Hellenic Navy commissions 6th Super Vita-class fast attacking crafts.

Hellenic Navy commissioned 6th Super Vista-class (also known as Roussen-class) guided missile fast attacking craft named Karathansis (hull number: P-78) with a ceremony held at Scaramanga Naval Shipyard on July 28 2020.
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HS Karathanasis (Picture source: Hellenic Navy)

During the commissioning ceremony, the Greece Minister of Defence Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos emphasized the importance of naval power of Greece in the Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean region.

“The powerful Armed Forces send a message to both enemies and allies: Although a peaceful country committed to the principles of international law and to the cooperation of peoples, Greece is able at any time to exercise its power over it. to defend its sovereign rights.” the minister said.

The first ship of the class P 67 Ypoploiarchos Roussen was launched in November 2002 and commissioned in December 2005. The last ship of the class, P 79 will likely be launched next year. The ship got her name from an AB-212 helicopter pilot who lost his life during the Imia crisis between Turkey and Greece in 1996.

Greece Ministry of Defence, Chairman of the Permanent Parliamentary Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, Chief of Staff of the Greek Armed Forces and Chief of the Hellenic Navy attending the ceremony. (Picture source: Hellenic Navy)

About the Super Vista-class FACM:

The Roussen-class FACM is based on a stretched variant of the successful Vita design in used with the navies of Qatar and Oman.

They have a length of 62 meters, a of beam 9.5 meters, a draft of 2.6 meters for a full load displacement of 668 tons. They have a crew of 45 sailors and a maximum speed of 35 knots.

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. Exocet uses active radar homing and has a range of 70km. The two four-cylinder launchers are installed on the missile deck, set in a crossed configuration with one facing starboard and one facing port side.

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 missile system’s GMWS mk31 21-cell launcher is installed on the stern deck. The RIM-116A Block I missile has a dual-mode radar/imaging infra-red seeker and a range of 10km.

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 ship is equipped with the Argo Systems AR900 electronic support measures system and the Sippican SRBOC decoy launcher.