Small Combatants - Fast Attack Craft and PT Boats

[rickshaw]

Yep, I remember the show - that episode was one of my favourites too! 

Stuck in my mind for what, nearly 30 years now?   Loads of fun.  Pity the RAN wouldn't let them actually film the MELBOURNE getting toasted by a simulated Styx. 

Speaking of the Krait, I have actually been abord the real ship .

She's in a museum now, isn't she?  Darling Harbour?  Can't remember which one.  KRAIT was a "lucky" boat.  I was surprised when they made the tv miniseries (which was terrible BTW) about the raid, they didn't use the real KRAIT.  Instead they mocked up a raft to look like KRAIT but they could IIRC only film her from one side!

[dy031101]

Has there been some sort of a removable device that can improve the seakeeping quality of a riverine monitor (of the kind armed with tank turrets and/or army howitzers  ) to a level at least comparable to small fast attack missile boats?

I've been feeling evil lately and can't help thinking of the asthetical aspect of a riverine monitor loaded with aniti-ship missiles as an emergency missile boat......

[Weaver]

Havn't got time to go looking right now, but check out some North Korean patrol boats. They have one or two classes that seem to combine features of FPBs and Monitors, i.e. seagoing hulls with tank turrets.

[dy031101]

Havn't got time to go looking right now, but check out some North Korean patrol boats. They have one or two classes that seem to combine features of FPBs and Monitors, i.e. seagoing hulls with tank turrets.

Now that you reminded me.  I'd think that, facing opponents like South Korea and possibly the US, they'd give every one of their main combatants provisions for anti-ship missiles...... yet (at least in the past) a big portion of them were pure gunboats or gun corvettes.

As a sidenote, based on a discussion in Planeman's thread on the KPN, I have begun to suspect that the turrets are probably just tank-like in appearance but properly stablized (maybe as a single-purpose anti-ship gun against surface targets).

[rickshaw]

Havn't got time to go looking right now, but check out some North Korean patrol boats. They have one or two classes that seem to combine features of FPBs and Monitors, i.e. seagoing hulls with tank turrets.

Now that you reminded me.  I'd think that, facing opponents like South Korea and possibly the US, they'd give every one of their main combatants provisions for anti-ship missiles...... yet (at least in the past) a big portion of them were pure gunboats or gun corvettes.

They are intended to be riverine and close inshore craft.  Combat in such areas tend to be at comparatively close range and a gun would have the advantage over the missile, being able to engage faster and with a higher ROF targets of opportunity such one might meet on a river.

As a sidenote, based on a discussion in Planeman's thread on the KPN, I have begun to suspect that the turrets are probably just tank-like in appearance but properly stablized (maybe as a single-purpose anti-ship gun against surface targets).

Most of the pictures I've seen have been of either T-54/55 turrets or even complete tank hulls and turrets (sans suspension) placed on ship hulls.   The T-54/55 had IIRC a stabilised gun mount which more than likely would have been adequate to deal with rough seas up to a point.

[rickshaw]

New armoured assault boats for the Royal Marines:





BBC report showing the Marines showing off their new toys:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7846086.stm

[tigercat]

What about an updated Mortar Ship.

Fit a couple of the Mortars used on the Sturmtiger  to an E boat for hit and run coastal raids using

[lenny100]

I was in the trials team for the original unarmourd boat back in 1997 and we thought then it needed something like that armour and firepower back then as all we had was a single mount for the good old GMPG in the bow.
The best part as because it was water jet powerd us drivers had a ongoing com petation on who couls get it up the beach the furtherst, mine was a clear 12 foot from the sturn to the waters edge althoug one lad got his 30 foot but then he had only his cew of 3 onboard and so was not counted.

[Weaver]

It'd be like a WWII version of this:



Swedish CB90 combat boat fitted with an AMOS 120mm twin-barrelled automatic mortar.....

That's just a trials ship, but these CB90s are the dog's, even in standard trim:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Boat_90

[ChernayaAkula]

^ Are the two M2s in the bow fixed? 

[Amphion]

^ Are the two M2s in the bow fixed? 

Yes. A slight "rocking" of the boat by the driver while at full speed, lets him "strafe" the approaching shore before landing.

[tigercat]

Yes indeed, that is one slick looking boat.

[ChernayaAkula]

Whiffer's mind at work:
Looking for info on the Stridbat/Combat Boat 90 fast assault craft, I came across an article on navytimes.com (LINK). The article starts off with...
"If the Stryker armored combat vehicle were a boat, it might be the CB90, a Swedish-designed shallow-water vessel that's fast, lethal and flexible enough to be an ambulance or a fast-attack craft."

Now, by the second comma, my mind had already placed the top hull of a 1/35 Stryker on a 1/72 Revell Vosper MTB or PT 117 hull. 

Related stuff found while searching:
PT-91 turret (Polish T-72 development) on CB90:






SOURCE (wild!)

^ Are the two M2s in the bow fixed? 

Yes. A slight "rocking" of the boat by the driver while at full speed, lets him "strafe" the approaching shore before landing.

Most interesting! 
Sorry, didn't notice your reply until now.

[Thiel]

Going to the other extreme, how about a pulse jet or turbojet powered version?

Regards,

Greg

Being as the S-Boat is round-bilged and of relatively deep draft for her length (when compared to Brit, US and Italian craft), I'd say that a pulse-jet only craft is a non-starter. Too much inertia and hull drag to overcome. Maybe use jets of either type as a speed booster for a foil-borne version, however, I think that the period engines are too fragile for marine use.

You mean like this?

This is the Typboot 5b. It was designed towards the end of WWII

[deathjester]

That's great - c'mon - join the gunboat club, you know you want to build it!