The Future Of The Soviet Navy by Bruce W. Watson Peter M Dunn

Author:Bruce W. Watson, Peter M Dunn [Bruce W. Watson, Peter M Dunn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9781000301700
Google: r83LDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-01-28T01:37:59+00:00

RKA-Raketnny Kater (Missile Cutter)

The RKA is a TKA (Torpednyy Kater or torpedo cutter) with missiles in place of torpedoes. The wooden-hulled Komar, the first RKA design, appeared in 1959 and was merely a reworked P-6-class TKA. The contemporary Osa incorporated newer propulsion technology and defensive firepower in a larger, steel planing hull capable of mounting twice the number of missiles. The RKA was intended to work with the TKA, the former to stop the target and the latter to destroy it. As such, the RKA was an interceptor while the small missile ship (MRK) described earlier was intended as a picket. The Matka-class hydrofoil was a clear successor to Osa in the RKA line and appeared just in time to begin replacing operational Osa-Is, the earliest of which were twenty years old in 1979.

Matka was evidently not a success, for production ended after only sixteen completions. The craft displaces about 260 tons, a twenty percent increase over the weight of the basic Osa. This has resulted in an obviously over-loaded craft with sluggish performance when “foiling;” a Matka barely gets the bow clear of the waves in Baltic chop conditions. As with the Turya-class semi-hydrofoil torpedo boat, Matka’s stern had no foils and is intended to plane along on the surface of the sea—a guarantor of a bumpy ride. Although the first Matka was launched in 1976, it was not until 1980 that the first craft received the radar necessary for target detection and designation.

Matka and Osa employ the same hull and propulsion plant.6 Osa was the first class to employ the remarkable M-503A diesel, with its 1.8 kilogram to horsepower weight ratio. M-503 is a seven-cylinder six-row radial, for a total of forty-two cylinders. By 1964, an eight-row variant, M-504, was available and this was also produced as the tropicalized M-517. Coupling two M-503AS at either end of a common gearbox produced the 84-cylinder M-507 engine. A twin M-504 has been developed as well, the 112-cylinders working to provide around 10,000-horsepower. Osa-I has the 4,000-horsepower M-503A, Osa-II has the 5,000-horsepower M-504, and Matka probably employs the M-504 as well.

Although OSA-Is were exported to a number of countries in the 1960s, the only variant under construction during the 1970s was a special export version of the Osa-II, produced at the rate of about one per month. Of the maximum if 120-odd Osas operated by the Soviet Navy, seventy-two were Osa-Is completed by 1966, and the remainder were Osa-IIs completed by 1969. Thus all remaining Soviet Navy Osas are at least fifteen years old, well over two-thirds are fifteen years old or more (the rated lifespan for this type of craft when used continuously), and a number may be nearly a quarter century old.

The export market for Osas still seems brisk, primarily because they are made available either free or at prices well below those quoted for similar-sized, but technologically superior craft from Western European and Asian Free World shipyards. However, this cannot go on much longer. Nor can Tarantul be a universally acceptable export successor, because or its far greater size and increased complexity.

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