Category Archives: US Navy

The Navys Big Guns

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Since World War 2, the United States Navy has owned the oceans and will likely continue to do so for the near future. Although the Navy has thousands of missiles, modern jet attack aircraft, nuclear powered submarines, and advanced torpedoes, most surface combatants still carry a big gun up front as a hood ornament.

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Ever since 1363, when cannon fired from a ship at sea killed a Danish king on another; naval ships have carried large caliber guns. The United States only became a world power in 1898 after the proper application of the US Navy’s big guns on its battleships and cruisers against Spanish fleets in the Caribbean and Pacific during the Spanish American War. The First World War started after a naval arms race over building large-gunned battleships increased tensions to a point of no return. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor at the start of World War 2, they did so to target Battleship Row, to take America’s big guns out of the fight.

Although the number of battleships at sea has dropped to zero from then to now, the US Navy is one of the few forces in the world that still has cruisers and destroyers. Moreover, all of these ships still carry 5-inch (127mm) Mk 45 naval rifles. Moreover, these guns are far from obsolete.

Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk.com

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Warship Wednesday October 16, The Ship that Wouldnt Die

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday October 16, The Ship that Wouldnt Die

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Here we see the  USS Franklin (CV-13), one of the 24 Essex class fleet carriers that were completed. Laid down a year to the
day after Pearl Harbor, the 800+ foot long ship was built in just over 400-days, commissioned 31 January 1944.

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She rushed out to sea, did her shake down cruise, and was almost immediately in combat. Among her crew was bandleader Horace Kirby “Saxie” Dowell, who had just had one of the largest hits in the country before the War started with “Three Little Fishes”, which was famously covered by the Andrews Sisters. Saxie at 37 was one of the oldest of the 2600 men on the boat.  But like Saxie, most of the rank and file had only a year before been a civilian.

USS_Franklin_(CV-13)-Tarn

By June 1944 she was neck-deep in Japanese disputed waters, sending sorties into Bonin and Mariana Islands, Peleliu, and other islands on the final push towards the Empire. Then came the Philippines in October where Franklin and her escorts fought in the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea in which her planes helped drop ordnance on the Japanese battleships Musashi, Fuso, and Yamashiro. This was followed by the Battle off Cape Engano where her planes helped scratch the Emperor’s carriers Zuiho and Chiyoda.

Then by March 1945, she was the closest US carrier to the Japanese coast, lying just 50 miles offshore. It was then on 19 March that a single Japanese aircraft came in low and slow on Franklin and dropped two 550-pound bombs right on to her deck. There she had 31 fully armed and fueled aircraft ready to take off for strikes against the home islands. The resulting explosions and fires led to an amazing struggle between men and flame. This left the ship dead in the water, charred, and listing at 13-degrees. Suffering 807 killed and more than 487 wounded, half of the ship’s crew had been killed or seriously injured. Cumulatively on the magazine explosion on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor caused more loss of life in US Navy history.

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Well within a day she had made enough repairs to make it off to Ulithi Atoll at 14-knots. Within six weeks she had steamed across the Pacific, through the Canal, and into Brooklyn Naval Yard. Her war over, she spent months being restored to near-new condition. Unneeded after the war, she was decommissioned 17 February 1947, having spent just over three years in service. Her condition kept her in mothballs for almost two decades but unlike her sisters, she was never converted to the post war Essex-type pattern with an angled flight deck.

On 1 August 1966 she was sold for scrap.

A monument to the ship is at Bremerton Washington.

