The Kala-class landing craft were a series of

utility landing craft A Landing Craft Utility (LCU) is a type of boat used by Marines, amphibious forces to transport equipment and troops to the shore. They are capable of transporting Continuous track, tracked or wheeled vehicles and troops from amphibious assault sh ...

operated by 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 ...

from the 1950s to early 2000s. The class had six ships and several ships of the class remain in civilian use as of 2025.

Design

The Kala class was designed in 1950s as part of

post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

reconstruction. The design requirements called for cargo capacity with at least a single unit load (ie. a

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

). The ships were to be able to unload cargo directly on the shore without the need of a pier. The Finnish Navy had experience with German Siebel ferries during World War II and partly based the Kala class on their design. The Kala class was designed with

catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

hull for both large cargo area and stability. A bow ramp was provided for vehicles. The ships had also provisions for

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rails so that they could act as

minelayer A minelayer is any warship, submarine, military aircraft or land vehicle deploying explosive mines. Since World War I the term "minelayer" refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines. "Mine planting" was the term for ins ...

s. The original requirements also included the ability to break the ships into loads for road transport, with two hull pontoons and dismantled deck structure. In practice the road transport ability was seldom used.

Ships in service

The ships in the class, ''Kala 1'' through ''Kala 6'' were built by

Rauma-Repola Metso Corporation (natively ) was a Finnish industrial machinery company focusing on providing technology and services for mining, and aggregates industries. On 30 June 2020, Metso's partial demerger and combination of Metso Minerals business ...

in Valko and Haminan konepaja, three ships each. The ships were used to supply

coastal fort 300px, Cartagena_de_Indias.html" ;"title="Castillo San Felipe de Barajas in Cartagena de Indias">Castillo San Felipe de Barajas in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia Coastal defence (or defense) and coastal fortification are measures taken to pro ...

s, served with amphibious troops and were used for general logistics supply and transport needs. The design was considered successful and the following is an enlarged and improved version of the Kala class. As originally built the Kala class had minimal

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

with only a small control cabin in the rear and received the nickname "floating

telephone booth A telephone booth, telephone kiosk, telephone call box, telephone box or public call box is a tiny structure furnished with a payphone and designed for a telephone user's convenience; typically the user steps into the booth and closes the boot ...

s". The ships were rebuilt between 1975 and 1980 with enlarged superstructure and new, modernized

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

. ''Kala 4'' and ''Kala 5'' were experimentally armed with German 10.5 cm SK C/32 naval guns between 1960 and 1964, a single gun each. The guns were removed after the experiment and the other members of the class were not armed with them.

Civilian use

The Finnish Navy sold the Kala-class ships as

military surplus Military surplus is goods, usually materiel, that are sold or otherwise disposed of when held in excess or are no longer needed by the military. Entrepreneurs often buy these goods and resell them at surplus stores. Usually the goods sold by th ...

in the early 2000s. Several ships of the class survive in civilian use: ''Kala 5'' was sold to Harjanti Oy as MS ''Hessu'' and ''Kala 6'' to Meripojat Oy. The

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

city fire department purchased ''Kala 3'' for

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cleanup duties and renamed the vessel ''Miina''. ''Kala 4'' caused concern when it was found in the possession of after the company was raided by

Finnish police The Police of Finland (, ) is a national government agency responsible for general police and law enforcement matters in the Republic of Finland. The Police of Finland is subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior and consists of the National ...

for suspected economic crimes. The company was also suspected of being a

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for Russian intelligence agencies. ''Kala 4'' had been modified to better suit transporting tourists rather than heavy equipment as originally built.

References

{{Reflist Ships of the Finnish Navy Landing craft