KRI ''Sutanto'' (377) is a ''Kapitan Patimura''-class corvette currently operated by the

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 ...

. Before her service in Indonesia, ship was part of the

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

Volksmarine The (VM, ; ) was the Navy, naval force of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1956 to 1990. The was one of the service branches of the National People's Army and primarily performed a Coastal defence and fortification, coastal defence ...

, as ''Prenzlau'' / ''Wismar'' (241).

Specifications

The ''Parchim''-class corvette was developed for the East German Navy in the late 1970s, and built by the

Wolgast Wolgast () is a town in the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the bank of the river (or strait) Peenestrom, vis-a-vis the island of Usedom on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast that can be accessed ...

Peene-Werft. The ships were designed for coastal anti-submarine warfare. In case of an all-out

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...

war in Europe their prime targets would have been the small U-206

coastal submarine A coastal submarine or littoral submarine is a small, maneuverable submarine with a shallow draft (hull), draft well suited to navigating coastal channels and harbors. Although size is not precisely defined, coastal submarines are larger than mi ...

s of the West German navy. The first ship, ''Wismar'' (now the Indonesian KRI ''Sutanto''), was launched on 9 April 1981 in

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

, and subsequently another 15 ships were built until 1986. To make production more economical, the Soviet Union agreed to purchase another 12 ships from Wolgaster Peenewerft built between 1986 and 1990, thereby effectively subsidising the East German shipbuilding industry. The ships of the

Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...

were named Parchim II by NATO. Though useful as a coastal ASW platform, the Soviet production of the similar but far more powerful made this purchase even more illogical for the Soviet Navy. After German re-unification the former East German ships were sold to the TNI-AL (

) in 1993. The Indonesian Navy extensively refurbished their Parchims, to the point where the refurbishing exceeded the cost of purchase. They are still in service, both in the Indonesian Navy and in the Russian

Baltic Fleet The Baltic Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea. Established 18 May 1703, under Tsar Peter the Great as part of the Imperial Russian Navy, the Baltic Fleet is the oldest Russian fleet. In 1918, the fleet w ...

. Indonesian Parchims have completed a major refit to fulfill Indonesian Navy needs. The one twin 57 mm gun AK-725 and one twin 30 mm gun AK-230 were retained except for KRI ''Sultan Thaha Syaifuddin'' where the 30mm AK-230 replaced by Chinese made

Type 730 CIWS The Type 730 is a Chinese seven-barrelled 30 mm Gatling gun/rotary cannon CIWS. It has a PLA Navy designation H/PJ12. It is mounted in an enclosed automatic turret and directed by radar, and electro-optical tracking systems. The maximum ...

. The

RBU-6000 The RBU-6000 Smerch-2 (Реактивно-Бомбовая Установка, ''Reaktivno-Bombovaja Ustanovka''; rocket-bomb installation & Смерч; waterspout) is a 213 mm caliber Soviet anti-submarine rocket launcher. The system enter ...

also retained as a major armament. Two SA-N-5 SAM removed and replaced by two Vektor G12 20mm gun. Four 400mm Russian-made torpedo launcher was out of service because there is no Russian made torpedo in Indonesian Navy inventory so this Russian made torpedo launcher replaced by two western made triple torpedo launcher but only for two ships.

Service history

''Prenzlau'' was built by Peene-Werft,

was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...

on 2 October 1978 and launched on 6 July 1979. She was commissioned on 9 July 1981. She was then renamed to ''Wismar''. Following the end of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

and the

reunification of Germany German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of i ...

, ''Wismar'' was formally decommissioned by Volksmarine on 2 October 1990 and integrated with the unified

German Navy The German Navy (, ) is part of the unified (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Marine'' (German Navy) became the official ...

on 3 October. ''Wismar'' was assigned hull number P 6170 during its brief service in the German Navy and later was laid up in 1991. The ship was sold to the Indonesian Navy in 1995, alongside 15 other ''Kapitan Patimura''-class corvettes and 23 other vessels in a US$12.7 million deal. She was renamed ''Sutanto'' and was commissioned on 10 March 1995, following modifications.

Gallery

File:KSS Wismar 108.jpg, ''Wismar'' before 1991 File:KRI Sutanto (377) HUT TNI Ke-69.jpg, KRI ''Sutanto'' on 7 October 2014

Citations

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sutanto 1979 ships Ships built in East Germany Parchim-class corvettes of the Indonesian Navy Ships built in Wolgast Corvettes of the Indonesian Navy 1st Fleet Escort Force