''Tuuli'' was a

hovercraft A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious Craft (vehicle), craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and other surfaces. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull ...

built for the

Finnish Navy The Finnish Navy ( fi, Merivoimat, sv, Marinen) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. The navy employs 2,300 people and about 4,300 conscripts are trained each year. Finnish Navy vessels are given the ship prefix "FNS", short for ...

. Originally intended to be the lead vessel of a class of four combat hovercraft, she was never officially commissioned and after having been laid up for the most of her career, she was broken up in 2013.

Development

''Tuuli'' was built at the

Aker Finnyards STX Finland Oy, formerly Aker Yards Oy, was a Finnish shipbuilding company operating three shipyards in Finland, in Turku, Helsinki and Rauma, employing some 2,500 people. It was part of STX Europe, a group of international shipbuilding companie ...

Rauma shipyard in Rauma, Finland. Named after a decommissioned ''Tuima''-class (modified Soviet

OSA-II The Project 205 Moskit (''mosquito'') more commonly known by their NATO reporting name Osa, are a class of missile boats developed for the Soviet Navy in the late 1950s. Until 1962 this was classified as a large torpedo boat. The Osa class is ...

)

missile boat A missile boat or missile cutter is a small, fast warship armed with anti-ship missiles. Being smaller than other warships such as destroyers and frigates, missile boats are popular with nations interested in forming a navy at lower cost. They a ...

, she was intended to be the lead vessel of a class of four combat hovercraft that would form part of ''Squadron 2000'' ( fi, Laivue 2000), a vessel procurement program of the Finnish Navy. Before naming, the hovercraft were referred to as the T-2000 class. The hovercraft were intended to be used as mobile missile platforms that would be able to navigate and perform surprise attacks in the fractured Finnish archipelago. It was an attack vessel, not a landing craft or transport. Since the seas around Finland usually freeze over in the winter, parts of the archipelago cannot be navigated by conventional surface combatants and are accessible only by air or with a hovercraft. The Finnish Border Guard operates patrol and search-and-rescue hovercraft in these water. However, the focus of the Finnish Navy was redefined as long-term protection of merchant marine traffic, and ''Hamina''-class missile boats with better operational-endurance were selected in ''Tuuli''s stead. As a result, only the prototype vessel was built and never officially commissioned. Tuuli was completed in 2002. Her trial runs proved a success and her specified capacity and maximum speed were exceeded. On 19 December 2003, it was announced that the ''Tuuli'' class would not enter active service and the prototype vessel would be presented for sale. There was foreign interest towards purchasing ''Tuuli'', but no further details have been given. Apparently, Tuuli ACV could have been used in the Arctic to support larger hulls. The vessel was stored at the Upinniemi base. On 10 July 2013, it was announced that ''Tuuli'' would be scrapped as no suitable buyer has been found.Merivoimat luopuu kahdesta aluksestaan
Turun Sanomat, 10 July 2013. She was broken up in October 2013.

Design

The design of the vessel involved technology transferred from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It was constructed from welded panels of thin marine aluminium sheets and extrusions connected with light-weight composite constructions. The special features of the vessel were good mobility, independence of waterways and fixed port equipment, year-around operation and a small crew of only ten owing to the advanced technology.

Development

Design

References

See also