Osa class
Project 205 boat 1983
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
Project 205 with the code name Moskit ( Russian "Москит" ) (German: " Mosquito "), designated by NATO as the Osa class , was a class of missile speedboats from the Cold War era from Soviet production. Osa have been exported to numerous states. There were essentially two series of the class; The 205U project had more modern missiles compared to the older version.
history
The boats were developed from 1957 to 1958 under project number 205. Up until then there had been no comparable developments worldwide and new territory had to be broken in many areas. The designers had to clarify, for example, how the launch of all four missiles would affect the hull at the same time or whether missiles and artillery could be used together. While the boats were successful in terms of shipbuilding , there were always engine problems in later use. The weapon control system proved to be very prone to failure. Construction began in 1960 at the Primorsk shipyard in Leningrad . A total of 140 boats from the first batch of project 205, the "Osa I class", were built.
In the early 1960s, various countries put the boats into service. At that point in time they embodied the best in the world. Nevertheless, they only became known and, above all, noticed by NATO when boats of the older Project 183 R of the Egyptian Navy armed with missiles of the same type P-15 sank the Israeli destroyer Elath on October 21, 1967 . Boats of the Osa I class were part of the naval forces of several Warsaw Pact countries , but non-socialist countries also put boats of this type into service. The boats of the various navies differed in their armament and technology.
A total of over 400 boats of the two series were produced, the majority of which (around 300) remained with the Soviet Navy. In addition, around 120 other units were manufactured under license in the People's Republic of China .
Project 205 was deployed in combat in various wars and conflicts. Initially the boats were active during the Six Day War between Israel, Syria, Egypt and Jordan, but did not appear during the war. Only in the subsequent conflict that lasted for years ( war of attrition ) did the above-described sinking of the Israeli destroyer Elath by Egyptian speedboats of an older class occur in October 1967 .
Further missions took place in the Bangladesh war between India and Pakistan. There, three Indian Project 205 boats attacked the port of Karachi on December 3, 1971 as part of Operation Trident and sank the Pakistani ships PNS Muhafiz and PNS Khyber, and the PNS Shajahan was badly damaged. Another raid of this type took place on December 8th and resulted in the sinking of the Panamanian freighter Gulf Star, damage to other ships and the destruction of the fuel depot.
Another striking event was the Battle of Latakia during the Yom Kippur War on October 7, 1973. Here, the Israeli Navy high-speed rocket craft sank a total of five Syrian Navy ships , including a Project 205 and two Project 183R boats. Two days later, Israeli high-speed rocket craft sank three Egyptian Osa-class boats in the Battle of Baltim. A fourth boat escaped. In both cases, the Israeli forces benefited from the use of chaffs and electronic countermeasures that rendered counter-attacks in vain.
Other speedboats of the Osa class were used on the Iraqi side in the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988 and represented an important component of the so-called "tank war".
technology
hull
The Osa was a combined displacement planing boat with a fully welded shipbuilding steel hull. The boat superstructures and fittings consisted mainly of aluminum and were both welded, riveted and screwed.
drive
To drive the boat had three diesel radial engines of the type Zvezda M503 A. This series radial engines had seven blocks with six cylinders. They were water-cooled , had a turbocharger compound charging and each had 4,000 hp (2,942 kW ). The maximum number of revolutions was 2,500 revolutions per minute . The starboard and port engines were in the bow engine room, the middle engine was in the stern engine room. Three auxiliary diesels were available to generate the on-board voltage of 220 V direct current ; one in the bow engine room and two in the stern engine room.
Armament
The boat could be equipped with four homing anti-ship missiles P-15 (SS-N-2A) . The range of the rockets was up to 25 nm (about 46 km). On the Osa-II -class, two quadruple starters for light anti- aircraft missiles of the type Strela-2 (NATO designation SA-N-7 "Grail") were also installed.
The boat had an automatic 30 mm twin rapid-fire gun AK-230 on the forecastle and on the aft deck . They could be aimed both via an optical sight and via weapons control radar and served on the one hand as self-protection ( air defense ) and to combat other ship units.
The boat was divided into ten hull chambers (also called compartments), of which three non-adjacent chambers could have flooded without the boat sinking.
Modifications
During the construction period, the class was modernized several times. Most of the modifications were grouped under Osa II in the NATO Code , exceptions are included in the list.
