Equipping the fast attack crafts with the anti-ship missiles dates back to the early
1950s. However, the first vessel which was delicately designed as a missile boat and
commissioned was the Soviet Project 205 Moskit-class. This class of boats were used by many coastal
countries that had close relations with the USSR during the First Cold War. Its NATO reporting
name is Osa which means Wasp. It played a key role in the development of modern missile
boats, with its the success of its design. So the boat deserves to be called a true naval
legend. Now we are investigating the Osa-class. Please don't forget to subscribe to our channel,
before we start and give us a thumbs up if you like our video.
Designated by the Soviet Navy as "large missile cutters", the Osa-class is the offspring of
the 1950s naval warfare perspective, when the Jeune École doctrine evolved and shined
again. In those years, the naval planners of the
USSR were planning to use cruisers as commerce raiders on the high seas while they relied
on small vessels for coastal defence against large naval fleets of the NATO countries.
The torpedo boats that the Soviet Navy relied upon in coastal defence were equipped with
torpedoes with a range of about 4,000 to 6,000 metres.
However, anti-ship missiles, which reached maturity in the 1950s, had a range of 40,000
metres. So, the USSR began the construction of a missile-equipped
model of the Project 183-class torpedo boats in 1956.
These fast attack crafts called Project 183R-class became the world's first missile boats. Although
it was revolutionary in terms of naval combat tactics, the vessel whose NATO reporting name
is Komar had serious shortcomings. Indeed, they were cheap and efficient boats
yet their endurance, sea keeping, and habitability were barely sufficient.
The missile boxes of the Komar-class were vulnerable to damage from waves. The radar
set of the wooden-hulled boat did not have a fire control unit. The Komar-class was equipped
with only one twin-barrel 25mm gun turret which was manually operated and had a simple
optical sight. This gun was not effective against modern air threats.
Therefore, the Soviet Navy decided to develop a new and bigger boat to solve all these problems.
The first boat of the Osa-class was laid down on July 11, 1958, and commissioned on December
29, 1960. The hull of the Osa-class was made of steel,
while the superstructure was made of light alloys.
During the design phase, it had been planned that the boat could operate autonomously for
five days. Therefore there were two toilets on board, but they were not used because the
drain pipes were too thin. The showers onboard were also insufficient.
The early construction models of the Osa-class were equipped with three 4,000 horsepower
M-503G diesel engines which provided the maximum speed of 38.5 knots. In later versions, these
engines were replaced with 5,000 horsepower M-504B diesel.
Thanks to this change, the maximum speed increased to 42 knots. However, it caused a full load
displacement to increase by 15 tons and draft by 1.1 metres.
Two engines were placed in the forward engine room and the third engine in the aft engine
room. There was a control compartment between the two engine rooms.
During the First Cold War, the Soviet Navy had a doctrine based on the combined use of
two missile boat brigades, operating in parallel columns with each other, to attack the NATO
fleets. In the event of a possible war, these columns would have advanced as close to the
shore or skerries, using masking. In front of the column the boats equipped with short-range
missiles poitioned while the boats equipped with long-range stayed at the rear. When the
attack started, these brigades would have suddenly turned towards their target and advanced
at full speed. When the target would within range, salvo firing would have been made at
a timing that all missiles would have reached the target zone simultaneously.
According to Soviet naval tactics, seven to eight missiles should be launched against
a cruiser-size ship and four against a destroyer-size target.
This class of boats has two main production versions. The Osa I-class had the box-shaped
missile launchers. The later model, the Project 205U, also known
as the Osa II, were equipped with the tube-shaped missile launchers.
There are also some experimental and modernized versions of the Osa-class.
The complement of the Osa I is 28 people, while the Osa II has a 29-person crew. These
boats have a length of 38.6 metres, a beam of 7.6 metres and a draft of 1.84 metres.
The fully-loaded displacement of the Osa I is 226 tons, while the Osa II has 235 tons.
Three 5,000 horsepower M-504B diesel engines provide a top speed of 42 knots. The boats
can reach a range of 1800 nautical miles with a speed of 14 knots and a range of 800 nautical
miles at a speed of 30 knots. These vessels launch different versions of the P-15 Termite
missile, depending on their model. The boat has two 30mm twin-barrel AK-230 guns. The
sensors and processing systems of the Osa-class consist of an MR-331 Rangout air-surface search
radar, MR-104 Rys fire-control radar, Nikhrom-RRM and Nickel IFF, ARP-58SV radio direction finder,
and Klyon fire-control system. The Osa-class missile boats are still on the
active list of the navies of Algeria, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, Syria,
and Vietnam. However, the situation of these vessels is
uncertain in Libya because of civil war. The Azerbaijani Navy dismantled the missiles
from its Osa-class boats and replaced the forward AK-230 with a manually operated 37mm
gun. Besides, these crafts were once used with
the flags of the navies of Angola, Benin, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, East Germany, Ethiopia,
Finland, India, Iraq, Latvia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Somalia, the USSR,
and Yugoslavia. Between 1965 and 1968, China acquired seven
Osa I-class missile boats from the USSR and later copied the craft under the name Type
021-class. Its NATO reporting name is Huangfeng. This
model is equipped with HY-2 anti-ship missiles, which are the Chinese reverse-engineered copy
versions of the P-15s. Also, some boats have 25mm twin-barrel guns
instead of the AK-230. The Huangfeng-class decommissioned by China
and Pakistan, are still used in Bangladesh, North Korea, and Yemen.
