The ''Skrunda'' class is a class of

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 ...

patrol vessel A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and they ...

s used by the

Latvian Navy Latvian Naval Forces ( lv, Latvijas Jūras spēki) is the naval warfare branch of the National Armed Forces. It is tasked with conducting military, search and rescue operations, mine and explosive sweeping on the Baltic Sea, as well as ecological ...

. The main duties of the vessels include fisheries inspections,

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

, environmental protection, sovereignty enforcement, and participation in

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 ...

and EU operations.

Description

The ''Skrunda'' class was ordered in 2008 and built in cooperation by

Abeking & Rasmussen Abeking & Rasmussen (A&R) is a shipyard situated in Lemwerder, near Bremen in the German state of Lower Saxony. The shipyard is on the left bank of the River Weser, and currently comprises five production halls with associated workshops and offi ...

Shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and Riga Shipyard in

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

between 2009 and 2013. The class and the five vessels are named after towns and cities in Latvia from each of the five

historical regions Historical regions (or historical areas) are geographical regions which at some point in time had a cultural, ethnic, linguistic or political basis, regardless of latterday borders. They are used as delimitations for studying and analysing social ...

of Latvia, where important battles for Latvia's independence took place. The design is based on the well proven Abeking & Rasmussen SWATH Pilot boat design, which is known for its excellent seaworthiness, offering motions in high sea state similar to conventional monohull ships three to four times its size. ''Skrunda''-class vessels are able to perform 100% of their duties in waves as high as . The propulsion system was designed specifically for the ''Skrunda'' class and places two MAN D 2842

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s in the lower torpedo hulls, driving Servogear

controllable pitch propeller In marine propulsion, a variable-pitch propeller is a type of propeller with blades that can be rotated around their long axis to change the blade pitch. Reversible propellers—those where the pitch can be set to negative values—can also ...

s via Servogear reduction gearboxes. Tasked to monitor and control the Latvian and EU territorial waters and exclusive economic zone, the ''Skrunda'' class can perform a number of different missions by changing the mission module between the bows of the two hulls, which adheres to the dimensions of a

ISO container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship ...

and has a payload of 6 tons. A Mission Module may contain weapons systems, equipment for hydrographic surveying, environmental protection, support for

divers Diver or divers may refer to: *Diving (sport), the sport of performing acrobatics while jumping or falling into water *Practitioner of underwater diving, including: **scuba diving, **freediving, **surface-supplied diving, **saturation diving, a ...

, or mine countermeasure operations.

Armament

The standard armament consists of two machine guns. In addition, one Mission Module can be installed with a weapons system that weighs up to 6 tons.

Vessels in class

References

{{reflist

External links

Maritime Journal

SWATH Skrunda P-05 testing in Germany
Patrol boat classes Small waterplane area twin hull vessels Military catamarans