"China Now Using Cruise Missile Carrying Catamarans To Chase" Topic

… Away Ships In The South China Sea

"The appearance of the Chinese catamaran fast-attack missile craft adds a significant new player to these disputed waters.

Chinese stealthy catamaran fast-attack missile craft have reportedly been involved in an incident with a boat chartered by a Philippine media company in the hotly contested waters of the South China Sea. According to an account citing ABS-CBN reporter Chiara Zambrano, the Type 022 Houbei class vessels appeared today in the Second Thomas Shoal, a submerged reef located in the disputed Spratly Islands. The missile craft then apparently aggressively chased away the boat operated on behalf of the ABS-CBN news crew, which had been sailing in the area to monitor the movements of other Chinese vessels…"

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Armand

Ha, ha, my friend, it doesn't happen very often, but I've managed to out-Tango, Tango01:

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Touche' my friend, Armand.

This is an interesting development, and makes me wonder how long it will be before these are being used to chase our destroyers, and perhaps even our carrier groups from the SCS, using swarm tactics from their numerous island bases in the region.

Since they are so small, and numerous, they can easily be moved from base to base, making them very difficult to keep track of in the region. Currently, it is unclear where these were based, prior to their chasing that Filipino vessel from the area.

Bring back PT Boats! Arm them to the teeth and let the fast little s run amok!

That does make a lot of sense.

Arming them with SSMs and some SAMs even more so.

The Europeans had a lot of excellent missile boats that were extremely capable, back in the day, at the height of the Cold War, e.g. those made by the Danes, Swedes, West Germans, Norwegians, and others.

A lot of these would be perfect for helping to defend Taiwan and the Phillipines, as well as a lot of other nations in contiguous areas, and they'd be great for patrolling in the South China Sea too.

I remember reading about a US company that made a heavily armed small ship but the US navy didn't want one they didn't develop. It seemed to have been a great design.

Touché … indeed (smile)

Old Tango is dead… they kill him….what remains of him is a sad shadowing of 5 threads in 24 hrs … so sad…

Armand

The PLAN can run those small ships but we've got the same problem as War Plan Orange, the distance we'd have to cover and no place to base them.

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Striker,

Well said,

The Europeans had a lot of excellent missile boats that were extremely capable, back in the day, at the height of the Cold War, e.g. those made by the Danes, Swedes, West Germans, Norwegians, and others.

They are mainly gone.

Only FACS/small corvettes in European service still in service are:

Bulgaria – 1 x obsolete Tarantul equipped with even more obsolete P15/20 Termit.

Croatia – 5 x ageing FACS with obsolete missiles that will go out of service in 2024 and no replacement in sight. 2 of these ships are non-operational due to engine issues and 2 others are used as glorified patrol boats due to lack of suitable vessels.

Finland – 8 x Raum/Hamina class FACS. Some of the newest ones in service (Hamina date to early 2000s) All Raum to be replaced by 4 3900 ton frigates (a questionable decision given Finland's coast line, these ships are more for international missions).

Greece – 20 vessels. Mix of ancient La Combattante from 1970s/early 1980s and modern Roussen class which are still being built.

Poland – 3 x Orkan class (given the dubious state of 2 Oliver Hazard Perry frigates and the fact that 2 other corvettes haven't got any missiles installed, these ships might end up being Poland's only ships capable of anti-surface action).

Portugal – questionable – they brought 4 ex-Danish Flyvefisken as Tejo class but I don't know if they retained the RGM-84 Harpoon capability (pictures show them without any fittings).

Romania – 3 x obsolete Soviet Tarantuls equipped with even more obsolete P15/20 Termit.

Sweden – 7 vessels including 5 x Visby stealth corvettes. Visby's pack a big punch (8 x AShM) but lack air defences which were cancelled as budget measure.

Turkey – 19 FACS/light corvette. 9 are modern Kilic class, remaining are primarily ageing vessels with very limited capability.

Lithuania also brought 4 ex-Danish Flyvefisken but these appear to be being used in an exclusive patrol boat function without AShMs.

European Navies are all going for small numbers of large ships primarily designed for international missions (like the Finnish example I gave above).

they'd be great for patrolling in the South China Sea too

Not really good for patrol work as they often have extremely thirsty engines, lack sensors and lack range/endurance.

FACMs are the ultimate bushwhackers – zip out of cover of islands/land, fire some missiles, and then zip into cover. Reload, rinse, repeat.

For just patrolling SC Sea you can just do what the Chinese (and Europeans do) and acquire patrol boats built to civilian standards.

Thanks!.

Armand