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Specs:

Displacement:     As built:
27,100 tons standard
36,380 tons full load
Length:     As built:
820 feet (250 m) waterline
872 feet (266 m) overall
Beam:     As built:
93 feet (28 m) waterline
147 feet 6 inches (45 m) overall
Draft:     As built:
28 feet 5 inches (8.66 m) light
34 feet 2 inches (10.41 m) full load

Propulsion:     As designed:
8 × boilers 565 psi (3,900 kPa) 850 °F (450 °C)
4 × Westinghouse geared steam turbines
4 × shafts
150,000 shp (110 MW)
Speed:     33 knots (61 km/h)
Range:     20,000 nautical miles (37,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)

Complement:     As built:
2,600 officers and enlisted

Armament:     As built:
4 × twin 5 inch (127 mm) 38 caliber guns
4 × single 5 inch (127 mm) 38 caliber guns
8 × quadruple 40 mm 56 caliber guns
46 × single 20 mm 78 caliber guns

Armor:     As built:
2.5 to 4 inch (60 to 100 mm) belt
1.5 inch (40 mm) hangar and protective decks
4 inch (100 mm) bulkheads
1.5 inch (40 mm) STS top and sides of pilot house
2.5 inch (60 mm) top of steering gear

Aircraft carried:     As built:
90–100 aircraft
1 × deck-edge elevator
2 × centerline elevators

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO)

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval lore http://www.warship.org/naval.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval

vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide

information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of

which are unique in their sweep and subject.

I’m a member, so should you be!

SEAL Droppings Claimed in Somalia

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After a recent series of raids along the coastline of the Horn of Africa, local jihadist rebels have been spouting about lost equipment supposedly captured from Navy Seals. We give our take on this.

Along the Eastern coast of Africa, where the ‘horn’ of the continent reaches out towards the Indian Ocean, lays the confusing country that is Somalia. Divided and mired in a civil war that has been raging off and on over the past quarter century, American involvement has been off and on in the area. Blackhawk Down was twenty years ago this week, pirates are often blown out of the water there with the help of the US Navy, and a combined task force, Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa is based at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti– just a stone’s throw away.

Its CJTF-HOA’s mission to combat terrorists in the area. Namely against Al-Shabaab, a fundamentalist group with Al-Qaeda ties. That’s where the raid comes in.

In of Barawe, a coastal town in Somalia on October 5, 2013, a group of commandos crept in during the dark of night. These frogmen were looking for one Somali ideas man who worked for al-Shabab. After making contact with the shibabist terrorist foot soldiers, the small group of allied troops broke contact and withdrew….and apparently left some stuff behind.

Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk.com

bAgXk

Warship Wednesday October 9, The Broken America

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday October 9, The Broken America

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Here we see the luxury liner SS America. At the time she was one of the fastest and most elegant ships at sea. Her life would take a tragic and sad end.

Built in the end of the preWWII luxury liner era that saw such ships as the Hamburg, Normandie, and Queen Mary take to the seas, the SS America was not the biggest ship in the sea, but at 35,000-tons, was still the size of a battleship. With a capacity of 1200 passengers, she was intended to take up the North Atlantic trade from New York to England/France at speeds of over 22-knots. Laid down in August 22, 1938 by the Maritime Administration, she was paid for in part by the government but ran by the United States Lines company from New York.

When she was completed and sailed on her maiden voyage on August 22, 1940, World War Two had been going on for a year in Europe. To keep her safe from German U-boats or surface raiders, (the US was neutral at the time), she sailed with every light on, giant American flags painted on her sides (where a U-boat captain would target through his attack periscope) and behaved as noisy as possible. Even with this said, USN inspectors poured over her plans and made notes, even helping to degauss the ship in early 1941 against magnetic mines. The FBI also quietly removed two German spies from her crew.

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Then, just six months before Pearl Harbor, the Maritime Administration called in their marker and pressed the ship into service with the navy. Renamed the troop ship USS West Point, she was given pennant number AP-23. Armed with  four single 5″/38 cal dual purpose gun mounts , four single 3″/50 cal dual purpose gun mounts, four twin 40mm AA gun mounts, and eight .50 cal machine guns, she was made capable of carrying as many as 7600 Army troops as well as some 400-tons of their cargo. Although on some missions she carried as many as 8500.