- Project 205P ( Russian "205П" ): Nato Code Stenka class , patrol boat with anti - submarine capabilities,
- Project 205U ( Russian "205У" ): anti-ship missile of the type P-15U (SS-N-2B),
- Project 205M ( Russian "205Мод" ): anti-ship missile of the type P-15M (SS-N-2C) and newer diesels of the type M-504,
- Project 205MA ( Russian "206МР" ): Slepen, test boat with AK-176 , see below,
- Project 205MR : improved anti-ship missile, probably modernized P-15M,
- Project 205K ( Russian "205ЭМ" ): (possibly also project 205A) modernization of the Osa-I boats to the standard of the project 205M,
- Project 205Ch : Project 205M with 400 V alternating current on-board power supply instead of the 220 V direct current used otherwise,
- Project 205Z : conversion to targets for missile training after 1980,
- Project 205.4 (( Russian "205ЭР" ) Russian "205ЭР мод2" ): (possibly also Project 205ER) in the late 1990s, a modernized version with eight to twelve Kh-35 - (SS-N-25) marine target missiles . A boat was converted to this variant.
Slepen class test boat
A single Project 205 boat was fitted with a 57mm double-barreled AK-725 gun , a 30mm AK-630 / MR-123 anti- aircraft gun, and the prototype Bass Tilt fire control radar to accommodate this configuration for the Grischa -III class to test. In 1975 this boat (or another Osa class boat) was converted. The AK-725 was replaced by a 76mm AK-176 gun . This boat served as a test for the Matka and Nanuchka III classes. The rear AK230 was retained in both versions.
Boats of project 205
|
|
In 1996, according to a government agreement with Germany, Latvia received five boats from the former People's Navy. Previously, the Ari and rocket armament in the Neptun shipyard in Rostock was disarmed. Three boats were converted into guard boats and the other two were used to obtain spare parts.
People's Navy of the GDR
The boats of the Osa-I-class were referred to by the Volksmarine as rocket high-speed boats or RS-boats for short and were grouped in the 6th flotilla on Rügen . The first two boats entered service in 1962. Another seven followed in 1964 and three each in 1965 and 1971. The boats put into service in 1971 replaced the three oldest boats that had been transferred to the school boat department. With the exception of the fifth boat called Dr. Richard Sorge , when they were put into service, all boats were given the names of Red Sailors from the events in the peace movement in the former German deep sea fleet in 1917, the Kiel sailors' uprising and the November Revolution .
In May 1964, the first two boats Max Reichpietsch and Albin Köbis put into service took part in the practical rocket firing section off Baltiysk . This rocket shooting, in which later only one boat took part, took place annually until 1989. In 1981 the scheduled decommissioning of boats 205/2, 3 and 6 began due to incipient material fatigue and high technical wear and tear after almost 20 years of service. The remaining twelve boats were to be replaced 1: 1 by modern missile carriers, such as the small missile ships of the Tarantul I and Sassnitz classes . This project failed due to a lack of funding and the boats of the Osa I class had to be kept in service. Only in 1990 with the dissolution of the Volksmarine could the now completely worn out boats be decommissioned.
In the 1980s, the speedboats were grouped with four boats each in a department, each of which was integrated into the 1st, 3rd and 5th Brigade.
According to a government agreement, the Latvian navy received the last three boats (205/13, 14, 15) acquired in 1971 as guard boats in 1993 after disarming the ari and rocket armament in the Neptun shipyard . In 1995 two more followed (205/10, 11), which served as a reserve of material . The German Navy was not interested in taking over the boats. The remaining boats were completely scrapped.
Special features of the People's Navy
The first rocket boats delivered to the Volksmarine were delivered without a weapons control system. It was not until 1965 that Tallinn was retrofitted with the gun control system MR-104 for guns. The weapon control system for the missiles was called MR-101. Furthermore, some boats were equipped with radar reconnaissance devices, which means that they could analyze received radar signals, which can be assigned to the transmitted device as a quasi electronic fingerprint.
Since the electrical devices of the GDR worked with 220 V alternating current , but only direct current was available on board , the boats were also equipped with a 220 V alternating current system. This allowed electrical devices to be used on board that were not part of the permanently installed equipment. In the mid-1980s, the Volksmarine equipped their RS boats with decoy launchers. They were used to repel attacking missiles.
During the war, the boats would have pulled an air cushion behind them at a certain distance. The surface was highly radar reflective . With the help of the cushion, a radar-controlled attacking missile was supposed to be simulated as a considerably longer boat, so that the missile heading towards the center of the boat would have flown through between the boat and the air cushion.
At sea, the boats carried 1,200 liters of drinking water. 800 liters were provided for food preparation and 400 liters served as cooling water reserve for the drive machines.
Life on board
The crews were permanently stationed on the boats in the harbor. They lived and slept on board. In each brigade in which the RS boats were organized, there was a barge with rooms for the crews. In the beginning it was mainly the torpedo speedboat crews who were accommodated here. When the torpedo speedboats were taken out of service, the space gradually became available for RS boat crews.
