Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 3:14:00-3:15:57

Nordic fast attack craft and missing mass

Skjold, Hamina, and Visby are strong designs whose small fleet totals undermine the massed littoral tactics they were meant to support.

Fast Attack CraftFinnish NavyLittoral WarfareLive Q&ARoyal Norwegian NavySkjold Class CorvettesSwedish NavyVisby Class Corvettes
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Question

Which navy has the best fast attack craft?

Short answer

Norway's Skjold, Finland's Hamina, and Sweden's Visby designs are the leading candidates, but each navy bought too few for the massed littoral tactics envisioned.

Notes

The leading Nordic candidates are Norway's Skjold, Finland's Hamina, and Sweden's Visby classes rather than one obvious winner. Their common weakness is fleet size. Six Norwegian, four Finnish, and five Swedish vessels leave each navy with fewer hulls than its coastline and mass-attack concepts appear to require. An excellent small combatant does not by itself create an adequate force structure. Post-Cold War reductions left these designs in small classes despite their intended use in massed attacks. The suggested requirement was closer to a dozen of each for their respective coastlines.