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Capable of moving an entire brigade at once, with a few extra battalions attached, she was one of the most capable ships in the Naval Transportation Service. During the war she moved over 450,000 US, Canadian, Australian, British and other allied troops to North Africa, Italy, the Pacific and back and forth across the Atlantic. In a single year, between June 27, 1944, and June 24, 1945, the West Pont crossed the Atlantic 27 times and carried more than 140,000 passengers. Used on occasion as a hospital transport, she carried another 16,000 wounded soldiers back home to urgent medical care.  Another class of passenger, 14,000 Axis prisoners of war, were also carried off into life in POW camps. Thus she served as a prison ship, transport, and hospital craft.

On March 12, 1946, the MARAD, having gotten their moneys worth from the ship, disarmed her and gave her back to the United States line. In all, West Point had accomplished 145 missions, made 15 Pacific crossings and 41 on the Atlantic, steamed 456,144 nautical miles and carried 505,020 passengers of all kinds while in US service.

The ship resumed a weird and varied life over the next 48 years.

The Name Game!

Ok guys and girls, lets play the name game with this ship. Follow along at home.

She was built as the SS America for the United States Lines in 1940.
In 1941, the MARAD acquired her and sailed her for five years as the USS West Point.
Then the United States Lines picked her back up and used her old name until 1964 when…
The Chandris Grooup bought her and renamed the aging ship the SS Australis, and changed her to Greek registry.

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Then Venture Cruises started up and for a year (1978) ran her as the SS America for the third time before…
Chandris required her and renamed her SS Italis…
Intercommerce bought her and called her the SS Noga to be converted to a floating prison ship in Lebanon before…
Silver Moon picked her up and referred to her as the Alferdoss in 1984…
Then finally the Chaophraya Transport Co acquired the fifty year old ship and caller her the SS America Star in 1994.

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So if you were keeping track, that’s at least 9 different name changes including going back and forth to the SS America three times. Eh, it happens.

Well, after four decades of abuse and varying levels of maintenance from one cruise liner company to the next, the old SS America was, by the 1980s, basically derelict. In 1993 her last owner decided to tow her from Greece, where she had sat for decades to Thailand to be converted to a floating hotel at Phuket Beach. In the course of a 100-day tow by the  Ukrainian tugboat Neftegaz-67, she broke her lines and ran aground off the west coast of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands.

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There she has stayed for the past 19 years, slowly being washed out to sea.

In another decade, all that will be left is the memory.

Specifications (as USS West Point) :
Displacement 26,455 t.(lt) 35,400 t.(fl)
Length 723′
Beam 93′ 3″
Draft 32′ 9″
Speed 24 kts.
Complement
Officers 57
Enlisted 912
Troop Accommodations
Officers 587
Enlisted 7,091
Largest Boom Capacity 20 t.
Cargo Capacity 400 DWT
non-refrigerated 110,243 Cu ft
Armament
four single 5″/38 cal dual purpose gun mounts
four single 3″/50 cal dual purpose gun mounts
four twin 40mm AA gun mounts
eight .50 cal machine guns
(later augmented by as many as 10 20mm Oeirkilons)
Fuel Capacities
NSFO 32,100 Bbls
Diesel 525 Bbls
Propulsion
two Newport News Shipbuilding turbines
six Babcock and Wilcox “A”-type boilers, 430psi 725°
double De Laval Main Reduction Gears
four turbo-drive 600Kw 100/240 D.C. Ship’s Service Generators
twin propellers, 34,000shp

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO)

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval lore http://www.warship.org/naval.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Passing Heroes

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redstorm

As a 12-year-old kid, I spent every waking hour for a good part of 1986 reading, re-reading, and underlining Red Storm Rising. It was a book that covered the all-out conventional warfare of a Soviet strike on NATO at the height of the Cold War. I followed the USAF met officer running around Iceland hiding from Red Airborne troops. I felt the pain of the young commander who lost his Knox class frigate and went back out in a Perry. The triumph of a plucky Norwegian SSK skipper sinking a giant Red Banner Fleet battle cruiser. I could go on, but I wouldn’t want to ruin the book.

The author of that book went on to write Patriot Games, The Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger, Without Remorse (my personal favorite), and The Sum of All Fears among others.

