Singapore is the smallest country in Southeast Asia but has the leading economy in the region
Thanks to a strong economy, Singapore's defense investment is quite abundant
Currently, the Singapore Navy has six Victory-class corvettes, operated by the 188 Squadron
The Republic of Singapore Navy placed an order with Lürssen Werft for six missile corvettes in 1983
The first corvette was built and launched in Germany
The remaining vessels were built domestically by Singapore Technologies
The last ship in class, RSS Vengeance (93), was launched in February 1990 and commissioned in to the RSN in May 1991
The ships have a displacement of about 595 tons, a length of 62 m, a beam of 8.5 m, and a draft of 2.6 m
Victory Class is outfitted with a state-of-the-art enhanced combat management system
The system delivers superior performance, similar to that of Formidable Class frigates
It provides the corvettes with the ability to detect, track and engage various surface, underwater and air threats
These capabilities will allow the corvettes to deal with potential threats
Regarding armament, the missile corvettes are equipped with Harpoon anti-ship missiles and Barak anti-air and anti-missile naval defence system
Harpoon can engage surface targets within the range of 100km
Barak is an Israeli point-defence missile, developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems
It can protect the ships from aircraft and missile threats. The missile has a range of ten kilometres
Other weapons include an Oto Melara super rapid gun on the bow deck which can engage both surface and air targets within the range of 16km
The gun can fire at a rate of 120 rounds a minute
There are also 4 × STK 50MG 12.7 mm heavy machine guns
About anti-submarine warfare, the corvettes are fitted with two triple torpedo tubes for launching EuroTorp A244/S Mod 1 torpedoes
which has a maximum speed of 30-39kt and can strike submarines within the depth of 600m
It can be seen that although they are only small warships, they are equipped with extremely powerful weapons
The countermeasures are provided by Elisra shipborne electronic warfare system
jammer, Plessey Shield chaff launchers and Rafael long range chaff launchers
The chaff can deceive incoming radar-guided anti-ship missiles
Because of their small size, the Victory class lacked a flight deck and hangar to support heli operations
However, these ships are modified to launch and operate an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
The RSN acquired the Scan Eagle UAV system as part of the upgrade programme
Regarding the Propulsion, the Victory class is equipped with 4× Maybach MTU 16 V 538 TB93 high speed diesels driving four propellers via four shafts
The propulsion system provides a maximum speed of 30kt and a range of 4,000nmi