The last couple of weeks saw three different medium endurance cutters return to their East/Gulf Coast homeports after extensive tours in support of Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATF-South), which included clocking in with Homeland Security Task Force-Southeast (HSTF-SE) and Operation Vigilant Sentry.
While OVS, which targets Caribbean maritime mass migration, was first approved in 2004 and is not country-specific, it has gone into overdrive with the recent lawlessness in Haiti following the collapse of that country’s military and police, resulting in a paltry 400 Kenyan police being dropped in by the UN to fight the gangs.
To show just how busy the USCG is in trying to stem the tide of Haitians trying to make it anywhere but Haiti, take these snippets into consideration.
USCGC Mohawk (WMEC 913) completed a 62-day migrant interdiction operations patrol in the Florida Straits on 11 October, interdicted and rescued 41 migrants from unseaworthy vessels, and ultimately repatriated 53, having taken custody of 12 from smaller cutters.
She worked alongside U.S. Customs and Border Protection – Air and Marine Operations air and boat crews along with the Puerto Rico-based 158-foot Sentinel class Cutters Charles Sexton (WPC 1108), Raymond Evans (WPC 1110), Isaac Mayo (WPC 1112), and the buoy tender Maple (WLB 297).
A Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk (WMEC 913) small boat crew rescues 25 migrants from a disabled vessel, on Aug. 20, 2024, while underway in the Florida Straits. Mohawk’s crew conducted a 57-day deployment to carry out maritime safety and security missions in the Seventh Coast Guard District’s area of responsibility. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Ensign Brian Morel)
USCGC Resolute (WMEC-620)worked with the crews of Coast Guard Cutters William Trump and Reliance to interdict an overloaded and unseaworthy vessel with 181 migrants off the coast of Haiti. “Resolute’s crew worked throughout the night to safely transport Haitian migrants to Coast Guard Cutter Reliance, allowing the crew to provide timely shelter and care to dozens of men, women, and children.” This was in addition to bagging 9,690 pounds of cocaine and 5,490 pounds of marijuana on intercepted go-fasts and sailing vessels and transferred from the Dutch OPV Holland which had a team from U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment 102 embarked.
Not a bad 38-day haul for this elderly 210-foot cutter.
Resolute’s crew sported some interesting threads for the cruise, highlighting their counter-drug ops.
The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Resolute unloaded interdicted narcotics onto Sector St. Petersburg South Moorings, Florida, on Oct. 23, 2024. Armed Coast Guardsmen stood watch over the interdicted drugs to ensure security and accountability of the seized contraband. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Riley Perkofski)
USCGC Bear (WMEC 901)wrapped up a 58-day homeland security and counter-drug patrol in the Windward Passage on 7 October. “While on patrol, Bear crew members successfully deterred over 200 migrants aboard an overloaded vessel from reaching the United States unlawfully by sea, safely ensuring their return to Haiti.
Bear’s crew also intercepted 107 migrants in a joint operation with Coast Guard Cutter Kathleen Moore (WPC 1109). And during two separate events, Bear’s crew repatriated 169 migrants to Haiti.”
A Coast Guard Cutter Bear (WMEC 901) small boat crew interdicts an overloaded vessel unlawfully bound for the United States by sea with over 100 migrants on board, Sept. 15, 2024, while underway north of Haiti. Operation Vigilant Sentry’s mission is to deter unlawful migration while also making sure that dangerously overloaded vessels are stopped to prevent loss of life at sea. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Jeremy Wilbanks)
France Oct 1944. Official wartime caption: “Flettner helicopter with counter-rotating, intermeshing blades, once landed on the deck of a submarine which was moving at 18 knots.”
Published 5 Sept. 1945 issue of “Air Force” magazine. U.S. Air Force Number B58561AC. NARA 342-FH-3A16591-B58561AC
The Flettner Fl 282 Kolibri (Hummingbird) was an unrealized program of the Kriegsmarine that showed lots of potential.