Bangladesh replaced the HY-2s of four of these boats with the C-704s and removed the missile
launchers from the remaining one. The Yemeni Type 021s have the C-801 missiles
instead of the HY-2s. North Korea, after purchasing Osas from the
USSR and Huangfengs from China, copied these boots which is known as the Soju-class. These
vessels have a length of 42.5 metres and a fully-loaded displacement of 265 tons.
The Tondar-class boats used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are also a modified version
of the Huangfeng-class. The Project 205P Tarantul-class, with its
NATO reporting name Stenka, is the anti-submarine patrol boat version of the Osa-class.
The main weapon of the Osa I-class, the P-15 has a range of 40 kilometres. The NATO reporting
name of these missiles is SS-N-2 Styx. In the Osa II-class, the P-15U model is used.
The range of this version, which has many improvements compared to its predecessor,
is also 40 kilometres. The P-15U can be armed with either a 375-kilogram shape charged conventional
or a nuclear warhead. The speed of these two versions is Mach 0.9. With a later modernization,
some Osa-class boats gained the ability to launch the P-15M model. Thanks to changing
the location of its fuel tank and types of its fuel, this version can reach a range of
80 kilometres. Its radar is more resistant against electronic countermeasure systems
than its predecessor’s. During the terminal phase, the P-15M can flight at the altitude
of between 25 to 50 metre with a speed of Mach 1.3. The missile has 513-kilogram high
explosive warhead. Before the launch of the P-15, the boat has
to approach the target at an angle of 10 to 15 degrees, hold its course for 20 to 30 seconds,
and keep its speed under 15 knots. In a first salvo, two missiles can be launched, and following
1 minute, the boat can send another two P-15s. Unlike the P-15, the HY-2 has a speed of Mach
0.8 and a range of 200 kilometres. The C-801 used in Yemeni Huangfengs has a
speed of 0,9 Mach and a range of 42 kilometres. The AK-230 can be used against targets over
4,000 metres range. The theoretical rate of fire of the gun is 2,000 rounds per minute.
However, after every 100 rounds of bursts, the firing must be suspended for the barrel
to cool down. Associating with I / J-band MR-104 Rys, with
its NATO reporting name Drum Tilt, fire control radar, the AK-230 is not supported by an electro-optical
sight, so it has limited effectiveness against sea-skimming missiles.
Double or quadruple 9K32M Strela-2M air defence missile systems were installed on the Cuban
and Egyptian Osa-class boats. Its NATO reporting name is SA-N-5 Grail. These missiles are effective
against air targets at a range of 4,200 metres and an altitude of 2,300 metres.
Many of its users have also mounted machine guns on their Osas.
With a modernization program, Egypt has installed three 4,000 horsepower MTU diesel engines,
a Type 916 navigation radar, and a DR 875 radar warning receiver as well as a Matilda
electronic jammer on its Osa-class boats. There are the PK-16 decoy launchers on the
Syrian crafts. There are both successes and failures in the
battle records of the Osa-class. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, besides
the Pakistan Navy’s destroyer PNS Khaibar and minesweeper PNS Muhafiz, some Pakistani
merchant ships were sunk by 13 P-15s launched from Indian Osa-class missile boats.
In the same attack, one of the fuel tanks in the Karachi port was hit by these missiles.
However, the Osa-class boats of the Egyptian and Syrian navies did not achieve the same
success in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. During the Battle of Latakia, the SAAR 3 boats
of the Israeli Navy engaged with two Syrian Komar-class and one Osa-class missile boats.
The Syrians launched their P-15s at long range, but the missiles were successfully deceived
by the electronic countermeasure systems and decoys.
After that, Israeli boats closed the range and sunk one Komar and the Osa immediately
by using the Gabriel missiles. After two days, in the Battle of Baltim, this
time three of the four Egyptian Osas were sunk by Israeli boats.
During the Yom Kippur War, Arabian Osa-class boats did not claim any victories.
At the early stage of the Iran-Iraq War, in 1980, near Al-Faw and Umm Qasr, two Iraqi
Osas were sunk with the Harpoon missiles fired from Iranian Combattante II-class missile
boat Peykan. Also, İranian F-4s sunk additional two Osas
were and damaged one Osa in the same battle. But the wasp also knew how to sting its enemy.
During the war, it is known that the Iraqi Osas sunk at least one Iranian tanker. Also,
they seriously damaged the oil depots on Kharg Island in 1982.
In the 1991 Gulf War, the Coalition Forces hit five Iraqi Osa-class boats.
One of these crafts was sunk by a US A-6 Intruder. The last Osa-class boats were commissioned
in 1976. They are over the 30-year mark that is accepted as a useful life limit for a surface
combatant. Plus, their P-15 missiles and AK-230 gun are also far from meeting modern naval
warfare requirement. Therefore, it is inevitable that we will soon watch the retirement of
the last remaining Osas. However, with their beautiful silhouettes and their mark on history,
they will remain one of the unforgettable legends in our minds and hearts.
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