, Bollinger Machine Shop and Shipyard, the Shamal is otherwise externally unchanged. Sisters Zephyr (PC-8) and Tempest (PC-2) also were to have been completed by the end of June. Commissioned on 24 June 2000, the Tornado (PC-14; insert) has the CCRS ramp but also incorporates additional radar signature reduction features and has bulwarks surrounding the bow; the latter may help to protect the forward 25-mm gun mount, which was washed overboard by heavy seas on at least two earlier units. The Cyclone (PC-1) was stricken on 29 February after less than seven years' service and transferred to the Coast Guard, which at present lacks funds to operate her. Plans call for retiring 6 more of the surviving 13 Cyclones, starting in fiscal year 2000; the others are to receive the CCRS conversion.
With only two ships remaining active that could accommodate the aging weapon, the Royal Navy formally announced the retirement of the French MM 38 Exocet antiship cruise missile system in June. The launch canisters already had been removed from the Boxer-class (Type 22 Batch 2) frigates Sheffield and Coventry earlier in the year. The 4,850-ton, 486-foot Sheffield, seen here at Kiel, Germany, in June, is scheduled to remain in service until about 2005, armed only with two sextuple Sea Wolf point-defense surface-to-air missile launchers, light antiaircraft guns, and antisubmarine torpedoes; the Coventry is to be retired next year after 13 years' service. Four earlier Type 22 Batch 1 (Broadsword-class) frigates were sold to Brazil after early retirement from the Royal Navy, but the four Batch 2 units deactivated to date have thus far failed to find overseas customers, and one already has been sold for scrap. The four newer Batch 3 (Cornwall-class) ships are armed with Harpoon and Sea Wolf missiles and also carry a 114-mm dual purpose gun; they are planned to remain active for some years to come.