The Ultra Fast Attack Craft, commonly known as the Colombo class, is a Sri Lankan ultra high-speed class of

patrol boat 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 the ...

s meant for a variety of naval missions from off-shore coastal patrol missions to high-speed, high-maneuver littoral warfare. Built by

Colombo Dockyard Limited Colombo Dockyard PLC (CDPLC) is a shipbuilding company in Sri Lanka and is based in Colombo. It has built both military and civilian vessels for both local and overseas clients. History Colombo Dockyard established its operations in 1974 and is ...

for the

Sri Lanka Navy ta, இலங்கை கடற்படை , image = Sri Lanka Naval Seal.png , image_size = 180px , caption = Emblem of Sri Lanka Navy , dates = , c ...

(SLN), they became the workhorse of the SLN against

Sea tiger The Sea Tigers (Tamil: கடற்புலிகள் ''Kaţaṛpulikaḷ'') was the naval wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the Sri Lankan Civil War. It was founded in 1984. The Sea Tigers had a number of small but effectiv ...

boats of the LTTE.

Subclasses

Series I

The boats of the Series I are long with a

monohull right A monohull is a type of boat having only one hull, unlike multihulled boats which can have two or more individual hulls connected to one another. Fundamental concept Among the earliest hulls were simple logs, but these were generally unst ...

with a vibration-free deck, powered by twin MTU main engines developing each, driving

Kamewa AB Karlstads Mekaniska Werkstad (''trans.'' Karlstad Mechanical Works Ltd), known as Kamewa, was a Swedish manufacturing company in the city of Kristinehamn. Kamewa started as a brand name of the controllable-pitch propellers manufactured by KM ...

water jets. This enables the boat to reach speeds of and have an endurance of . They have a crew of 10. Around 12 were delivered to the

Sri Lanka Navy ta, இலங்கை கடற்படை , image = Sri Lanka Naval Seal.png , image_size = 180px , caption = Emblem of Sri Lanka Navy , dates = , c ...

(SLN).

Series II

Series II the successor to the earlier type. Main upgrades include the increase of accommodation for a crew of 12 and major improvements the superstructure. Like the Series I, around 12 were delivered to the SLN.

Series III

The Series III is the recent addition to the class and has incorporated current combat requirements and experience in the battlefield archived by the SLN. This new type can achieve speeds in excess of , the fastest of its class in the region while housing up to 12 persons in a crew. Series III was designed by the Colombo Dockyard to the

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i Shaldag Mk II design. First launch of Series III held on 27 July 1996 and it went beyond the abilities of Shaldag Mk II design by exceeding it from the speed, range and payload. The propulsion system consists of two MTU 12V 396 TE94 ( each)

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-ca ...

s driving two articulated surface drives, which were initially designed for competitive speedboats. Arneson Surface Drive-16 articulating propulsion systems drives provide the vessel with thrust vectoring control similar to the

Super Dvora Mk III The Super Dvora Mark III-class patrol boat is the latest generation of the Dvora family of fast patrol boats or fast attack craft (FPB/FAC). Manufactured by IAI Ramta in 2004 these vessels are capable of travelling up to in littoral waters than ...

and Shaldag Mk II. Their thrust-vectoring propulsion system allows Series III to function in shallow waters at

draughts Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...

of facilitating

special operations forces Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

delivery on enemy shores and catastrophe relief missions.

Coastal surveillance vessel

The two coastal surveillance vessels built for the

Maldivian Coast Guard The Maldivian Coast Guard is the naval or maritime arm of the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF). Because the Maldives does not have a navy, the MNDF Coast Guard functions as the armed maritime force of the nation with a charter to contribute ...

are very similar to the Series III Ultra Fast Attack Craft. They have more range but at a lower speed of and no armament.

Armament

Currently all Colombo-class boats have been designed to allow for the installation of Typhoon 25-30 mm stabilized cannon which can be slaved to state-of the art mast-mounted, day and night all weather long range electro-optic systems. In addition to their main armament, they carry additional weapon systems such as 20 mm Oerlikon rear autocannons,

automatic grenade launcher An automatic grenade launcher (AGL) or grenade machine gun is a grenade launcher that is capable of fully automatic fire, and is typically loaded with either an ammunition belt or magazine. These weapons are often mounted on vehicles or helicopt ...

s, 7.62 mm GPMGs and 12.7 mm HMGs. Series III gun boats comes with Elop MSIS optronic director and Typhoon GFCS as its own weapons control system. Also these crafts use surface search: Furano FR 8250 or Corden Mk 2; I-band as its

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

. As of 2006, the main armament has been upgraded with the addition of M242 Bushmaster 25 mm (25x137mm) chain-fed autocannons.

Operators

– Coastal surveillance vessels under the National Security Service. ;:

Sri Lanka Navy ta, இலங்கை கடற்படை , image = Sri Lanka Naval Seal.png , image_size = 180px , caption = Emblem of Sri Lanka Navy , dates = , c ...

– Ultra Fast Attack Crafts

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official Site
Gunboat classes Ships of the Sri Lanka Navy Post–Cold War military equipment of Sri Lanka Fast attack craft