The ''Rauma''-class missile boats ( fi, Rauma-luokan ohjusvene) are a class of

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 ...

in use by 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 f ...

. It is the predecessor of the s. The ships were constructed at the

Rauma shipyard Rauma shipyard ( fi, Rauman telakka) is a shipyard in Rauma, Finland. It was previously operated by STX Finland which is owned by the South Korean STX Corporation. Rauma shipyard is specialized in large ferries, small cruise ships, multipurpose iceb ...

(initially by Hollming and after the merger

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 ...

) in Rauma,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

. All the ships have their home port in

Pansio Pansio is a district and a suburb of the city of Turku, Finland. It is located in the western part of the city. It has a population of 2,809 (), and an annual population growth of -3.83%. 19.25% of the district's population are under 15 years ...

. All four vessels underwent a 70 million EUR modernization program at the Western Shipyard in Teijo. The program includes the installation of a new version of the 9LV225 control and command system made by SAAB (the Mk.3 has been replaced by a Mk.4), the replacement of the Mistral SAM missiles with a

MASS Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different element ...

decoy system. The MASS system also replaces the Philax chaff and IR flares, the Thales Matilda radar warning system, and the six 103 mm rails for rocket illuminants, that were previously fitted. The sonar and ASW systems are being completely renewed (the previous Simrad ST 240 has been replaced by a ST2400). The modernization programme began late in 2010 with all four vessels expected to be ready by autumn 2013. The first vessel, ''Naantali'', was handed over to the Finnish Navy in May 2013. The modernization will allow the vessels to be operational into the 2020s. The vessels were previously armed with a sextuple

Mistral Mistral may refer to: * Mistral (wind) in southern France and Sardinia Automobiles * Maserati Mistral, a Maserati grand tourer produced from 1963 until 1970 * Nissan Mistral, or Terrano II, a Nissan 4×4 produced from 1993 until 2006 * Micropl ...

SAM Sam, SAM or variants may refer to: Places * Sam, Benin * Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso * Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso * Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso * Sam, Iran * Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place People and fictional c ...

launcher, which could be replaced by a Sako twin-barrel 23 mm/87 anti-aircraft cannon (a modified version of the

ZU-23-2 The ZU-23-2, also known as ZU-23, is a Soviet towed 23×152mm anti-aircraft twin-barreled autocannon. ZU stands for ''Zenitnaya Ustanovka'' (Russian: Зенитная Установка) – anti-aircraft mount. The GRAU index is 2A13. Develop ...

). Additionally the vessels had a portable Mistral SAM launcher pad that could be mounted on the ship's deck, or on land, in order to protect them when moored. After modernization in 2010-2013 the SAM system was replaced by a

launcher. On 18 February 2015, the Finnish media reported that the ''Rauma'' class has been banned from use after fatigue damage was discovered in the vessels' hull.Rauma-luokan ohjusveneet käyttökieltoon
Turun Sanomat, 18 February 2015. The vessels were repaired and back in operation by 2016. They are planned to be retired from service when the new

Pohjanmaa-class corvette The ''Pohjanmaa'' class is a series of four multi-role corvettes currently under development for the Finnish Navy as part of the Squadron 2020 ( fi, Laivue 2020) project. Together with the existing four s, the four new surface combatants will f ...

s enter service in the late 2020s.

List of ships

References

External links

* * * Missile boat classes Missile boats of the Finnish Navy Ships built in Finland {{navy-stub