Thomas Leo “Tom” Clancy, Jr.  died Wednesday at age 66.

I would like to think he is just doing research for his next book.

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Warship Wednesday October 3 The Phoenix of Pearl Harbor

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday October 3 The Phoenix of Pearl Harbor

uss west virgina

Here we see the Colorado-class battleship USS West Virgina (BB-48) as she appeared at the end of her WWII refit. You wouldn’t know it at the time but she was over 20 years old and had already seen severe combat, even being sunk in the first hour of the war.

Commissioned on 1 December 1923, with Navy Cross-winner Captain (later Admiral) Thomas J. Senn in command, West Virgina was the last US battleship built for nearly two decades. The end of World War One and the resulting Washington and London Naval Treaties stopped further battleship construction. In fact, one of her sister ships, the USS Washington BB-47, was canceled while some 75% complete and sunk as a naval target.

Her appearance in the 1920s and 1930s was far more 'old-school'

Her appearance in the 1920s and 1930s was far more ‘old-school’

West Virgina was arguably the most powerful class of battleship afloat in the world at the time. Displacing nearly 35,000-tons at a full load, their clipper bow set them apart from earlier US battlewagons and made them far drier, especially in rough weather. Turbo-electric transmission pushed four screws and could make 21-knots. Keeping enough oil in her bunkers for a 8000-mile round trip at half that, she was capable of crossing the Atlantic without an oiler to keep close to her.  Upto 13.5-inches of armor (18 on turret faces) shielded her while 8 powerful 16-inch guns gave her tremendous ‘throw’.

The closest rival in any fleet around the world to her in 1923 was the British HMS Hood. Hood was bigger and faster (47,000-tons, 31-knots) but had thin armor and 8-15-inch guns. The Japanese Nagato-class were also slightly larger (38,000-tons), slightly faster (25-knots), and 8x 16-inch guns, but like the Hood had less armor.

As a hold back of pre-WWI thinking, she was the last US battleship commissioned with torpedo tubes and a four-turret main battery.

The West Virgina is seen forward, settled and burning after 7 torpedo hits. Half-sister USS Tennessee is just behind her

The West Virgina is seen forward, settled and burning after 7 torpedo hits. Half-sister USS Tennessee is just behind her

A happy ship, she spent the first 18 years of her life in the peacetime navy, participating in naval gunnery exercises, showing the flag, and taking part in war games. On December 7, 1941, just a week after her birthday, she was sitting peacefully at the quay on Battleship Row. Japanese torpedo bombers sent *seven* fish into her sides while at least two Type 99 bombs hit her decks (one of which failed to explode).  Catastrophic damage, flooding, and oil fires resulted and the battleship sank in 40-feet of water, settling on her hull with her decks awash. No ship can withstand 7 torpedo hits. Incredibly, only a hundred of her crew (about 10%) were lost in the battle.

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After spending six months on the bottom of Pearl, she was one of the first ships salvaged. Patched up and pumped out, she refloated and spent the next year at Pearl under repair. Following this, she was able to steam to Puget Naval Yard for modernization. There she spent 15-months being converted from 1923 to 1943. Her old 5-inch/51s and 3-inch guns were removed as were her dated observation towers. She was given a new camouflage scheme, a wider hull (with more torpedo protection), a new radar package, and a huge new AAA suite that included 16 new rapid fire 5-inch guns and nearly 100 40mm Bofors and Oerlikon 20mm cannons. Likewise, the entire interior of the ship was upgraded from keel to bridge.

Compare this picture of the USS Alabama, a brand new SoDak class battleship in 1943 compared to the refurbished Wee Vee at the top of this post...

Compare this picture of the USS Alabama, a brand new SoDak class battleship in 1943 compared to the refurbished Wee Vee at the top of this post…

In the end she looked more like a new 1943-era South Dakota class battleship than a 1920s Colorado.