As detailed by the Smithsonian, which has a collection of wartime engineers’ drawings for the Kolibri on hand:
In 1940, the German Navy made a request for a naval helicopter, and the FL 282 deliveries began in 1942; by the next year, 20 prototypes were in service. The prototypes were built in different variants, one or two-seater, closed or open cockpit, and other modifications. Based on the prototypes’ success, plans to manufacture 1,000 helicopters were approved; however, because the Kolibri was a Navy aircraft, they had little claim on production facilities, and the plans to manufacture them were finally aborted due to the Allied bombing of the Flettner factories. Only three Kolibri survived the war; the rest were destroyed to prevent capture
How about this striking night shot of a recent transfer of fuel (RAS) from the Norwegian tanker and SNMG1 flagship HMoMS Maud (A530) to the British Type 23 frigate HMS Portland (F79) from the group of ships around the British carrier HMS Prince of Wales.
Photo: Danish Forsvaret
Of note, from July 2024 through January 2025, the Danish Navy has the leadership of Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1)– with a Tactical Staff provided by the Swedish Navy.
Besides HMoMS Maud, shown above, the force includes the Danish frigates Absalon (F341) and Niels Juel (F363), the German Braunschweig (Type K130) class corvette FGS Magdeburg (F261), Dutch Karl Doorman-class frigate HNLMS Van Amstel (F831), the Portuguese Doorman NRP D. Francisco de Almeida (F334), and the Belgian Doorman BNS Louise-Marie (F931).
The Swedish corvette HSwMS Helsingborg, French frigate FS La Fayette, and old Tico USS Normandy also tapped in briefly, making for some great shots.
Three sisters under different flags: Francisco de Almeida (F334), HNLMS Van Amstel (F831), and BNS Louise-Marie (F931)
Three sisters under different flags: Francisco de Almeida (F334), HNLMS Van Amstel (F831), and BNS Louise-Marie (F931)
Three sisters under different flags: Francisco de Almeida (F334), HNLMS Van Amstel (F831), and BNS Louise-Marie (F931)
Three sisters under different flags: Francisco de Almeida (F334), HNLMS Van Amstel (F831), and BNS Louise-Marie (F931)
HMoMS Maud from HMS PoW
HMoMS Maud and Portuguese Doorman NRP D. Francisco de Almeida (F334)
French frigate FS La Fayette, and USS Normandy
The Danish-led naval force SNMG1 has in the past week carried out operations and exercises in the North Sea, the English Channel, and the Irish Sea. The Navy has been cooperating with the British aircraft carrier group centered around the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales. The force has also been deployed to monitor Russian naval activity in the area.
40 years ago this month, we see the beautiful clean lines of the Leahy class guided missile cruiser USS Reeves (CG-24) underway on 15 October 1984, likely somewhere in the Western Pacific as she was forward deployed to Yokosuka from 1980 to 1989.
USN Photo 330-CFD-DN-ST-85-05479 via NARA 6396505
Named for Admiral Joseph Mason “Bull” Reeves, known as the “Father of Carrier Aviation,” the above was laid down as a destroyer leader (DLG-24) in July 1960 at Puget Sound NSY, sponsored at her launch two years later by the late Admiral’s daughter-in-law, and commissioned 15 May 1964.
Designed for AAW– with her pair of twin Mk 10 SAM launchers and magazine for up to 88 Terrier ER missiles, she was soon fulfilling the role of an AAW picket and floating CSAR asset on Yankee Station off Vietnam for a rotating series of flattops, spending much of her time over the next four years underway in the Gulf of Tonkin, earning three battle stars for her service in South East Asia.
After an overhaul and re-rating along with the rest of her class as an 8,200-ton “cruiser” continued to be a staple in the West Pac for the remainder of her career– except for two deployments ( 24-Jul-1987 to 26-Sep-1987 and 15-Sep-1989 to 24-Oct-1989) to the Persian Gulf to take part in Operation Earnest Will tanker reflagging escorts.
