The Osa class is probably the most numerous class of missile boats ever built, with over 400 vessels constructed between 1960 and 1973 for both the Soviet Navy and for export to allied countries. Osa means wasp in Russian,[citation needed] but it is not an official name. The boats were designated as "large missile cutters" in the Soviet Navy.
Origins
While the earlier Komar class were cheap and efficient boats (and the first to sink a warship with guided missiles, destroying the Israeli Navy's Eilat), their endurance, sea keeping, and habitability were modest at best, and the missile box was vulnerable to damage from waves. Among their other weak points were the wooden hull, the radar set lacking a fire control unit, and an inadequate defensive armament consisting of two manually operated 25mm guns with only a simple optical sight in a single turret.
The Komars' offensive weapons were a pair of P-15 Termit (NATO: SS-N-2 "Styx") missiles, and there was insufficient capacity to hold the more modern longer-ranged P-15Ms. The sensors were not effective enough to use the maximum range of the missiles, and the crew of 17 was not large enough to employ all the systems efficiently.
In order to remedy all these shortcomings, it was felt that bigger boats were needed to mount the necessary equipment and to provide more space for a larger crew.
Project
The Project 205 boats are bigger than the pioneering Project 183R (NATO: Komar class) boats, with a mass four times greater, and nearly double the crew. They were still meant to be 'minimal' ships for the planned tasks.
The hull was made of steel, with a low and wide superstructure made of lighter AMG alloys, continuous deck, and a high free-board. The edges of the deck were rounded and smooth to ease washing off radioactive contamination in case of nuclear war. The hull was quite wide, but the Project 205 boats could still achieve high speeds as they had three Zvezda M503 radial diesel engines capable of a combined 12,000hp (15,000hp on Project 205U onward) driving three shafts.
The powerful engines allowed a maximum speed of about 40 knots together with reasonable endurance and reliability. There were also three diesel generators. Two main engines and one generator were placed in the forward engine room, the third main engine and two generators in the aft engine room. There was a control compartment between the two engine rooms.
The problem related to the weak anti-aircraft weaponry of the earlier Project 183R was partially solved with the use of two AK-230 turrets, in the fore and aft deck. An MR-104 Rys (NATO: "Drum Tilt") fire-control radar was placed in a high platform, and controlled the whole horizon, despite the superstructures that were quite wide but low. Even if placed in the aft, this radar had a good field of view all around.
The AK-230 turrets were unmanned, each armed with two 30mm guns capable of firing 2,000 rpm (400 practical) with a 2,500 m practical range. Use against surface targets was possible, but as with the previous Komar ships, once all missiles were expended it was planned to escape and not fight. Truly effective anti-surface gun weaponry was not available until the introduction of the Project 12341.1 Molniya (NATO: "Tarantul") class corvettes, with 76mm guns.
The offensive armament consisted of four P-15 Termit (NATO: SS-N-2 "Styx") missiles, each protected from bad weather conditions inside an enclosing box-shaped launcher. This doubled the available weapons compared to the Project 183R, giving greater endurance. The missiles were controlled by a MR-331 Rangout (NATO: "Top Bow") radar and a Nikhrom-RRM (NATO: "Square Tie") ESM/IFF that even allowed targeting over the horizon, if the target's radar was turned on.
With all these improvements, these ships were considerably more effective. They had one of the first, if not the first close-in weapon systems (CIWS). The survivability rating was improved to 50%, and the required volley of 12 missiles could be launched by only three ships. Sinking a destroyer was therefore regarded as 'assured' using only six ships (two squadrons of three vessels), making the Project 205 vessels easier to coordinate and even cheaper than would be the required number of Project 183R boats to achieve the same effectiveness.
As a result of these improvements, Project 205 boats were without equal in the late 1950/early 1960s. Over 400 were made in USSR, and another 120 in China. Some of the improved Project 205U (Osa II) were equipped with the 9K32 Strela-2 (NATO: SA-N-5 "Grail") surface-to-air missiles in MTU-4 quadruple launchers in an attempt to improve air defence. This new model also had improved, more powerful engines, and new cylindrical missile boxes, with the improved P-15U missiles. The later 205M and 205 mod boats had longer tubes for the further-improved P-15M missiles.
Variants
The Project 205's hull proved to be very versatile and were used as the basis for a whole series of Soviet fast attack craft and patrol boats.
Project 205 ("Osa I"): Original missile boat, recognisable by the box-shaped missile launchers for the P-15/P-15T Termit missiles. 160 built.
Project 205E: Project 205 with 4 KT-62K missile launchers for P-25 missiles and a forward hydroplane, making it capable of reaching up to 50kn (93km/h). 1 built.
Project 205Ch: Project 205 with electric equipment on 400Hz. 1 built.
