The ''Hamina''-class missile boat is a class of fast attack craft of the

Finnish Navy The Finnish Navy ( , ) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. The navy employs 2,300 people and about 4,300 conscripts are trained each year. Finnish Navy vessels are given the ship prefix "FNS", short for "Finnish Navy ship", but ...

. They are classified as "missile fast attack craft" or ''ohjusvene'', literally "

missile boat 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 ...

" in Finnish. The ''Hamina'' FACs are based at

Upinniemi Upinniemi () is a village in the municipality of Kirkkonummi in southern Finland. It is located approximately 12 km south of the municipal centre. Upinniemi is dominated by the Finnish naval base, which is one of the largest military instal ...

, and form the 7th Surface Warfare Squadron, part of the Finnish Coastal Fleet, together with the minelayers MLC ''Hämeenmaa'', ''Porkkala'' and ''Pyhäranta''.

History

The vessels were built in the late 1990s, early 2000s, and are the fourth generation of Finnish missile craft. The first vessel was ordered in December 1996 and the fourth was handed over on 19 June 2006. Since the launch of the s, all fast attack craft have been named after Finnish coastal cities. The class was previously known also as ''Rauma 2000'' following its predecessor the . The four vessels form what the Finnish Navy calls ''Squadron 2000'' (). Initially the Finnish Navy considered several different compositions for the new squadron, and at one point only two ''Hamina''-class vessels and four ACV were to have been built. After a strategic shift of the Finnish Navy's role, the composition of the Squadron 2000 followed suit. The ''Tuuli''-class prototype was never fully equipped, nor fitted for operational use and its three sisters were cancelled, instead two more ''Hamina''-class boats have been built; with some of the equipment intended for the ''Tuuli''s being used in the ''Hamina''s. The fourth and final ''Hamina''-class vessel was delivered in summer 2006. The squadron reached its full operational capability in 2008 and have greatly improved the surface- and air surveillance as well as air defense capability of the Finnish Navy. Their electronic surveillance suite also increases the quality of information available to military leaders. All ships were built at

Rauma shipyard Rauma shipyard () is a shipyard in Rauma, Finland. It was previously operated by STX Finland which is owned by the South Korean STX Corporation. Rauma shipyard is specialized in large Ferry, ferries, small cruise ships, multipurpose icebreakers and ...

Aker Finnyards STX Finland Oy, formerly Aker Yards Oy, was a Finnish shipbuilding company operating three shipyards in Finland, in Turku, Helsinki and Rauma, employing some 2,500 people. It was part of STX Europe, a group of international shipbuilding compani ...

in Rauma,

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. The vessels have their home base at

. In March 2014 it was announced that the ''Hamina''-class missile boats will be upgraded in the near future. In late 2024 Finnish Navy published plans to contribute one FAC to the SNMG1 for up to one month. It was later announced in January 2025 that FNS ''Pori'' of the ''Hamina''-class would be part of the

Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1) is one of NATO's standing naval maritime immediate reaction forces. SNMG1 consists of four to six destroyers and frigates. Its role is to provide NATO with an immediate operational response capability. H ...

task force, during which time SNMG1 would be conducting operations for securing underwater infrastructure in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

Mid-life update

Modernization of the four ''Hamina''-class ships began in 2018 and was completed in April 2022, The MLU programme will enable the ''Haminas'' to continue their service into the mid 2030's. The main gun armament is being changed from 57mm to 40mm in order to save weight. The vessels were already at maximum weight and in order to introduce torpedoes this had to be changed.

Design

The vessel's hull is constructed of

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

and the superstructures are constructed of reinforced

carbon fiber Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers ( Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon comp ...

composite. The vessels have a very low displacement and are very manoeuverable. They are equipped with water jets instead of propellers, which allow them to operate in very shallow waters and accelerate, slow down and turn in unconventional ways. The ''Hamina'' class are very potent vessels, boasting surveillance and firepower capacities which are usually found in ships twice the size.

Stealth technology

The ''Hamina'' class have been designed and constructed as

stealth ship A stealth ship is a ship that employs stealth technology construction techniques in an effort to make it harder to detect by one or more of radar, visual, sonar, and infrared methods. These techniques borrow from stealth aircraft technology, alth ...

s, with minimal magnetic, heat, and radar signatures. The shape of the vessel has been designed to reduce

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

signature. Metal parts have been covered with

radar absorbent material In materials science, radiation-absorbent material (RAM) is a material which has been specially designed and shaped to absorb incident RF radiation (also known as non-ionising radiation), as effectively as possible, from as many incident direc ...

, and the composite parts have radar absorbent material embedded in their structure. Radar transparent materials have been used where applicable. Unlike glass fiber, carbon fiber blocks radio waves. This protects the ship's electronics against

electromagnetic pulse An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also referred to as a transient electromagnetic disturbance (TED), is a brief burst of electromagnetic energy. The origin of an EMP can be natural or artificial, and can occur as an electromagnetic field, as an ...

. In addition, it stops any radio frequency signals generated by the ship's electronic devices from escaping outside. Except for the bridge, the vessel has no windows that would allow the signals to escape. The vessel contains hardly any steel parts, thus generating very low magnetic field. The remaining magnetic field is actively canceled with

electromagnet An electromagnet is a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by an electric current. Electromagnets usually consist of wire (likely copper) wound into a electromagnetic coil, coil. A current through the wire creates a magnetic ...

s. Exhaust gases can be directed underwater to minimize the thermal signature, or up in the air to minimize the underwater acoustic signature. 50 nozzles around the decks and upper structures can be used to spray seawater on the vessel to cool it. In addition, the nozzles can be used to clean the ship after chemical attack or radioactive fall-out.

Weapons

The ''Hamina'' class have the latest in surveillance and weapons technology all integrated into an intelligent command system. A Hamina class vessel can monitor about of air space and its Umkhonto surface-to-air missile system can simultaneously engage a maximum of eight aircraft, up to away, while the vessel's anti-ship missiles have a range in excess of . The ''Hamina'' class' primary weaponry is four RBS-15 Mk.3 anti-ship missiles. They are further equipped with a Bofors 57 mm gun for surface and aerial targets as well as the Umkhonto-IR surface-to-air missiles, MASS decoy system and two 12.7 mm heavy machine guns. It is also possible to use the ships for minelaying. The software of the centralized combat control system is

COTS COTS may refer to: * Commercial off-the-shelf, products that are commercially available and can be bought "as is" * Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, a NASA program for delivery to the International Space Station by private companies * ...

oriented, built on top of Linux running on redundant x86 rack servers, which makes maintenance and future updates and optimizations simpler. In early 2018, Finland announced the mid-life upgrade program, which will equip all four boats in the class with new Swedish lightweight anti-submarine warfare torpedoes in the years 2023−2025 and extend the life of the boats to 2035.

Vessels

;FNS ''Hamina'' :Pennant number: 80 :Builder:

:Ordered: December 1996 :Commissioned: 24 August 1998 :Home base: Upinniemi :Current status: In active service. ;FNS ''Tornio'' :Pennant number: 81 :Builder:

:Ordered: 15 February 2001 :Commissioned: 12 May 2003 :Home base: Upinniemi :Current status: In active service ;FNS ''Hanko'' :Pennant number: 82 :Builder:

:Ordered: 3 December 2003 :Commissioned: 22 June 2005 :Home base: Upinniemi :Current status: In active service Missile boat Pori South Harbor 1

;FNS ''Pori'' :Pennant number: 83 :Builder:

:Ordered: 15 February 2005 :Commissioned: 19 June 2006 :Home base: Upinniemi :Current status: In active service

Similar ships

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