In the second boat compartment was the eight-man deck , in which the mates , masters and ensigns were accommodated. The third boat division was the 12-man deck. The sailors were housed here. But since the scheduled crew included more than 12 sailors, some of them were accommodated in the officers' mess. This was in the eighth boat department. There was room for up to six sailors. The officers' deck was in the fourth boat compartment.
There were two toilets on board, but they weren't used because the drainage pipes were too thin. In the harbor, the toilets on the houseboat could be used. If you were at sea, you had to come up with other solutions. There were also showers and washing facilities on the residential ship. At sea, people washed with sea water.
The barracks had a large galley where all the crews of the brigade cooked together. The crew mess (dining room) was also housed on the residential ship. The officers had their own deck with accommodation, galley and mess on the barge. For the days at sea there was a small galley on the RS boat. Either they ate at the battle station or during the breaks in the fighting on the upper deck, as far as the weather allowed.
Boats in service
Construction no. | Mark | Surname | Commissioning | Decommissioning | Whereabouts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
205/01 | 702 712 from October 30, 1964: 711 from 1971: S-31 from 1981: 751 |
Max Reichpietsch | November 26, 1962 | October 1, 1990 | demolished as S-31 school boat until 1995 in Peenemünde- Nordhafen |
205/02 | 701 711 from October 30, 1964: 712 from 1971: S-32 |
Albin Köbis | November 26, 1962 | September 22, 1981 | scrapped
as an S-32 school boat |
205/03 | 713 751 |
Rudolf Egelhofer | January 14, 1964 | November 26, 1981 | scrapped (not to be confused with the missile speedboat of the same name of the Tarantul-I-class with the identification 572, which was put into service in 1985 ) |
205/04 | 714 from 1971: S-33 from 1981: 713 |
Dr. Richard Sorge | January 14, 1964 | October 1, 1990 | demolished as S-33 school boat until 1995 in Peenemünde-Nordhafen |
205/05 | 732 | August Lütgens | September 24, 1964 | October 1, 1990 | Demolition until 1995 in Peenemünde-Nordhafen |
205/06 | 713 | Paul Eisenschneider | October 16, 1964 | 4th November 1981 | scrapped |
205/07 | 733 | Karl Meseberg | October 24, 1964 | October 1, 1990 | Demolition until 1995 in Peenemünde-Nordhafen |
205/08 | 712 | Walter Kramer | 5th December 1964 | October 1, 1990 | Demolition until 1995 in Peenemünde-Nordhafen |
205/09 | 752 | Paul Schulz | December 24, 1964 | October 1, 1990 | Demolition until 1995 in Peenemünde-Nordhafen |
205/10 | 754 | Paul Wieczorek | September 24, 1965 | October 1, 1990 | on June 27, 1995 as material reserve to Latvia |
205/11 | 714 | Fritz guest | November 29, 1965 | October 1, 1990 | on April 20, 1995 as material reserve to Latvia |
205/12 | 734 | Albert Gast | December 23, 1965 | October 1, 1990 | Demolition until 1995 in Peenemünde-Nordhafen |
205/13 | 711 | Heinrich Dorrenbach | 3rd September 1971 | October 1, 1990 | 1993 to Latvia; as a guard boat |
205/14 | 731 | Otto Tost | September 28, 1971 | October 1, 1990 | 1993 to Latvia; as a guard boat |
205/15 | 753 | Josef Schares | October 6, 1971 | October 1, 1990 | 1993 to Latvia; as a guard boat |
crew
|
|
|
|
Polish Navy
The Navy of the People's Republic of Poland put 13 Osa I-class boats into service between 1964 and 1975. From 1971 these boats were grouped in the 3rd Flotilla in Gdynia -Oksywie. With the exception of Oksywie, which is a district of Gdynia, the boats were all named after Polish coastal cities.