She took her new act on the road and steamed West for some payback. As the flagship of Battleship Division Four (BatDiv4), she led five other WWI-era battleships into the epic Battle of Leyte Gulf. These ships included the USS Maryland (BB-46), USS Mississippi (BB-41), USS Tennessee (BB-43), USS California (BB-44), and USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)— three of which had been at Pearl Harbor with the Wee Vee.

Wee Vee in 1944, post-refit

Wee Vee in 1944, post-refit

In combat with the Japanese battlewagons Fuso and Yamashiro, the Wee Vee sent more than 16 salvos into the Japanese line in a night action, being credited with numerous hits on Yamashiro, leading to that ship’s sinking.

USS West Virgina off Okinawa April 1, 1945. That’s one heck of an April Fools day payback to the Japanese, who had already marked the WV off their “to sink” list once before

She finished the war with bombarding Iwo and Okinawa, coming to within 600-yards of the beach (which is close for a ship that needed 31-feet of water under her keel to float). She caught a kamikaze for her trouble.

Decommissioned on 9 January 1947, the Navy kept the newly rebuilt old battlewagon on red lead row for 12 years before striking her in 1959.  With several newer ships around for donation to museums such as the Massachusetts and Alabama, no one seemed to want the Wee Vee and she was sold for her value in scrap metal per pound after 36-years of service.

Her bowflag is preserved in Clarksburg, WV, and her mooring quay is retired on Battleship Row, in mute testimony to that quiet Sunday morning in 1941.

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Still waiting for her to come home.....

Still waiting for her to come home…..

Specs:

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Displacement:     33,590 tons
Length:     624 ft (190 m)
Beam:

97.3 ft (29.7 m) (original)
114 ft (35 m) (rebuilt)

Draft:     30.5 ft (9.3 m)
Speed:     21 kn (24 mph; 39 km/h)
Complement:     1,407 officers and men
Sensors and
processing systems:     CXAM-1 RADAR from 1940[3]
Armament:

8 × 16 in (410 mm)/45 cal guns
12 × 5 in (130 mm)/51 cal guns
4 × 3 in (76 mm)s
2 × 21 in (530 mm) torpedo tubes

After Reconstruction:

8 × 16 in (410 mm)/45 cal guns
16 × 5 in (130 mm)/38 cal guns
40 × Bofors 40 mm guns
50 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannons

Armor:

Belt: 8–13.5 in (203–343 mm)
Barbettes: 13 in (330 mm)
Turret face: 18 in (457 mm)
Turret sides: 9–10 in (229–254 mm)
Turret top: 5 in (127 mm)
Turret rear 9 in (229 mm)
Conning tower: 11.5 in (292 mm)
Decks: 3.5 in (89 mm)

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO)

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval lore http://www.warship.org/naval.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

I’m a member, so should you be!

County Wants To Sell Its Tommy Gun

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Rural Rowan County in the center of North Carolina has had in its possession for decades one former US government owned Thompson submachine gun. Now they want to pass it on for the right price.

An article in the Salisbury Post , the local newspaper for the area, mentions that the Thompson has been sitting quietly in the Sheriff’s department armory since 1966. It is a Model 1928 with US Navy markings that meant it could have been used in World War 2. After the war, many of these guns were transferred later to local state law enforcement agencies who in turn farmed them out to county sheriffs and municipal police forces. No one for sure knows the story of how it was acquired. The article mentions that:

“Officers like Capt. Jerry Davis, a 31-year officer at the department, said the weapon was one of many handed out to rural law enforcement agencies across the Southeast in the 1960s and ’70s as civil rights demonstrations brewed.

“Back then, they had, ya know, a lot of civil unrest,” Davis said. “Most of your sheriff’s offices didn’t have a lot of funding, so the federal government released, like, riot gear, equipment and firearms to local agencies.”

Rowan County SO issued the gun as late as 2000 to its special response team for use in entry team scenarios, but since then has had it under lock and key as it is too valuable to leave the armory.

So if you are an agency that has a collectable early model civilian Tommy gun that still works but is too precious to use? You sell it to buy guns you can right?

