Missile boat

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the type of warship. For the Star Wars craft, see
Missile Boat (Star Wars)
.
Osa I class
missile boat in 1983. The Osa class are probably the most numerous class of missile boats to have been built.
HSwMS Ystad of the Swedish Navy 2017.

A missile boat or missile cutter is a small, fast

torpedo boats of World War II; in fact, the first missile boats were modified torpedo boats with the torpedo tubes
replaced by missile tubes.

The doctrine behind the use of missile boats is based on the principle of mobility over defence and firepower. The advent of proper guided missile and electronic countermeasure technologies gave birth to the idea that warships could now be designed to outmaneuver their enemies and conceal themselves while carrying powerful weapons.

Previously, increasing the potency of

aircraft carriers
, had made it clear that large warships were little more than targets in a major war. Guided bombs and then anti-ship missiles further reduced the usefulness of large warships outside the carriers.

Missile boats, when equipped with sophisticated anti-ship missiles, and especially when used in a swarm, can pose a significant threat to even the largest of capital ships, and do so at much greater ranges than is possible with torpedoes.

Design and history

Missile boats were invented and first manufactured by the Soviet Union in the 1950s, beginning with "Project 183R" which developed into the Komar-class missile boat, mounting two P-15 Termit (Styx) anti-ship missiles in box launchers and a twin 25mm autocannon on a 25-metre (82 ft) wooden hull displacing 66.5 tonnes (65.4 long tons; 73.3 short tons) Four diesel engines gave the Komars 4,800 bhp (3,600 kW) and a top speed of around 44 knots (81 km/h; 51 mph). Endurance was limited to 1,000 nautical miles (1,900 km; 1,200 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) and the vessels had fuel and supplies for only five days at sea. 112 Komar-class vessels were produced, while over 400 examples were built of the following Osa-class missile boat, with a significant number of both types being sold to pro-Soviet nations.

Being relatively small and constructed of wood, the Komar-class boats had a very small

radar cross-section. Its sophisticated radar
enabled the missile boat, with its low radar reflectivity, to detect a larger enemy ship before the latter was aware of its presence, fire its missiles and speed away.

Soviet naval architects had designed them with these characteristics to give the small boats this advantage against much larger American naval ships should they attempt to attack the Russian coast. The boats were designed for coastal operations, with limited endurance.[1]

The first combat use of missile boats was by the

Eilat on October 21, 1967, shortly after the Six-Day War, sinking the Eilat with 47 dead and over a hundred wounded out of a crew of 199.[2]

A Gepard-class vessel of the German Navy

The Soviet-built boats prompted a

Sa'ar 4
variants.

During the

Pakistani Navy[3] and most of Pakistan's naval fuel reserves in the port's fuel storage tanks which cleared the way for the decisive victory of the Indian Armed Forces.[1][4]

The world's first naval battles between missile-armed warships occurred between Israeli Sa'ar 3-class and Sa'ar 4-class missile boats (using indigenously-developed Gabriel missiles), and Syrian Komar- and Osa-class missile boats during the October 1973 Yom Kippur War. The first of these engagements became known as the Battle of Latakia. During this and later battles, some fifty Gabriels and a similar number of Styx missiles were fired; seven Syrian ships were sunk, with zero Israeli losses.

At the Battle of Bubiyan in 1991 Iraqi missile boats were destroyed by British air-to-surface missiles.

Later designs, such as the German Gepard class and Finnish Hamina class are equipped with surface-to-air missiles and countermeasures.

The size of missile boats has increased, with some designs now at corvette size, 800 tonnes including a helicopter, giving them extended modes of operation. In April 1996 during Israel's Operation Grapes of Wrath, IDF naval forces used Sa'ar 4 and Sa'ar 4.5 boats to shell the Lebanese coast with 76 mm fire, in conjunction with artillery and air attacks.

Current operations

US Navy has been developing an ASUW Littoral Defensive Anti-Surface Warfare doctrine, along with vessels such as the littoral combat ship.[citation needed
]

The People's Liberation Army Navy of China also has a large fleet of missile craft, which include Type 22 missile boats, Type 037IG Houxin-class missile boats and Type 037II Houjian-class missile boats, with a total of 109 units.[citation needed]

Taiwan Navy has also deployed Kuang Hua VI-class missile boat to act as missile carriers in their fleet to counter big navies with naval version of "Shoot-and-scoot" technique along with their more than two hundred fishing ports. Originally, they plan to add so called to their fleet under Admiral Lee Hsi-ming, yet the plan was halted due to budgetary issues.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Pike, John. "K83 Vidyut (Sov Osa-I) / K90 Viyut (Sov Osa-II)". www.globalsecurity.org.
  2. ^ Pike, John. "Eilat Destroyer". globalsecurity.org.
  3. ISBN 0-14-02-2401-7
    . In a two-week war, Pakistan lost half its navy.
  4. ISBN 978-8172235628
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-275-96917-2
    .

External links

Media related to Missile boats at Wikimedia Commons

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