Mark | Surname | Commissioning | Decommissioning |
---|---|---|---|
421 | ORP "Hel" | 1964 | 1984 |
422 | ORP "Gdańsk" | 1964 | 1989 |
423 | ORP "Gdynia" | 1965 | 1989 |
424 | ORP "Kołobrzeg" | 1965 | 1990 |
425 | ORP "Szczecin" | 1966 | 1990 |
426 | ORP "Elbląg" | 1966 | 1990 |
427 | ORP "Puck" | 1967 | 2003 |
428 | ORP "Ustka" | 1968 | 2000 |
429 | ORP "Oksywie" | 1971 | 2000 |
430 | ORP "Darłowo" | 1972 | 2003 |
431 | ORP "Świnoujście" | 1973 | 2006 |
432 | ORP "Dziwnów" | 1975 | 2004 |
433 | ORP "Władysławowo" | 1975 | 2006 |
Finnish Navy
Mark | Surname |
---|---|
11 | Tuima |
12 | Tuisku |
14th | Tuuli |
15th | Tyrsky |
From 1974 to 1975 the Finnish Navy obtained four boats of the Osa II class from the Soviet Union. In the Finnish Navy, the class name was Tuima-Klasse ( Finnish Tuima-luokan ohjusvene ). From 1993 to 1994 the boats were converted into fast mine-layers in the Uusikaupunki shipyard. For this purpose, the rocket technology was completely removed and the deck structure changed accordingly. The weapons control systems were modernized and the middle engine including the shaft and propeller was removed from the boats with the identification numbers 11 and 14. This reduced the top speed of these two boats to 30 knots. After the rebuilding of the boats, they were grouped in the 5th Mining Squadron on the Upinniemi Peninsula. In 2000 the boats were decommissioned and after an auction in 2003 they became the property of GN113 Warbird Consulting Oy . This company wanted to convert one boat into a restaurant and another into a water bus for Helsinki . The other two boats were supposed to be used for spare parts. On October 24, 2006, the Loviisan Sanomat ( Loviisa newspaper) reported that all four boats had been sold to the Egyptian Navy. The export license for this was issued on July 6, 2006 by the Ministry of Defense. In November 2006 it was shipped to Egypt with special transport ships. The Tuima-class boats served as the basis for the own development of the Helsinki-class .
Indian Navy
The Indian Navy bought eight Osa I class boats from the Soviet Union in early 1971. Previously there was a dispute with Great Britain , which refused to sell India modern warships. The boats were grouped in the 25th Killer Squadron. They were used in the same year in the Bangladesh war between India and Pakistan . There they played a key role and sank several ships in Pakistan (see above ). The boats were decommissioned between 1981 and 1990.
The Osa II class boats were put into service from 1976 to 1977. They were grouped in the 25th Missile Ship Squadron. Their home port was the naval base in Visakhapatnam . The decommissioning of the eight boats dragged on for several years. The first two boats were decommissioned in May 1996 and the last two in May 2005. The Prabal is on display in Mumbai 's entertainment park. The Chatak lies in the naval port of Kochi . From February 19 to December 27, 1978, the future Chief of the General Staff of the Indian Navy, Admiral Arun Prakash , served as 2nd Commanding Officer .
|
|
Remarks
- ↑ According to Apalkow, 68, 27 and 47 Pr. 205 boats were built at the three Soviet shipyards, making 142 boats in total.
- ↑ The name Osa ( Russian Оса ) means wasp .
literature
- Юрий В. Апальков: Корабли ВМФ СССР. Том II. Ударные корабли. Часть II. Малые ракетные корабли и катера. (For example: Yuri W. Apalkow: Ships of the Soviet Navy. - Part II “Assault Ships”, Section 2 “Small Missile Ships and Boats”. ) Galea Print, 2004, ISBN 5-8172-0087-2 (Russian).
- Manfred Röseberg: Ships and boats of the People's Navy of the GDR. 2nd revised edition. Ingo Koch Verlag, Rostock 2002, ISBN 3-935319-82-7 .
- Knut Schäfer: Type compass. GDR - People's Navy. Combat ships 1949–1990. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-613-03157-9 .
Web links
- Ship list on russian-ships.info (English)
- Dates and names of the Volksmarine ships on navyworld.narod.ru (Russian)
- Crew lists of the RS boats of the Volksmarine
- Проект 205/205-У "Москит» • Osa-I / Osa-II class at atrinaflot.narod.ru ( Memento of 23 September 2011 at the Internet Archive ) (Russian)
- Pages of the GN113 Warbird Consulting Oy with pictures of the boats of the Finnish Navy converted into miners after their decommissioning. (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Апальков: Корабли ВМФ СССР. Том II. Ударные корабли. Часть II. Малые ракетные корабли и катера. P. 30.
- ↑ russian-ships.info, viewed on January 21, 2012 ( Memento from November 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Author collective of the association: Schnellbootsverband Gefechtsereit. on the 25th anniversary of the foundation, for the members of the association
- ↑ a b Page of the Indian Navy about their Osa-I boats ( Memento from August 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ Weyers Flottentaschenbuch 1990/91
- ↑ Kutry rakietowe projektu 205 in the Polish language Wikipedia
- ↑ a b Page of the Indian Navy about their Osa II boats ( Memento from February 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ Report by Loviisan Sanomat on the sale of the four Finnish boats (Finnish)
- ↑ Report by Loviisan Sanomat on the loading of the four Finnish boats (Finnish)