Project 205U ("Osa II"): Upgraded Project 205 with tube-shaped missile launchers for the improved P-15U missile. 32 built.
Project 205ER: Main export version of the Project 205U. Nikhrom-RRM IFF/ESM, Nickel IFF, and ARP-58SV radio direction finder removed.
Project 205M: Longer missile tubes for P-15M missiles with new Graviy radar complex instead of Rangout/Rys complex. 1 built.
Project 205mod: P-15M missile instead of P-15U. 19 built.
In addition to the above, the Project 206 family of fast attack craft (NATO: Shershen, Turya, and Matka class) are based on the Project 205 and share a common engine room design.
The Israeli Saar missile-boats sank a Syrian Osa class missile-boat during the Battle of Latakia and three Egyptian Osa class missile-boats in the Battle of Baltim. No Israeli ships were damaged in these battles.[2][3]
In contrast, the Indian Navy Osa missile-boats were very successful against the Pakistani Navy in Operation Trident, with a total of five ships sunk, two damaged beyond repair, an oil facility destroyed and Karachi Port held under blockade for no losses.[4][5]
Osas were also used in the Iran–Iraq War, with few losses, especially in a single battle in 1980 when several were destroyed by F-4s with AGM-65s. This battle occurred on 29 November 1980[6] and the Iraqi Navy incurred some damage. Iraq has lost only five missile boats during the eight years of war.[7]
Syrian Osa II's have been used in the Syrian Civil War. Osa IIs were filmed firing their deck guns into the city of Latakia.[8]
The shortcomings that the export Osas had were mainly the low efficiency of their missiles against small and ECM-equipped targets, as seen in the Battle of Latakia. In this conflict, Osas and Komars fired first, thanks to the longer range of missiles and favourable radar propagation conditions, but missed the targets due to jamming, and were not capable of escaping due to some engine malfunctions. The lack of medium caliber gun hampered defence against gunboats, even though the USSR had 37, 45 and 57mm guns capable of being fitted in place of one 30mm gun, as happened in some other vessels, such as the PotiASW corvettes. Effective anti-missile systems were never equipped even though there was no significant size or weight difference between the AK-230 and the AK-630 CIWS.
The successor was the Project 1241 Tarantul class corvette, with twice the displacement and a higher cost, but still initially armed with only four P-15s. They finally had a better electronic suite and a 76mm gun with high rate of fire, along with newer P-270 Moskit and Kh-35 supersonic missiles, AK-630 CIWS, and 'Bass Tilt' radars. Fewer were built however, and so the Osas, after replacing the old Komars, remained widely in service up to the turn of the 21st century.
Operators
About 175 Osa I and 114 Osa II boats were built for the Soviet Navy, the last were decommissioned in about 1990 in the main Soviet fleet. Amongst the post-Soviet countries, one boat is in service with the Azerbaijan Navy and two are in service with the Latvian Navy.
Egyptian Navy – 3 boats (plus two in reserve) remain as of 2007[update] from 13 transferred from the Soviet Union in 1966–68,[9] some of which were sunk during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The survivors were re-engined in 1994 and given Litton Triton radar intercept systems.[9] 5 ex-Yugoslav boats were bought in 2004 for less than $1m a piece, refitted in Montenegro and delivered in 2007.
Finnish Navy – 4 boats transferred 1974–75. Known as Tuima class missile boats. Decommissioned in 2003 and sold to Egyptian Navy, to be used as minelaying boats after being retrofitted.
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The P-15 Termit is an anti-ship missile developed by the Soviet Union's Raduga design bureau in the 1950s. Its GRAU designation was 4K40, its NATO reporting name was Styx or SS-N-2. China acquired the design in 1958 and created at least four versions: the CSS-N-1 Scrubbrush and CSS-N-2 versions were developed for ship-launched operation, while the CSS-C-2 Silkworm and CSS-C-3 Seersucker were used for coastal defence. Other names for this basic type of missile include: HY-1, SY-1, and FL-1 Flying Dragon, North Korean local produced KN-1 or KN-01, derived from both Silkworm variants and Russian & USSR P-15, Rubezh, P-20 P-22.
The Soviet designation Project 1241 Molniya are a class of Russian missile corvettes. They have the NATO reporting name Tarantul. These ships were designed to replace the Project 205M Tsunami missile cutter.
A missile boat or missile cutter is a small, fast warship armed with anti-ship missiles. Being smaller than other warships such as destroyers and frigates, missile boats are popular with nations interested in forming a navy at lower cost. They are similar in concept to the torpedo boats of World War II; in fact, the first missile boats were modified torpedo boats with the torpedo tubes replaced by missile tubes.
