UPDATE*
Spudman WP confirmed that the gun at the front of the ship is from the ancient PT-76. This brings up some interesting contrast with the way that US Navy Riverine units are equipped. Not only is the Russian design more heavily armed but it also appears to have a smaller crew. If this boat were to come in contact with US Riverine forces and those forces had no or tardy support the results might be in doubt. Maybe Riverine units should equip with Javelin anti-tank missiles in addition to their standard kit. It would give them added punch against shore bunkers, Gun Support River Boats and enemy monitors if the concept is revived somewhere.
thats a nice amount of fire power on such a small ship, i wonder with that large of a front gun how much the recoil would affect the stability of the boat? would be interesting to see it being fired.
ReplyDeletethats had me going too. i don't know for sure but i would swear it looks like the turret from a PT-76.
ReplyDeletebut thats a relic!
It's from the PT-76 alright.
ReplyDeleteHead-on shot from the ship and from a PT-76.
Bonus, ship gun in action :)
but what would that kind of weaponry be necessary for a riverine force? i mean thats a good sized gun, wouldn't smaller weapons like a 50 cal platform or a larger weapon like a 30mm gun be more advantageous.
ReplyDeletealso what gun support would you do, would you prefer a gun or a missile platform like javelin?
an interesting idea if you want firepower is to put a phalanx CIWS on there, it would lay down ALOT of fire real quick! :)
ReplyDeleteman, i don't know Joe...what i do know is that the Riverine Forces of Vietnam fame had dedicated air support in the form of Sea Wolves operating armed UH-1 gunships. i know that those guys had monitor gunships...heavily armed barges i guess...i know that the guys today don't have that support.
ReplyDeletethey almost look like a lower tier of SEAL delivery teams. i mean heck, i bet if you asked them they couldn't tell you exactly what their mission is. but it looks like they're playing at being naval infantry with a primary mission of conducting raids ....
they zoom down rivers, light up an area, and then zoom back out. what the mission set is...i don't know.
More info. The ship is a Project 1204 class ship and a line drawing is here, another action shot here,
ReplyDeleteSoloman if you are impressed by these look up what the Romanian navy uses to patrol the Danube. :)
ReplyDeletewell since russia is a land power with alot of neighboors then i can definately see the utility of that for russia, but i am having difficulty of seeing these kind of ships utility. i think our coast guard cutters who work as naval screening vessels do a good job, and with new cutters coming online with a main gun but speed and such i am not sure we need something with a tank turret on it. now that we are delivering seals by submarine, if its close to shore we dont need riverine forces, only if we are an occupying force that needs to patrol rivers would we need those kinds of forces and since thast notoriously hard to predict we can plan for contingencies but i rather foucs the monies on a strong blue water navy and some littoral assets (although you knwo how much i like the LCS is a piece of shit the need for littoral assets is there). i think the coast guard cutters we have are doing a fine job and did show their utility when doing littoral security in iraq.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/morflot-riverine-sov.htm
ReplyDeleteHello guys!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, TLAM Strike, Romanian Riverine Fleet haves, maybe the most impressive riverine armoured ships - monitors and armoured patrol ships - in the world.
Or, at least, no other country haves so sexy armoured riverine ships. :)
Monitors, Brutar class:
2 x 100 mm turrets
2 x 40 x 122 mm MLRS
14,5 and 30 mm AAA
Strela
Here it is "47" Lascar Catargiu, Brutar Class monitor:
http://resboiu.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/monitor-lascar-catargiu-portul-midia-2007.jpg
more pictures about above romanian river "brutar" class here:
ReplyDeletehttp://romaniaforum.org/index.php?page=Thread&postID=379
Do a Google search for Proj. 1208 Yaz-/Slepen-class & Proj. 1248 Vosh-/Moskit-class and you'll know what else can be found on Russian rivers. By the way most of these heavy armored monitors are used for riverine border patrol (the Russians protect their southern border with China with the aforementioned monitors).
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHere are some links where all three of these boat classes (1204 Shmel, 1248 Vosh & 1208 Slepen) are described:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kaskus.us/showthread.php?p=386002519 (this one is in some foreign language, but the ships' specs are in English)
http://www.fyjs.cn/bbs/read.php?tid=109105 (& this one is in Chinese, but the pics are still cool, though).
Make sure to check out proj. 1206 Murena-/Tsaplya riverine hovercraft which is pretty cool, I think:
http://www.moddb.com/groups/ship-lovers-group/images/na1263195812