Hellenic Navy ‘s 6th Roussen-class FAC arrives Salamis base after sea trials

Hellenic Navy’s newest Roussen-class (Super Vita) guided missile fast patrol boat HS Karathanasis (pennant number: P-78) arrived Salamis Naval Base after performing sea trials, Hellenic Navy announced. The commissioning of HS Karathansis is scheduled in July.

Full operational integration of the ship is intended to be completed after the ship joined to the Fleet of the Hellenic Navy.

The Roussen class is a seven-strong class of British-design fast attack missile boats improved and customized for the Hellenic Navy, also known as Super Vita.

The design of the 62 meters fast attack craft is based on the smaller Vita class vessels already in service with the Qatar Emiri Navy and similar-sized craft built for Oman and other countries.

The first three vessels are armed with the MBDA (formerly EADS Aerospatiale-Matra) Exocet ITL 70A MM40 block II surface-to-surface missile. The following four vessels have the Exocet block III version. The vessel’s air defence missile system is the RAM (rolling airframe missile), to be supplied by RAMSYS, a consortium of MBDA (formerly EADS Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace), Diehl and BGT.

The craft’s main gun installed on the bow deck is the Oto Melara Super Rapid 76mm gun which is capable of firing 6kg shells at a rate of 100 rounds a minute to a range of 16km. Two Oto Melara 30mm guns are installed on either side of the upper deck to the stern of the main radar mast.

The vessel’s sensor suite includes the Thales MW08 3D G-band surveillance radar, Thales Nederland Mirador electro-optical target tracker, an integrated Thales Nederland Scout mkII low probability of intercept radar and Northrop Grumman (formerly Litton) Marine Bridgemaster-E navigation radar.

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