Posted on 10/10/2014 9:32:03 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The last decade has seen some pretty awesome looking warships hit waters around the globe. On the "blue water" side of things the Star Wars looking Zumwalt Class and the minimalist art-like Lafayette Class were clearly designed with stealth in mind. Yet the "brown water" is where the most exotic vessels roam, and this is precisely where the X3K was born to fight.
An Indonesian Combat Trimaran Designed In Sweden
The X3K was built by Indonesian-based Swedish boat builder North Sea Boats, and designed in part by renowned exotic boat builder LOMOcean Design LTD. The goal was to build a very stealthy, high-speed, multi-role missile boat that could dominate the complex littorals around Indonesia while still being affordable to procure and operate.
At 63 meters in length, the X3K is no small patrol boat, but with her trimaran wave piercing hull and twin MJP 550 water jets, she can keep up with much smaller boats and even follow them into areas where there is just six feet of water. She is powered by four MAN12 diesel engines that put out 1,800hp each, that can propel her up near 40 knots during sprints. She cruises leisurely in even rough sea states at 16 knots, and has a range of over 2,000 miles.
The X3K is said to have an extremely stealthy design, with its two sets of four-tube anti-ship missiles launchers shrouded behind flat panels above and behind the bridge. Eight Chinese built C-702 anti-ship missiles can be carried for use against medium and small sized targets, or against larger targets, if fired as a salvo. Alternatively, four deadly Saab RBS-15 Mk3 advanced cruise missiles can be carried for attacking both large ships and land targets at long ranges.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com ...
The US needs a robust blue water navy.
A smuggler with an RPG can do some serious damage to one of these things with one shot.
I think Israel is deploying unmanned boats, a lot smaller than these things.
After every war we go for cheaper faster lighter unarmored vessels. When the shooting starts suddenly we don’t have enough ships that can withstand combat and there is an about face and armored vessels are built in time to be mothballed when the shooting stops and new sleeker faster cooler unarmored vessels can be built.
The Russians I take it don’t do this? The Kirov class was able to take a lot of punches.
Torpedoes would need to be re-configured for trimarans.
What a Toy, I could take that out with a Ruger 22, what the heck kind of fighting machine is that, seriously, we’re screwed ...
One very lucky shot, perhaps. They’d need considerable lluck to get within RPG range.
We’re screwed? Hou do you figure that? Are you Indonesian?
You may not be familiar with the pirates they will be going after. I probably wouldn’t waste a cruise missile on one of them, but this craft does carry other armaments. Obviously it is not intended for combat against heavy warships.
More specifically, in order to get off an RPG round, the attacker would have to avoid detection by the Sea Giraffe 1X 3D radar and somehow get past a field of fire coming from the SAAB’s CEROS 200 fire-control system controlled 40 mm Bofors cannon.
Maching gun with incendary rounds should do it.
THis is actually the second of the 4 ship order to enter the IN.
The first had a litle mishap
Trouble with carbon fibre: it's explodium
Problem is, no one in ANY administration will EVER build the big ships we want...like battleships.
You do know, do you not, that this ship was a prototype, with no fire suppression gear yet installed.
And that as a result of this fire the material of construction was changed quite dramatically; still composite, but not flammable.
I’ll admit it’s not a good look, just like the SJ-100 that flew straight into the side of Mt. Salak. That was pilot error pure and simple, but sales of the SJ-100 were definitely affected. Life’s not fair.
On your other point, it will be very hard for any pirate or smuggler to get within machine gun range of one of these vessels.
Unless it hides behind an island
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