She is seen above in her roughly final configuration, including not only her Terriers but also a Mk 16 ASROC matchbox launcher between the forward Terrier and the bridge; a pair of Mk 15 Vulcan Phalanx CIWS; eight Harpoon cans, and two triple Mk 32 12.75-inch triple tube launchers.
Part of the “Great Cruiser Slaughter” by the Clinton Administration following the end of the Cold War, Reeves was decommissioned on 12 November 1993, stricken the same day, and sunk as a target in 2,541 Fathoms on 31 May 2001
Founded by two friends in 2017, Montana’s Shield Arms has a simple philosophy of bringing new and innovative products to the firearms industry – while ingraining perseverance and community in all they do.
Established by Brandon Zeider and Seth Berglee in the Bigfork area, Shield is probably best known for its series of S15 pistol magazines for the Glock 43X/48, which boosts the pistol’s capacity from 10 rounds to 15.
USS Mississippi (BB-41) bombarding Luzon, during the Lingayen operation, on 8 January 1945. She is followed by USS West Virginia (BB-48) and HMAS Shropshire. Photographed from USS New Mexico (BB-40). Mississippi is painted in camouflage Measure 32, Design 6D. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-301229
While surface ships have continued to fight it out in isolated instances since WWII– such as HMS Zealous (R39)/INS Eilat vs Egyptian Komar in 1967; HMS Cadiz (D79)/PNS Khaibar vs INS Nirghat in 1971, and USS Joseph Strauss vs IRIS Sahand in 1988– they have invariably been one-sided over-the-horizon missile engagements between very light ships. Well, light compared to a battlewagon anyway.
The golden age of battleships duking it out with big guns, while something that could have possibly occurred well into the late 1950s, ended 80 years ago today for all practical purposes.
As noted in 1958 by RADM Samuel E. Morison, USNR (Ret.), at the end of the age of the battleship, specifically between the New Mexico class of dreadnought USS Mississippi (BB-41), and the Japanese Fusō-class dreadnought Yamashiro, with the latter serving as the doomed flagship of Vice-Admiral Shōji Nishimura’s Southern Force at the Battle of Surigao Strait:
“When Mississippi discharged her twelve 14-inch guns at Yamashiro at a range of 19,790 yards, at 0408 October 25, 1944, she was not only giving that battleship the coup de grâce, but firing a funeral salute to a finished era of naval warfare.
One can imagine the ghosts of all great admirals from Raleigh to Jellicoe standing at attention as [the] Battle Line went into oblivion, along with the Greek phalanx, the Spanish wall of pikemen, the English longbow and the row-galley tactics of Salamis and Lepanto.”
Near La Neuveville, France. 25 October, 1944. Official wartime caption: “Infantrymen relieved from combat for rest, await removal to a rest camp.” 314th Infantry Regiment, 79th Infantry Division. Left to right: Pfc. Arthur H. Muth, Allentown, Pa.; Sgt. Carmine H. Sileo, Brooklyn, N.Y., and Sgt. Kelly C. Lasalle, Jeanette, Pa.
Signal Corps Archive. SC 195623-S
Note the mix of M1 Carbine (Muth) and M1 Garands (Sileo and Lasalle) along with camo-netted M1 helmets and E-tools. Also note the NCO (Lasalle) has binos and a map case, as befitting his role.
The men are likely of 1st Bn, 314th, who are noted to have bedded down in after the regiment captured three 88mm guns, three 75mms, five 20mms, four half-tracks, four sedans, a 10.5 cm leFH 18 (Sf.) auf Geschützwagen 39H(f), a C&R, car, and a 1/2 ton truck earlier than day– a fair sampling of the enemy’s ordnance.
As part of Patton’s 3rd Army, the 314th Inf Rgt was the first across the Seine River and helped liberate France, having landed in Normandy at Utah Beach on D+8 with its parent 79th “Cross of Lorraine” Inf Div and helped push the Kriegsmarine out of Cherbourg. Then came the Battle of the Bulge and the push into the Rhineland where they occupied Dortmund on 13 April 1945 before pushing into Czechoslovakia.
