Cyclone (PC 1)
These 13 fast patrol craft are the first of their kind to be built for the US Navy since the Vietnam War and are among the largest ever procured for that service. They are based on the British-built Egyptian Navy Ramadan-c\as$ missile boats, but are gun-armed craft intended to patrol US coastlines as well as covertly deploying US Navy Sea-Air-Land (SEAL) teams.
The stern is cut away to form a boat-landing dock for Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIB). Below decks are four Paxman Val-enta diesels, each driving a fixed-pitch propeller through Reintjes reverse-reduction gearboxes; the gearboxes have a trolling valve for slow speeds and loiter.
A RIM-92 Stinger short-range surface-to-air missile system is mounted in a Stabilized Weapons Platform System
(SWPS) on the fantail. Additional weapons include two Mk 88 mounts bearing Mk 38 Sea Snake 25-mm Chain Guns, two Mk 19 40-mm grenade machine guns, and two 12.7-mm and two 7.62-mm machine guns.
DEVELOPMENT •
The Patrol Boat Coastal (PBC) program was funded in FY1989 at the insistence of Congress as a considerably larger successor to the failed Sea Viking program. Delays in the selection of engine and hull builders postponed the first lay-down to June 22, 1991. Bollinger Machine Shop and Shipyard of Lockport, Louisiana, built 13 PBCs (16 were originally planned).
SPECIFICATIONS •
DISPLACEMENT 315 tons full load
DIMENSIONS
length 170 ft 7 in (52.0m)
beam 25 ft (7.6 m)
MACHINERY 4 Paxman Valenta diesels,
13,400 bhp on 4 shafts=35 kts, range
2,000 nm at 12 kts, endurance 10 days CREW 28 + 9 SEALs
WEAPONS
2 Stinger SAM in twin mount
2 25-mm Mk 88 Sea Snake cannon in
single mounts 2 40-mm Mk 19 grenade machine
guns in single mounts 2 12.7-mm machine guns in single
mounts
2 7.62-mm machine guns in single mounts SENSORS
RASCAR surface-search radar Wesmar side-scanning sonar
Pegasus (PHM 1)
These six high-speed, heavily armed hydrofoil missile craft were originally built to trail and attack hostile warships in “chokepoints” or other restricted areas; they were to have been based in the Mediterranean. They saw their most extensive service, however, as part of the US drug interdiction effort in the Caribbean.
These are speedy and highly maneu-verable craft, capable of more than 50 knots and able to turn more than 8°/sec. All foils are fully submerged foils (as opposed to surface-piercing). A broad delta bow foil providing one-third the total lift is carried on a single strut on the cen-terline; this strut swings 90° forward for hullborne operations. The rectangular foil is carried by two struts, one on each stern quarter; these pivot back 90°. Trim tabs on the foils aid lift.
Propulsion comes from three waterjets driven by a Combined Diesel or Gas (CODOG) set of two diesels and one gas turbine. The gas turbine uses reduction gears to drive a single water jet pumping up to 141,000 US gal (533,685 liters) of water per minute. Off-foil, the diesels each drive 30,000-gal/min (113,550 liter/min) water jets. A through-bow thruster is provided for low-speed maneuvering.
Harpoon antiship missiles provide the main punch; up to eight can be carried. Main gun armament is a 76-mm gun mount forward. No antisubmarine warfare capability and no secondary gun battery are provided. The PHM design provides for two 20-mm Mk 20 single gun mounts to be fitted abaft the mast.
DEVELOPMENT •
Originally ordered in the early 1970s, these craft were to be a part of a trinational (US, Italy, and West Germany) program; the US was to supply five six-craft squadrons. Cost growth, delays, and a high degree of skepticism about their mission soon drove the other navies out. After a change of administrations, the Hercules and following craft were canceled in April 1977. Congress insisted on their being built and they entered service in 1981-83 after their construction by Boeing Marine of Seattle, Washington.
All six craft were based at Key West, Florida, in PHM Squadron 2. Fleet reductions that began in the early 1990s led to decommissioning all the PHMs on July 30, 1993.
SPECIFICATIONS •
DISPLACEMENT 265 tons full load
DIMENSIONS
length 147 ft 4 in (44.9m)
overall (foils retracted), 131 ft 7 in (40.1 m) overall (foils extended) beam 28 ft 2 in (8.6 m)
draft 6 ft 4 in (1.9m) (foils
retracted), 23 ft 3 in (7.1 m) (foils extended)
MACHINERY CODOG (1 General Electric LM 2500 gas turbine, 16,767 shp
and 2 MTU 8V331 diesels, 1,630
bhp), 2 waterjets hullborne = 12 kts, 1 waterjet foilborne=50 kts, range
1,225 nm at 11 kts hullborne, 600+
nm at 40+ kts foilborne
CREW 25 WEAPONS
8 Harpoon antiship missiles in 2 quad canisters
1 3-in (76-mm)/62-cal Mk 75 AA gun
SENSORS
SPS-63 surface-search radar Mk 92 gunfire control system SLR-20 EW system
