''Planet'' of the

German Navy The German Navy (, ) is the navy of Germany and part of the unified ''Bundeswehr'' (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Mari ...

is the most modern naval research ship within

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

. It was built as a

SWATH A small waterplane area twin hull, better known by the acronym SWATH, is a catamaran design that minimizes hull cross section area at the sea's surface. Minimizing the ship's volume near the surface area of the sea, where wave energy is located ...

design in order to reduce the hull volume and to increase the ship's stability, particularly in high seas and at high speed. It is used for geophysics and naval technology trials and research. While technically not armed, it is equipped with torpedo launch capability. Other weapons systems can be installed for weapon trials.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Planet Class Research Ship Auxiliary ships of the German Navy Auxiliary research ship classes Auxiliary ships of Germany Small waterplane area twin hull vessels Research vessels of Germany Military catamarans