Well….about that…

Read the rest in my article at Firearms Talk.com

Thompson1928a

Out Harpooning the Harpoon

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Since the late 1970s, the US Navy has relied on the Harpoon missile in its submarine, aircraft, and ship-launched versions to poke holes in the bad guys ships.

Oddly enough, it hasn’t really had to be used in the past forty years. The only time the US Navy sank a foreign ship and a ship-vs-ship engagement that was over the horizon in that period, it did so in the Persian Gulf with a Standard missile, which is technically a SAM.  Notably, in that engagement, the Harpoons that were fired did not find their targets…

But anyway.

DARPA is experimenting with the Harpoons replacement:

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(DARPA and the Office of Naval Research are collaborating on the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) program, which successfully launched its first prototype on Aug. 27. DARPA designed the free-flight transition test (FFTT) demonstration to verify the prototype’s flight characteristics and assess subsystem and sensor performance. Designed to launch from both ships and planes such as the B-1 bomber, the test vehicle detected, engaged and hit an unmanned 260-foot Mobile Ship Target (MST) with an inert warhead. A black circle indicates where the missile hit and punched straight through the target.)

The Third Kidd in Blue Water

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USS Kidd (DDG 100) blue water

The USS Kidd underway in blue water in the Pacific.

USS Kidd (DDG-100) is an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer in the United States Navy. She is the third Navy ship named after Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, who was on board Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and was the first American flag officer to die in World War II. The ship is part of Destroyer Squadron Twenty-one (DESRON-21) of Carrier Strike Group Three which is currently headed by the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) and based at San Diego. Commissioned:  9 June 2007, she is a “Flight IIA” Burke, with a twin helicopter hangar and the long-barreled  5/62 inch gun.

As such she is the same size as a WWII Heavy cruiser but carries many times the punch and about 1/4 of the crew.

Specs
Displacement:     9,200 tons
Length:     509 ft 6 in (155.30 m)
Beam:       66 ft (20 m)
Draft:       31 ft (9.4 m)
Propulsion:     4 × General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 100,000 shp (75 MW)
Speed:     30+ knots (55+ km/h)
Complement:     380 officers and enlisted
Armament:     1 × 32 cell, 1 × 64 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems, 96 × RIM-66 SM-2, BGM-109 Tomahawk or RUM-139 VL-Asroc, missiles
1 × 5/62 in (127/62 mm), 2 × 25 mm, 4 × 12.7 mm guns
2 × Mk 46 triple torpedo tubes
1 x 20mm Phalanx CIWS
Aircraft carried:     2 × MH-60 Seahawk helicopters

Kuwaiti Navy in Mississippi

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Saw this while poking around Gulfport harbor.

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Its a Kuwaiti Navy patrol boat, minus its armament.

Why is a Kuwaiti patrol boat chilling in Mississippi? They are homeported in the Persian Gulf, not the Redneck Rivera.

United States Marine in Gulfport, MS received a $61.6 million firm-fixed-price contract for detail design and construction of 10 patrol boats for the Kuwaiti Navy under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Program a few years ago. The vessels are designed for coastal patrol and interdiction, and other special operations at sea.

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if the boat looks familiar, it could be because USMI manufactures both 82-foot Mark V.1 Special Operations craft and a Mark V Patrol Boat. external link The Mark V Special Operations operations craft has a maximum speed of 47 knots and provides accommodations for 5 crew and 16 passengers. The Mark V Patrol Boat has a maximum speed of 45 knots, provides accommodations for 12 (10 crew and 2 officers), and has berthing accommodations, a galley, and mess.

Built for the Kuwait Ministry of Defense and Kuwait Naval Forces, the primary mission of the Kuwaiti MKV is to conduct coastal patrol, surveillance and interdiction missions. Each 28 meter craft will carry two .50 Caliber machine guns and one MLG 27 weapon system (Rheinmetall Waffe Munition GmbH 27mm gun). These high-speed, agile boats will reach speeds of greater than 45 knots, provide berthing for a crew of up to 12 sailors, and will be able to operate two days independently at sea.

You have to admit, it looks fast and has that new patrol boat smell…

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