You are now entering Germany, courtesy of the 79th Inf. Div
In all, they spent 329 days on the Continent during the war, with 262 of those in combat. They suffered 5,057 casualties in that period (862 killed, 4139 WIA, 59 missing), against an authorized strength of 3,118 officers and men– a casualty rate of 162 percent. In exchange, they accounted for 11,822 enemy POWs and earned two MoHs, 3 DSCs, 282 Silver Stars, and 757 Bronze Stars, among other decorations.
A vintage deck gun system that was once a staple of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard has quietly fired its final shots.
Designed by the famed munitions firm of OTO Melara of La Spezia, Italy, and marketed from 1963 onward as the 76/62C Compact, the remote-controlled 76mm (3-inch) gun with its characteristic bubble dome was an immediate hit with NATO and Western fleets, eventually seeing service with 60 nations.
West German Type 148 missile boats show their 76mm OTO guns during a visit to the UK, in 1977
The reason it was so popular was that using aluminum alloys, a water-cooled gun barrel, and an automatic loader with an 80-round magazine, it delivered much better performance than any manned 3-inch gun mount in service at the time while weighing much less. Guided by the ship’s onboard radar and fire control system, it could engage air targets as high as 13,000 feet and surface targets out to 20,000 yards.
The 76/62 designation comes from the bore (76mm) and barrel length (62 caliber), the latter figure denoting a 4,724mm long barrel, which translates to 15.5 feet.
The 76/62C Compact, seen in its components from a 1980 U.S. Navy training publication:
Note the gun control panel which was mounted in the ammunition handling room below deck under the mount. The mount captain fired the gun from the panel while two ammunition loaders stood by to reload the magazine.
A look under the hood so to speak, showing off the details of the gun itself and its magazine.
The mag used two concentric rings of shells, each holding 35 rounds, with a hydraulic motor rotating the screw feeder– which held another six rounds not unlike that of a common “six-shooter” revolver. Together with the four rounds held in the loader drum, the gun held 80 shells, which could be expended in just under one minute.
A view of the magazine rings of the MK-75 gun aboard USCGC Mohawk (WMEC 913) while underway in the Atlantic Ocean, Sept. 1, 2022. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jessica Fontenette)
The types of “war shot” rounds in U.S. service included High Explosive Point Detonating (HE-PD), High Explosive Infrared (HE-IR), Variable Time Non-fragmenting (VT-NF), High Explosive Variable Time (HE-VT), and High Explosive Radio Frequency proximity (HE-RF).
Exercise and training shells included the Blind-Loaded and Plugged (BL&P) round with a live round that had an inert projectile while wholly inert rammable and non-rammable dummy and gauging rounds were also available.
Crew load 76mm rounds into the magazine of the MK-75 gun aboard USCGC Mohawk (WMEC 913) while underway in the Atlantic Ocean, Sept. 1, 2022. HE-PD rounds can be seen in the outer ring and blue-colored BLP target rounds are peeking out of the inner ring. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jessica Fontenette)
The gun control panel below-deck under the mount, complete with its view of the magazine rings. Seen on the USCGC Midgett (WHEC 721) in June 1999. USCG photo by PA2 Alice Sennott
Shells were brought on and off the packed in grey shipping containers, loaded old-school via chain gangs.
Sailors aboard the Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG 60) move 76mm rounds during an ammunition onload. Rodney M. Davis, based out of Everett, Wash., is on patrol in the 7th Fleet area of responsibility supporting security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Derek A. Harkins/Released)
For a great look at the inner guts of the 76/62C Compact, check out this short video from the German Navy, which has used the gun since 1965. Don’t worry if your German is rusty, the video speaks for itself.
With the U.S. Navy opting to mount a smaller 3-inch gun on its planned Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates in the 1970s– a big change from the manned 5-inch guns mounted on the Knox-class frigates that preceded them– the Pentagon went with the Italian “robot gun” design.
