The P 4 class torpedo boat (TB) were aluminum-hulled
torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of se ...
s of the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
's
People's Liberation Army Navy
The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army.
The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chinese ...
. Based on the Soviet K-123
hydroplane design, they were armed with twin machine guns, and two torpedoes. This class is currently considered obsolete, but was not completely retired from active service, being placed in reserve until the mid-1990s.
The P 4 torpedo boats consisted of two primary types; the K-123 type with radar, and B-123 type without. The Chinese-built units made the radar standard for all boats, and replaced the original heavy machine guns onboard those former Soviet boats delivered to China with heavy machine guns.
The
PLAN
A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an objective to do something. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal.
F ...
transferred this class to the
naval militia
A naval militia is a reserve military organization administered under the authority of a state government in the United States. It is often composed of reservists of the Navy Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, and Coast Guard Reserve, retirees an ...
for training purposes, and because these boats are kept and maintained on land due to their small size, they are normally in better condition than larger units that are kept in the reserve and mothballed fleets.
In addition to naval militia training duties, some of the surviving units have been converted into
target drone
A target drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle, generally remote controlled, usually used in the training of anti-aircraft crews.
One of the earliest drones was the British DH.82 Queen Bee, a variant of the Tiger Moth trainer aircraft operationa ...
s, and have thus been returned to active service, functioning as minor support auxiliaries. As with the , the drone is controlled by larger converted gunboats such as the , , and classes.
Three P 4-class torpedo boats (T-333, T-336, and T-339) in the service of the Democratic Republic of
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
launched an abortive attack on the American
''Allen M. Sumner''-class destroyer on August 2, 1964, in the first
Gulf of Tonkin incident
The Gulf of Tonkin incident ( vi, Sự kiện Vịnh Bắc Bộ) was an international confrontation that led to the United States engaging more directly in the Vietnam War. It involved both a proven confrontation on August 2, 1964, carried out b ...
(see Edwin E. Moise, Gulf of Tonkin and the Escalation of the Vietnam War, University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, 1996:73-93).
The vessels T-1 and T-3 of Cyprus Navy were dispatched to engage the first Turkish flotilla at
Operation Atilla
The Turkish invasion of Cyprus began on 20 July 1974 and progressed in two phases over the following month. Taking place upon a background of intercommunal violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and in response to a Greek junta-spo ...
as it approached Kyrenia. One vessel was destroyed by air attack, and the other by artillery from Turkish destroyers.
P 6-class torpedo boat
The P 6-class torpedo boat ("Project 183 Bolshevik") is a development of the P 4-class TB originally intended to be a successor of P 4, but it instead complemented P 4 when both types served with each other. As with the P 4 class, the P 6-class also comes in two versions, one with radar and the other without, 183T and 183 respectively. The P 6 class TB is larger than the P 4-class TB, with its size increased by 3 times and being more heavily armed, with two 21-in torpedoes replacing the 18-in torpedoes of the P 4-class, and twin 25 mm gun mounts replacing the 14.5 mm gun mounts of P 4-class.
*Length:
*Width:
*Draft:
*Displacement: full
*Max speed: max
*Endurance: at ,
::::: at
*Propulsion: four diesel engines at each
*Armaments:
**Two torpedoes
**Four guns (II x 2), with 1000 rounds of ammo
** 8 depth charges
*Units built: 560 total (for former-USSR)
P 8-class torpedo boat
P 8-class torpedo boat is another development of P 6-class TB, which is a P 4-class with hydrofoil added. Although only a small number was built for the Soviet Navy, a large number of its derivative was built by Chinese as
Type 025-class torpedo boat
The Type 025 torpedo boat, also known as the Huchuan or Hu Chwan class, was once the backbone of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) in its confrontations with its much larger opponents in the Republic of China Navy. Although no longer servi ...
.
P 10-class torpedo boat
P 10-class torpedo boat was an experimental boat based on P 6-class, and it was a P 6-class powered by gasturbine engine to evaluate its feasibility of gasturbine engine for maritime use.
Variants
*B-123: also known as 123B, P 4-class torpedo boat without the radar.
*K-123: also known as 123K, P 4-class torpedo boat with the radar added.
*Project 183: P 6-class torpedo boat without the radar.
*Project 183T: Project 183 P 6-class torpedo boat with radar added.
*P 8-class torpedo boat: P 6-class torpedo boat with hydrofoil added.
*P 8-class torpedo boat: P 6-class torpedo boat with gasturbine engine installed for evaluation.
Surviving boats
* ''36'' in
Baltiysk
Baltiysk (russian: Балти́йск; german: Pillau; Old Prussian: ''Pillawa''; pl, Piława; lt, Piliava; Yiddish: פּילאַווע, ''Pilave'') is a seaport town and the administrative center of Baltiysky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, Ru ...
,
Kaliningrad Oblast
Kaliningrad Oblast (russian: Калинингра́дская о́бласть, translit=Kaliningradskaya oblast') is the westernmost federal subject of Russia. It is a semi-exclave situated on the Baltic Sea. The largest city and administr ...
* ''60'' in
Komsomolets Torpedo Boat Memorial,
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
* ''123'' in Kaliningrad Oblast
* ''131'' in
Victory Museum,
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
* ''341'' in
Pamyatnik Geroicheskim Moryakam Chernomortsam,
Novorossiysk
Novorossiysk ( rus, Новоросси́йск, p=nəvərɐˈsʲijsk; ady, ЦIэмэз, translit=Chəməz, p=t͡sʼɜmɜz) is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It is one of the largest ports on the Black Sea. It is one of the few cities hono ...
* ''K-12'' in
Ha'apala and Israeli Navy Museum
''Aliyah Bet'' ( he, עלייה ב', "Aliyah 'B'" – bet being the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet) was the code name given to illegal immigration by Jews, most of whom were refugees escaping from Nazi Germany, and later Holocaust sur ...
,
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
* ''T-8224'' in
Bangladesh Military Museum
Bangabandhu Military Museum is a military museum of Bangladesh. Administered by the Bangladesh Army, the museum is located right beside the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Novo Theatre at Bijoy Sarani of the capital Dhaka. The museum has a co ...
,
Dhaka
Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...
* ''Unidentified'' in
Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...
* ''Unidentified'' in
Diorama
A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...
,
Sevastopol
Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...
* ''Unidentified'' in
Katernikov Square,
Kronstadt
Kronstadt (russian: Кроншта́дт, Kronshtadt ), also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt or Kronštádt (from german: link=no, Krone for "crown" and ''Stadt'' for "city") is a Russian port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city of ...
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:P 4 Class Torpedo Boat
China–Soviet Union relations
Torpedo boat classes
Torpedo boats of the People's Liberation Army Navy