The ''Admiral Petre Bărbuneanu''-class corvette (also known as the Tetal-I class by

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

) is a series of four

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

s designed and constructed for the

Romanian Naval Forces The Romanian Naval Forces () is the principal naval branch of the Romanian Armed Forces and operates in the Black Sea and on the Danube. It traces its history back to 1860. History The Romanian Navy was founded in 1860 as a river flotilla on ...

primarily for

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations ar ...

. Only two corvettes out of a total of the four are still in service. Designed and constructed in the 1980s, they are a product of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

with their armament and sensors based on

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

designs. This class of corvettes was superseded by the ''Rear-Admiral Eustațiu Sebastian'' (Tetal-II) class.

Design and description

The ''Admiral Petre Bărbuneanu'' class was based on the

Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...

's but designed in Romania to a smaller size, though retaining their

(ASW) role. They incorporated Soviet weapons and sensors into their design. Vessels of the class have a full load displacement of and measure long with a beam of and a draught of . The ships are powered by four

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s driving four

shafts ''Shafts'' was an English feminist magazine produced by Margaret Sibthorp from 1892 until 1899. Initially published weekly and priced at one penny, its themes included votes for women, women's education, and radical attitudes towards vivisection ...

creating . This gives the corvettes a maximum speed of . The vessels are armed with four Soviet-designed AK-276 /59

calibre In guns, particularly firearms, but not artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or wher ...

guns in two twin turrets with one turret situated forward and aft. The 76 mm guns have a range of and fire up to 90 rounds per minute. For

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-ba ...

(AA) defence, the corvettes have four AK-230 /65 calibre AA guns in two twin mounts positioned aft, forward of the aft 76 mm turret. The 30 mm guns have a range of and can fire up to 500 rounds per minute. They also mount two single-mounted machine guns along the amidships. For ASW purposes, the ''Admiral Petre Bărbuneanu'' class mounts RBU 2500 16-tubed ASW rocket launchers that are trainable with a range of . The ships have four

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s in two twin mounts situated aft to either side of the aft 76 mm gun turret. They can fire Type 53-65 torpedoes which have a range of . ''Admiral Petre Bărbuneanu''-class corvettes are equipped with Soviet MR-302 (NATO reporting name: Strut Curve) air search/surface search

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

, MR-104 ''Rys'' (NATO reporting name: Drum Tilt) and MR-105 ''Turel'' (NATO reporting name: Hawk Screech)

fire control radar A fire-control radar (FCR) is a radar that is designed specifically to provide information (mainly target azimuth, elevation, range and range rate) to a fire-control system in order to direct weapons such that they hit a target. They are sometim ...

. They have Hercules MG-22 hull-mounted

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...

for underwater search and two PK 16 chaff launchers and RW-23 (NATO reporting name: Watch Dog)

electronic support measures In military telecommunications, electronic support (ES) or electronic support measures (ESM) gather intelligence through passive "listening" to electromagnetic radiations of military interest. They are an aspect of electronic warfare involving ...

. The corvettes have a complement of 98.

Ships in class

Construction and career

The vessels were constructed at the

Mangalia Mangalia (, ), ancient Callatis (; other historical names: Pangalia, Panglicara, Tomisovara), is a city and a port on the coast of the Black Sea in the south-east of Constanța County, Northern Dobruja, Romania. The municipality of Mangalia als ...

Shipyard for the

. The first ship to

commission In-Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...

was ''Amiral Petre Bărbuneanu'' in 1983. Three more corvettes would follow before the project was terminated in 1987 in favour of a new design that incorporated a

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface on which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters ...

. In 2004, two of the corvettes, ''Vice-Amiral Vasile Urseanu'' and ''Vice-Amiral Vasile Scodrea'' were decommissioned. The remaining ships are based at

Constanța Constanța (, , ) is a city in the Dobruja Historical regions of Romania, historical region of Romania. A port city, it is the capital of Constanța County and the country's Cities in Romania, fourth largest city and principal port on the Black ...

Notes

Citations

References

* * *

External links

World Navies Today
{{DEFAULTSORT:Admiral Petre Barbuneanu-class corvette Corvettes of the Romanian Naval Forces Corvette classes