A destroyer escort, USS Talbot (DEG-4), in late 1974 had an Italian-produced 76/62C Compact installed on her bow forward of the superstructure in place of the ship’s original 5-inch manned mount which used a design that dated to World War II.
USS Talbot seen circa 1974-75 with an OTO Melara 76/62C Compact installed. (Photos: U.S. Navy History and Heritage Command)
The Naval Systems Division of the FMC Corporation in 1975 won the U.S. contract to build the 76/62C Compact in Pennsylvania under license from OTO Melara and delivered the first American-built model in August 1978. The Navy, which designated the gun the MK 75, went on to install them in 51 Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates built between 1975 and 1989, along with six Pegasus-class hydrofoil fast attack craft and on the Coast Guard’s 13 new Bear-class cutters that were constructed in the same era.
Likewise, when the Coast Guard’s 12 Vietnam-era Hamilton-class cutters were modernized starting in 1987, they received the MK 75 to replace their outdated 5-inch mounts. The guns were also installed on a series of warships built in the U.S. for overseas customers (Israel, Egypt, Australia, et.al).
The frigates carried the MK 75 atop their superstructure as the bow, the traditional location, was occupied by a missile launcher and its below-deck magazine.
October 2002. USS Sides (FFG 14) fires her 76mm dual-purpose gun at ex-USS Towers (DDG 9) during a SINKEX near San Diego. (Photo: U.S. Navy)
May 2011. The Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate USS Thach (FFG 43) fires its MK-75 76mm mounted gun while underway off the coast of Brazil. (Photo: U.S. Navy)
August 2014. The Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG 60) conducts a live-fire exercise of its MK 75 76mm/62 caliber gun. (Photo: U.S. Navy)
One of the frigates, USS Simpson (FFG-56), part of Surface Action Group Charlie, had the first combat use of the MK 75 in U.S. service when, in April 1988, used the gun to destroy Iranian naval and intelligence facilities on the Sirri oil platform during Operation Praying Mantis.
Another frigate, USS Nicholas (FFG-47)used her MK 75 during Desert Storm in January 1991 to clear Iraqi troops placed on nine oil platforms in the northern Persian Gulf off of occupied Kuwait. As reported at the time, the frigate “fired three shots at each platform to set the range, followed by about 20 rounds of high-explosive shells, ‘for effect.’ The effect was to demolish quickly all the remaining bunkers.”
The speedy hydrofoils, meanwhile, wore their MK 75 as a hood ornament.
As did the Coast Guard cutters.
Coast Guard Cutter Harriet Lane firing a commemorative shot on 30 May 2019 to honor the 158th anniversary of its namesake’s action near Fort Sumter, South Carolina. (Photo: USCG)
The water-cooled barrel, using salt water during the firing process and a freshwater flush from the ship’s onboard supply after the firing ceased, led to often extreme muzzle shots with the intersection of steam and propellant.
The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Northland conducts a live firing of the MK 75 76mm weapons system while underway, on September 20, 2020, in the Atlantic Ocean. (Photo: USCG)
March 2000. The Coast Guard Cutter Tampa’s 76mm gun blasts a projectile at a moving target during live-fire exercises. Participants took turns firing at “robo-ski,” a small, remote-controlled jet ski. Tampa gunners hit the target every time. USCG Photo by ET3 Shane Taylor.
The gun uses a saltwater cooling system and a freshwater cleaning run after firing concludes, seen here on USCGC Escanaba in 2028.
All things come to an end
However, there has been a slow-motion end to this story that started with the retirement of the hydrofoils in 1993, and the frigates losing their MK 75s by 2015 in a series of refits. This left the Navy, who “owns” the installed weapons on Coast Guard cutters, still on the hook for logistics contracts with BAE systems and OTO Melara (now Leonardo) for parts and support.
Those days are gone as the 76/62C is out of production both in the U.S. and Italy, with Leonardo replacing the system in its catalog with the faster-firing (though still with only an 80-round ready magazine) and more stealthy 76/62 Super Rapid (SR) Gun Mount.
