Length 42m
Beam 8.2m
Height 1.8
The Um Al Maradim Class of missile attack craft have been built for Kuwait by Construction Mecaniques de Normandie (CMN) at their Cherbourg shipyard. The craft are based on CMN’s Combattante I design.Kuwait has ordered eight of the class. The eight are: Um Al Maradim (P3711), Ouha (P3713), Failaka (P3715), Maskan (P3717). Al Ahmadi (P3719), Al Fahaheel (P3721) and Al Yamook. The first vessel was commissioned in July 1998 and the last in June 2000.
CMN’s Combattante range of fast attack craft includes the most recent designs – Combattante IM, Combattante V, VII and VIII and Combattant BR70M. The Combattante IM features a new combat system configuration with an unmanned aerial vehicle.
The Combattante BR70 multi-role corvette has surface and air warfare capability, with a close-in weapon system, point defence missile system, long-range and short-range surface-to-surface missiles, torpedoes, a medium-size helicopter and two unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Combattante I fast attack craft for Kuwait are 42m long and 8.2m wide. The fast attack craft uses a steel hull construction and the full load displacement is 245t.
COMMAND AND CONTROL
The combat data system is the Tavitac, supplied by Thales (formerly Thomson-CSF). The system provides automatic correlation and identification of data provided by the tactical Y Link and the boat’s sensor suite. The combat data system carries out automatic threat evaluation and weapon assignment, target designation, and hard and soft kill coordination.
The vessel’s optronic weapon director is the Najir Mark 2 supplied by Sagem Défense Sécurité (formerly EADS Defence & Electronics) of Les Ulis in France.
MISSILES
The attack craft are armed with two twin launchers for the MBDA (formerly Matra BAe Dynamics) Sea Skua surface-to-surface missiles, mounted on the aft deck. The Sea Skua missile has semi-active radar homing, speed of Mach 0.9 and a range of 15km.
The craft can be fitted with the Simbad twin launcher, supplied by MBDA, for the Mistral surface-to-air missile. Mistral provides short-range air defence against fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft and anti-ship missiles. Mistral’s range is from 0.5km to 5km and speed is Mach 2.6. The missile has a 3kg warhead and infra-red seeker.
GUNS
The vessel’s main gun, the Oto Melara 40mm gun, is installed on the bow deck. The Giat type M621 20mm gun is mounted at the stern and there are also two 12.7mm general purpose machine guns.
COUNTERMEASURES
The vessels are equipped with the Thales DR-3000 S radar warning receiver operating in D to K bands. The system uses a combination of omni-directional antennas and directional monopulse masthead antenna arrays and provides a directional accuracy of better than 1° for targeting.
The ship’s radar jammer is the Salamandre developed by Thales Optrosys based in Saint Claud, France, which is used to counter hostile I-, H- and J-band surveillance radars and missiles equipped with radar seekers.
The ship can be fitted with two Sagem Défense Sécurité (formerly EADS Defence & Electronics) Dagaie decoy launchers. The Dagaie system deploys long-range chaff and infra-red decoys for confusion and distraction mode jamming.
SENSORS
The boat’s BAE SYSTEMS Seaspray fire control radar is mounted at the top of the main mast. Thales MRR 3D air and surface search radar, operating at E and F bands is installed on the radar platform at the top of the radar tower. The Racal I-band navigation radar is installed on the front of the radar tower.
PROPULSION
The propulsion system is based on two 2.94MW diesel engines supplied by MTU with two water jet systems developed by KaMeWa AB of Sweden. The patrol boat is capable of a maximum speed of 30kt. At an economical speed of 15kt, the range is over 1,300 miles.