KRI ''Nala'' (363) is an

Indonesian Navy The Indonesian Navy (, TNI-AL) is the Navy, naval branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It was founded on 10 September 1945 and has a role to patrol Indonesia's lengthy coastline, to enforce and patrol the territorial waters and Exclus ...

ship named after , a military commander of the

Majapahit Empire Majapahit (; (eastern and central dialect) or (western dialect)), also known as Wilwatikta (; ), was a Javanese Hindu-Buddhist thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia based on the island of Java (in modern-day Indonesia). At its greatest ...

. The ship is a missile-equipped

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

, the third ship of .

Design

''Nala'' has a length of , a beam of , a draught of and displacement of standard and at full load. The ship has two shafts and powered with CODOG-type propulsion, which consisted of one

Rolls-Royce Olympus The Rolls-Royce Olympus (originally the Bristol B.E.10 Olympus) was the world's second two- spool axial-flow turbojet aircraft engine design, first run in May 1950 and preceded only by the Pratt & Whitney J57, first-run in January 1950. It i ...

TM-3B

gas turbine A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...

with and two MTU 16V956 TB81 diesel engines with . The ship has a range of while cruising at and top speed of . ''Nala'' has a complement of 89 personnel, including 11 officers. The ship are armed with one Bofors 120 mm Automatic Gun L/46, two

Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70 The Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70, (Bofors 40 mm L/70, Bofors 40 mm/70, Bofors 40/70 and the like), is a multi-purpose autocannon developed by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors (today BAE Systems Bofors) during the secon ...

and two

Rheinmetall Mk 20 Rh-202 The Rheinmetall Mk 20 Rh-202 (short for ''Maschinenkanone 20 mm Rheinmetall'') is a 20 mm caliber autocannon designed and produced by Rheinmetall. It fires the 20×139mm ammunition originally developed for the Hispano-Suiza HS.820. The cann ...

autocannons. For anti-submarine warfare, the ship is equipped with one Bofors 375 mm twin anti-submarine rocket launcher. For surface warfare, ''Nala'' was equipped with four

Exocet The Exocet () is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from Warship, surface vessels, Submarine, submarines, Helicopter, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Etymology The missile's name was given by M. Guil ...

MM 38 anti-ship missile launchers. Due to obsolescence, the ship never carried the missiles since early 2000s. ''Nala'' also has a flight deck and telescopic hangar astern and able to carry a single helicopter, unlike other ships in the class. The ship's countermeasure systems consisted of two Vickers Mk 4

chaff Chaff (; ) is dry, scale-like plant material such as the protective seed casings of cereal grains, the scale-like parts of flowers, or finely chopped straw. Chaff cannot be digested by humans, but it may be fed to livestock, ploughed into soil ...

launchers and T-Mk 6 torpedo decoy outfit. As built, the electronics and sensors consisted of HSA DA-05 air and surface surveillance radar, Decca AC 1229 surface warning radar, HSA WM-28 tracking radar, Van der Heem PHS 32 sonar and WCS WM20 fire-control system. As of 2009, some of them were replaced or upgraded, which were consisted of two Knebworth Corvus 8-tubed trainable chaff launchers, ECM MEL Susie-1 and Signaal LIROD fire-control system.

Service history

''Nala'' was laid down on 27 January 1978 at

Wilton-Fijenoord Wilton-Fijenoord was a shipbuilding and repair company in Schiedam, Netherlands from 1929 to 1999. Presently, the shipyard of Wilton-Feijnoord is part of Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam. Merger of Wilton and Fijenoord (1929) Wilton-Fijenoord had two ...

Schiedam, Netherlands Schiedam () is a large town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands. It is located in the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, west of the city Rotterdam, east of the town Vlaardingen and south of the city Delft. In the south, Schi ...

. The ship was launched on 11 January 1979 and was commissioned on 4 August 1980. The ''Nala'' was deployed to help look for the missing

Adam Air Adam Air (incorporated as PT. Adam SkyConnection Airlines) was a privately owned airline based in West Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia. It operated scheduled domestic services to over 20 cities and international services to Penang and Singapore. Its ...

Flight 574.Technical help awaited as plane search continues
- The Jakarta PostFuel spill clue to missing jet
- NWC News - Obtained January 15, 2007.

References

Printed sources

* * Fatahillah-class corvettes Ships built by Wilton-Fijenoord 1979 ships Corvettes of the Cold War {{mil-ship-stub