Eventually, the Ordnance Shop at the Coast Guard yard took ownership of the MK 75 program and was even tapped to support the guns on frigates and cutters transferred overseas.
Since then, the Hamilton class has all retired and has been transferred overseas and now the Bear class cutters are in the process of being stripped of their MK 75s during refits, and replaced by smaller (albeit currently produced) MK 38 25mm guns. Overseas allies are similarly phasing out the gun.
This brings us to the coda of the Bear-class USCGC Mohawk (WMEC 913) firing her MK 75 for the last time this summer, an event that was held during a gunnery exercise in the Florida Straits. The service said in a press release this week that it was a “significant historical event” as Mohawk was “the last in its class to fire the onboard Mk 75 gun weapon system.”
Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk’s (WMEC 613) Mk 75 weapon system fires, Aug. 16, 2024, during a gunnery exercise in the Florida Straits. Mohawk was the last Famous-class medium endurance cutter to fire the onboard Mk 75 mm gun weapon system as large caliber weapon systems onboard these cutters are being modernized for the service life extension program. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Ensign Brian Morel)
Perhaps once the mount is phased out for good, the USS Aries Museum, the only preserved U.S. Navy hydrofoil, can pick up one of the old MK 75s to help complete her Cold War profile.
80 years ago this week. 23 October 1944. Ramgarh, India, CBI theater.
“Man Bites Mule. Although it’s only a slight variation on the popular prescription for ‘news,’ it isn’t news when man bites mule, unless you aren’t acquainted with the ways of muleskinners, Sgt. Fred Parker of Ozona, Tex., bites the ear of a mule to take the animal’s mind off branding operations. Lt. Carl W. Shultz, Independence, MO, of the Army Veterinary Corps, wields the branding iron, and Sgt. R. Sterling (right), Crawford, Neb., assists. The mule is one of a group of new arrivals at Ramgarh in the C.B.I.”
U.S. Army Signal Corps photo from the Allison collection, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History.
A reliable four-legged means of cargo transport in out-of-the-way areas used by the Army going back to Washington’s Days, the U.S. Army’s Pack Service was only formally established in 1871 for use during the Indian Wars.
And, while the Army tried to retire the beasts in 1931 in favor of wheel and track, the need for them in WWII saw something of a big comeback.
5307th Composite Unit Provisional (Merrills Marauders) use mules to help pack supplies in the CBI
Army Mules are tied in a long picket line at the docks in Palermo, Sicily, before being loaded on a U.S.T. boat for the invasion of Italy. 20 September 1943. SC 180044
Mules carry supplies for the 3rd Bn., 87th Inf. Regt., 10th Mtn. Div., going up the road towards Tole, Italy. 16 April 1945.
While upwards of 3,000 mules were used in the CBI by the Army, 5,000 in Italy, and another 10,000 in Greece, the final two U.S. Army mule pack units– the 35th QM Pack Coy and the 4th Field Artillery Battalion (Pack)– were deactivated on 15 December 1956 at Fort Carson, Colorado, ending an 85-year run. The 322 remaining mules on hand were sold or transferred to other agencies including the National Park Service and the Forest Service. (The British Army held on to theirs until 1966.)
However, that isn’t the end of the story.
West Point, in a tradition dating back to 1899, keeps a few mules (and Mule Riders) on hand as mascots.
Further, the U.S. Army Special Forces annually send teams to the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in California to learn the use of pack animals– just in case.
As a follow-up to our Warship Wednesday this week (“A Tough Little Wolf”) which focused on the three Danish torpedo boats between 1881 and 1990 that carried the name Søulven (Sea Wolf), a little more in-depth on the last of that trio’s class.
The Danish Søløven(Sea Lion) class, was a Vosper design based on the company’s late 1950s Brave class– HMS Brave Borderer (P1011) and HMS Brave Swordsman (P1012)— fast patrol boat’s hull form blended with its Ferocity style construction, which was a bit cheaper than going all-metal.
