Ultra Fast Attack Craft
Encyclopedia
The Ultra Fast Attack Craft, commonly known as the Colombo Class, is an ultra high-speed class of patrol boat
Patrol boat
A patrol boat is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defense duties.There have been many designs for patrol boats. They may be operated by a nation's navy, coast guard, or police force, and may be intended for marine and/or estuarine or river environments...
s meant for a variety of naval missions from typical off-shore coastal patrol mission profiles to high-speed, high-maneuver littoral warfare. Built by Colombo Dockyard Limited
Colombo Dockyard Limited
Colombo Dockyard PLC is the largest and oldest ship building company in Sri Lanka and is based in Colombo. It has built both military and civilian vessels for both local and overseas clients.-Overview:...
for the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) it has become the workhorse of the SLN against Sea tiger
Sea Tigers
The Sea Tigers was the naval wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the Sri Lankan Civil War. It was founded in 1984. The Sea Tigers had a number of small but effective suicide bomber vessels. During its existence it had gained a reputation as a capable adversary for the Sri Lankan Navy...
boats of the LTTE.
The boats of this class are meant for;
- Counter terrorism
- Interception and attacking
- Coastal patrolling and surveillanceSurveillanceSurveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
- Interdiction and boarding
Series I
The boats of the Series I are of 24m long with a mono hull with a vibration-free deck, powered by twin MTUMTU
MTU may refer to:Networks and Internet* Maximum transmission unit, the size of the largest packet that a network protocol can transmit* Multi tenant unit, a telecom term referring to a building with multiple offices or apartments...
main engines each developing 1,630 kW each, driving Kamewa water jets. This enables the boat to reach speeds of 45 knots and have an endurance of 500 nm. It has a crew of 10.
Series II
Series II the successor to the earlier type. Main upgrades include the increase of accommodation for a crew of 12 and major improvements the superstructure.Series III
The Series III is the recent addition to the class and has incorporated current combat requirements and experience in the battlefield archived by the Sri Lanka Navy. This new type can achieve speeds in excess of 53 knots, the fastest of its class in the region while housing to the 15 persons. Series III was designed by the Colombo Dockyard to the IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i Shaldag Mk II
Shaldag class fast patrol boat
The Shaldag class Fast Patrol Boat is a small but fast class of patrol boats developed for the Israeli Sea Corps and launched in 1989, it has since seen service with several other navies. Designed for security tasks where high intercept speeds are required, such as interdiction of terrorism and...
design. First launch of Series III held on 27 July 1996 and it went beyond the abilities of Shaldag Mk II design by exceeding it from the speed, range and payload.
The propulsion system consists of two Diesel MTU 12V 396 TE94 (1,630 kW each) engines driving two articulated surface drives, which were initially designed for competitive speedboats. Arneson Surface Drive-16 articulating propulsion systems drives provide the vessel with thrust vectoring control similar to the Super Dvora Mk III
Super Dvora Mk III
Super Dvora Mark III is the latest generation of the venerable Dvora family of fast patrol boats or fast attack crafts . Manufactured by IAI Ramta in 2004 these vessels are capable of speeding up to in littoral waters thanks to its state of the art thrust vectoring control Articulated Surface...
and Shaldag Mk II.
Their thrust-vectoring propulsion system allows Series III to function in shallow waters at drafts of 1.2 meters facilitating special operations forces delivery on enemy shores and catastrophe relief missions.
Coastal surveillance vessel
The two Coastal surveillance vessels built for the Maldivian Coast GuardMaldivian Coast Guard
The Maldivian Coast Guard is the naval or maritime arm of the Maldivian National Defence Force. With the absence of a navy in the country, the MNDF Coast Guard functions as the armed maritime force of the nation with a charter to contribute to national defence and by and large to respond to issues...
are very similar to the Series III Ultra Fast Attack Craft. It has more range but at a lower speed of 40 Knots and no armament.
Armament
Currently all Colombo class boats have been designed to allow for the installation of Typhoon 25-30mm stabilized cannonTyphoon Weapon System
The Typhoon is a type of remote weapon station manufactured by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems of Israel, and it shares similar design principles and common technologies with Samson Remote Controlled Weapon Station , a land-based system manufactured by the same developer...
which can be slaved to state-of the art mast-mounted, day and night all weather long range electro-optic systems. In addition to its main armament they carry additional weapon systems such as Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original design by Reinhold Becker of Germany, very early in World War I, and widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others...
s, automatic grenade launcher
Automatic grenade launcher
An automatic grenade launcher or grenade machine gun is a grenade launcher firing rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine. They can be attached to a tripod. Automatic launchers include the Vektor Y3, AGS-17, and the HK GMG, which all fire at a higher velocity...
s, PKM
PK machine gun
The PK is a 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun designed in the Soviet Union and currently in production in Russia. The PK machine gun was introduced in the 1960s and replaced the SGM and RPD machine guns in Soviet service...
general purpose machine gun
General purpose machine gun
A general-purpose machine gun is a multi-purpose weapon: it is a machine gun firing a full-power rifle cartridge and which can be used in a variety of roles, from a bipod- or tripod-mounted infantry support weapon to a helicopter door gun or a vehicle-mounted support weapon...
s, including 12.7 mm and 7.62 mm machine guns.
Series III gun boats comes with Elop MSIS optronic director and Typhoon GFCS as its own weapons control system. Also these crafts use surface search: Furuno FR 8250 or Corden Mk 2; I-band as its radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
.
As of 2006 the main armament has been up graded with the addition of M242 Bushmaster
M242 Bushmaster
The M242 Bushmaster is a 25 mm chain-fed autocannon. It is used extensively by the US armed forces, as well as by NATO's and some other nations' forces in ground combat vehicles and watercraft...
25 mm (25x137mm) chain-fed autocannons
Operators
- Sri Lanka Navy - Ultra Fast Attack Crafts
Maldives
- Maldivian Coast GuardMaldivian Coast GuardThe Maldivian Coast Guard is the naval or maritime arm of the Maldivian National Defence Force. With the absence of a navy in the country, the MNDF Coast Guard functions as the armed maritime force of the nation with a charter to contribute to national defence and by and large to respond to issues...
- Coastal surveillance vessels