The Province-class fast attack craft, also known as the ''Dhofar'' class, is a British-built series of missile-armed fast attack craft for the

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Design

The Province class was designed and built by the British shipyard

Vosper Thornycroft VTG (formerly VT Group) is a privately held United States defense and services company, with its origins in a former British shipbuilding group, previously known as Vosper Thornycroft. The British part of VTG was integrated into Babcock Interna ...

based on their which they had built for the

Egyptian Navy The Egyptian Navy (), also known as the Egyptian Naval Forces, is the maritime branch of the Egyptian Armed Forces. It is the largest navy in the Middle East as well as Africa, and is the twelfth largest (by the number of vessels) navy in the w ...

. The first ship of the class, ''Dhofar'' was ordered in 1980, with further ships (with slightly modified armament and equipment) ordered in 1981 and 1986. The ships are long overall and

between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the ster ...

, with a beam of and a draught of .

Displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

is light and full load. They are powered by four

Paxman Valenta The Paxman Valenta, also known as Y3J and RP200, is a diesel fuelled internal combustion engine formerly made by Paxman in Colchester, England. It was originally developed for, and previously used in the British Rail (BR) Class 43 diesel-ele ...

18RP200

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s, each driving a propeller shaft, with a total power of , giving a speed of . Two electric motors are fitted for manoeuvring purposes. 45.5 tons of fuel are carried, giving a range of at . The ships' main anti-ship armament is the

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 ...

anti-ship missile An anti-ship missile (AShM or ASM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea-skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. ...

. ''Dhofar'' can carry six MM-40 Exocets missiles, while the other three ships of the class can carry eight MM-40s, in two quadruple mounts. An

OTO Melara 76 mm The OTO Melara 76 mm gun, marketed as the OTO 76/62 Gun Mount, is a naval autocannon built and designed by the Italian Defense contractor, defence company OTO Melara. It is based on the OTO Melara 76/62C and evolved toward 76/62 SR and 76/ ...

gun is mounted forwards, while a twin Breda

Bofors 40 mm Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to models of 40 mm calibre automatic anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: * Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/43 - developed in the 1930s with market entry in 1934, wid ...

gun is mounted aft. In addition, two 12.7 mm (.50 inch) machine guns are fitted.

Ships in class

Citations

References

* *{{cite book, editor1-last=Gardiner, editor1-first=Robert, editor2-last=Chumbley, editor2-first=Stephen , title=Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995, year=1995, publisher=Naval Institute Press, location=Annapolis, Maryland, USA, isbn=1-55750-132-7 Missile boat classes