A fast attack craft (FAC) is a small, fast, agile, offensive, often affordable warship armed with anti-ship missiles, gun or torpedoes. FACs are usually operated in close proximity to land as they lack both the seakeeping and all-round defensive capabilities to survive in blue water. The size of the vessel also limits the fuel, stores and water supplies. In size they are usually between 50–800 tonnes and can reach speeds of 25–50 knots (46–93 km/h).
The Bulgarian Navy is the navy of the Republic of Bulgaria and forms part of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. It has been largely overlooked in the reforms that Bulgaria had to go through in order to comply with NATO standards, mostly because of the great expense involved and the fact that naval assaults are not considered to be a great concern for the country's security. That is why three of the four Romeo-class submarines are now docked and have been out of operation for some time. The last one was decommissioned in November 2011. Only the more modern frigates, corvettes and missile crafts are on active duty.
Gabriel is a family of sea skimming anti-ship missiles manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The initial variant of the missile was developed in the 1960s in response to the needs of the Israeli Navy which first deployed it in 1970. Since then, variants have been exported to navies around the world. The latest variant, the Gabriel V, is in use by the Finnish and Israeli navies as of 2020.
The Petya class was the NATO reporting name for a class of light frigates designed in the 1950s and built for the Soviet Navy in the 1960s. The Soviet designation was "Storozhevoi Korabl`" Project 159.
China first received a single unit of Soviet Osa-class missile boat in January 1965, and four more in 1966 through 1967 and the last two in 1968. The Hudong Shipyard built the Chinese version as Type 021-class missile boat at a rate of ten boats per year with several different versions. The majority of this class is being transferred to reserve status. Several dozen remain active and these active units are being rearmed with C-101 supersonic anti-ship missiles. Bangladesh Navy Type 021 missile boats rearmed with C-704 high subsonic anti-ship missiles. These boats are effectively used in swarm missile attacks.
The Tuima-class missile boat was a class of fast attack craft used as missile boats by the Finnish Navy.
The Syrian Navy, officially the Syrian Arab Navy, is the navy branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. The main role of the Syrian Navy is to defend the country's coasts and ensure the security of the territorial waters of Syria. The Coastal Defense Forces and the Syrian Marines have been attached to the Navy since the late 20th century. The Syrian navy is a relatively small navy with only 4,000 sailors, in addition to 2,500 reservists and 1,500 marines. It is under the Syrian Army's Latakia regional command with its fleet based in the ports of Baniyas, Latakia, Minet el-Beida, and Tartus. It is the smallest part of the Syrian Armed Forces.
The Soviet Project 183R class, more commonly known as the Komar class, its NATO reporting name, meaning "mosquito", is a class of missile boats, the first of its kind, built in the 1950s and 1960s. Notably, they were the first to sink another ship with anti-ship missiles in 1967.
The Stenka class is the NATO reporting name for a class of patrol boats built for the Soviet Navy and Soviet Allies. The Soviet designation was Project 205P Tarantul. The boats are an anti-submarine (ASW) patrol boat version of the Osa-class missile boat.
The Shershen class was the NATO reporting name for a class of torpedo boats built for the Soviet Navy and allies. The Soviet designation was Project 206 Shtorm.
The Matka class is the NATO reporting name for a group of hydrofoil missile boats built for the Soviet Navy. The Soviet designation was Project 206MR Vikhr. Following the 1997 Black Sea Fleet partition treaty all Black Sea Fleet Matka class boats were passed to the Ukrainian Navy
The Battle of Baltim was fought between the Israeli Navy and the Egyptian Navy on October 8–9, 1973, during the Yom Kippur War. It took place off the Nile delta, between Baltim and Damietta. The battle erupted when six Israeli Sa'ar-class missile boats heading toward Port Said were engaged by four Egyptian Osa-class missile boats coming from Alexandria. It lasted about forty minutes. The Osas fired Styx missiles, missed, and began to withdraw back to Alexandria when the Israelis began to give chase. Two Osas were sunk by Gabriel missiles within a span of ten minutes, and a third was sunk twenty-five minutes later. The fourth made it back to base.
The Veer-class corvettes of the Indian Navy are a customised Indian variant of the Soviet Tarantul class. They form the 22nd Killer Missile Vessel Squadron.
The Chamak-class missile boats of the Indian Navy were an Indian variant of the Soviet Project 205 Moskit
The Second Battle of Latakia was a small naval battle of the Yom Kippur War fought on 11 October 1973 between Israel and Syria. The Israeli Navy force consisted of Sa'ar 2-class, Sa'ar 3-class, and Sa'ar 4-class missile boats armed with Gabriel anti-ship missiles while the Syrian Navy force consisted of Soviet-made Komar- and Osa-class missile boats armed with Soviet-manufactured P-15 Termit anti-ship missiles.
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