HMS Brave Borderer (P1011) a fast patrol boat, during trials in the Solent, January 1960. IWM (A 34261)
HMS Ferocity, budget version of the fast Brave Class gas turbine MTB
Ranger magazine page Ferocity, a cheaper version of the Brave-class MTBs
While the steel-hulled 98-foot/114-ton Braves could make a blistering 52 knots on a suite of three Bristol Proteus gas turbines and were armed with a 40mm Bofors, four 21-inch tubes, and two depth charges, the Danish variants used a wooden hull with an aluminum superstructure and a CODOG suite of 3 Proteus gas turbines on three shafts and 2 General Motors 6V71 diesels on outer shafts.
Running 99 feet oal and with a displacement of 120 tons, the Danish boats could “only” make 50 knots and, besides their suite of twin Bofors and four torpedo tubes, were rigged to drop mines.
Manned by 27 men: 5 officers/petty officers and 22 sailors, the six boats of the class all repeated previous Danish Navy names with an S (Søløven, Søridderen, Søbjørnen, Søhesten, Søhunden, and Søulven) hull numbers P510-P515. The design and first hull were paid for by the U.S. under FMS funds under NATO aid, with the first two hulls built at Vosper’s yard in Portchester while the last four were constructed under license by the Royal Danish SY (Orlogsværftets) at Copenhagen.
Søridderen P5111 on right Gribben P508 left
Søridderen P5111 on left Gribben P508 right
Søhesten Orlogsværftets 31. marts 1963. KD Ebbe Wolfhagen i samtale med underdirektor Carl Sorensen, SMI UPI og uident KD. Bag de tre ses direktor Schou-Pedersen, Orlogsværftets Til hojre genkendes i midten (bagerst) viceadmiral Svend Pontoppidan, chef for Sovornet og til hojre med solbriller kommandor Henning Prause, chef for Televosenet. Til venstre i samme gruppe underdirektor Stundsig Larsen, Orlogsværftets Til venstre for Søløven ses motortorpedobat
Interiørfoto fra en gasturbinebåd af SØLØVEN-klassen. Her motiv fra åben bro.
Interiørfoto fra en gasturbinebåd af SØLØVEN-klassen. Her motiv fra maskinkontrolpositionen i O-rummet.
Interiørfoto fra en gasturbinebåd af SØLØVEN-klassen. Her motiv fra mandskabsbanjen i forskibet.
Interiørfoto fra en gasturbinebåd af SØLØVEN-klassen. Her kabyssen.
The Søløvens were so well-liked that Vosper continued marketing the variant and contracts were secured by the King of Libya for three boats (dubbed the Susa class) and Malaysia (four Perkasa-class) which substituted eight SS-12 missiles for torpedoes.
Soulven dropping mines
Motortorpedobåden P511 SØRIDDEREN af SØLØVEN-klassen. Sort / hvidt fotografi. Uden tid eller sted.
P515 SØULVEN og P510 SØLØVEN af SØLØVEN-klassen
Uidentificerbar enhed af SØLØVEN-klassen.
SØLØVEN-klassen. Opvarmning af gasturbiner. Flådestation Frederikshavn, 1976. I baggrunden den udfasede korvet F345 DIANA af TRITON-klassen.
Danish tactics for these PT/MTBs were simple, lay up camouflaged during the day in any number of off-the-beaten-path Scandinavian inlets (they often went to Norway for exercises) then attack targets at night. They were originally tended by the mothership Hjaelperen, later replaced by Moba.
En enhed af SØLØVEN-klassen kamoufleret i Norge.
The Søløven-class was placed into reserve in 1988 and disposed of when the Flyvefisken-class Stanflex 300 patrol vessels entered service, with disposal complete by 1992.
One (Søbjørnen, P512) is on display as a museum ship at the Aalborg Maritime and Marine Museum (Springeren – Maritimt Oplevelsescenter) while at least two others are still in Western Europe as private yachts, running on diesels only.
The museum also markets a beer under the vessel’s name, with proceeds to help preserve historic Danish naval vessels.
