S69 hawk
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The S69 Habicht (P6119) was a missile speedboat of the Albatros class (class 143) of the German Navy .
The construction and the design come from Lürssen , in cooperation with MTG Hamburg . The construction contract went to the Kröger shipyard on July 13, 1972 .
construction
The boat was built in (composite) wood and steel construction using light metal for the superstructure and achieved a displacement of 385 t. Four diesel engines with a combined maximum output of 18,000 hp gave the boat a speed of up to 42 knots.
The armament consisted of two 76 mm OTO Melara L / 62 type CS 1 guns, four launchers for anti-ship missile system MM 38 Exocet and two 533 mm torpedo tubes (firing direction astern) for wire-guided torpedoes.
For its own protection , the Habicht was equipped with NBC protection , the octopus electronic combat management system , WOLKE chaff throwing system, a “HOT DOG” decoy throwing system and magnetic self-protection (MES).
In addition to GPS and radar, the automatic combat and information system (AGIS) and S-Boats LINK 11 (situation picture exchange) were available for guidance .
The Habicht was the only boat of this class to be retrofitted with a ship-to-air missile starter Rolling Airframe Missile , which was then used in series on the subsequent Gepard class .
history
On January 25, 1974, the keel of the Habicht , as the penultimate class 143 speedboat, was laid in the Kröger shipyard in Rendsburg . Already during the shipyard test drive after the launch on June 5, 1975 on the Tegeler Platte, the motto "Always a hand's breadth of water under the keel" was destroyed for the first time due to a ground contact. As a result of this accident , the boat received the unwanted nickname "Fastest Landing Craft in the Navy". As a result, the commissioning of S69 was delayed, so that it was delayed in Bremen under the command of Kapitänleutnant Lagois, as the last boat of the 2nd S-Squadron. With the arrival of S69 Habicht to the 2nd Schnellbootgeschwader in the former home port of Olpenitz , the conversion from the outdated Jaguar class to the missile speedboats of the Albatros class ended. The integration of the Habicht into the 2nd Schnellbootgeschwader took place quickly. This made itself felt, among other things, through intensive training projects in individual and squadron frameworks in domestic and foreign waters, in which in particular damage prevention and combat training, the use of weapons and nautical handling of the boat were drilled.
It was not until December 1981 that the boats of the 2nd Schnellbootgeschwader were given the names of birds of prey in addition to their "S" numbers, following the tradition of the Navy , S69 became S69 Habicht . With the callsign "DRCC". On its travels, the boat sailed the Baltic Sea , North Sea , Mediterranean and European North Sea to the Arctic Circle . Its courses took it to and around Great Britain and the Irish Republic . In the Netherlands , Belgium , France and Portugal , crew members of the Habicht went ashore as ambassadors in blue, under the motto of the 2nd Schnellbootgeschwader "FHG" (Fröhlich-Heiter-Gelassen).
In November 1981, the first wet torpedo shot from aboard the Habicht was released, and in the first quarter of 1983 the RAM missile system was set up on a trial basis. The Habicht was thus the only class 143 boat that was able to sail the sea with this anti-aircraft system. Missiles took off from board and air and sea target shooting sections were denied. In November 1994 the Habicht moved together with the 2nd Schnellbootgeschwader from its previous home port of Olpenitz to Warnemünde in Mecklenburg .
Two more times during the Habicht's service time , the necessary "hand's breadth of water under the keel" was missing, which necessitated unscheduled lay times in the shipyard and inadvertently made the boat unusable for further operations and maneuvers.
In mid-August 1995, a fire in the engine compartment VI necessitated another break in the shipyard . Despite the professional and quick work of the ship safety group and the prudence of the boat management, which resulted in the quick extinguishing of the fire, damage was caused, the serious consequences of which would only come to light much later. A complete rewiring of the boat was necessary, which delayed the shipyard and arsenal lounging time until July 1997.
Since the relocation of the ten boats of the 7th Schnellbootgeschwader, also to Warnemünde , and a 50/50 mix of the two squadrons (2nd and 7th), the Habicht was part of the 7th Schnellbootgeschwader. The Habicht and Kormoran were the last two Albatros class speedboats in service . Both were decommissioned in mid-December 2005 and then sold to Tunisia .