- Yes.
- No.
- With.
- Without.
- I don’t care.
Hello everyone, today I’d like to suggest a really cool hydrofoil missile boat.
This is the Project 206.6 class, R-44 “Corsar”!
R-44 “Corsar” with hull number 966, around 1990
History & Design
Spoiler
The Project 206.6 hydrofoil missile boat was just a single boat that served as a developmental ship for the Black Sea Fleet.
But the R-44 "Corsar" started it’s life as a Project 206MR hydrofoil missile boat, which I’ve covered in a different post.
Make sure to check that post out first!
Project 206MR-class hydrofoil missile boat, R-262 "Pryluky". Fast & Deadly!
Like said above, the Project 206.6 was a modified Project 206MR class hydrofoil missile boat. So I will not go into much detail about it’s design history since that can be found in my other post of which I posted the link above.
The Project 206.6 hydrofoil missile boat was a developmental ship for the Black Sea Fleet. It being an developmental ship means that it recieved some interesting refits and modernizations. But let’s first talk about the things that stayed the same as the Project 206MR class.
Just like the Project 206MR class ships, the Project 206.6 was powered by three M-520, 5000hp diesels engines, which would propell the boat forward at a max speed of 43 knots (79.6km/h / 49.5mph). Futhermore, the ship came equiped with a MR-101 Rangout radar and an Omega navigation radar.
In 1984 the ship recieved a MR-123-02 Vympel-M fire control system, instead of the MR-123 Vympel that was first fitted. Also in 1996, a SP-521 Rakurs combat data system was added to the ship.
Also the ship had a PK-16 decoy system onboard for awhile. These consisted of two KL-101 launchers. These look like little rocket pods you might expect to see on an aircraft, but these are just decoy launchers to counter incomming threats. Some photos don’t clearly show these decoy systems anymore, so they might have been removed at some point.
For it’s primary armament the Project 206.6 had the same gun.This gun being a 76mm AK-176M turret on the front of the ship. This gun had a rate of fire up to 130 rounds per minute! But the ships only carried 300 rounds for this gun, so it’s best to not be to trigger happy at that rate of fire.
For secondairy weapons the Project 206.6 get’s a huge upgrade compared to it’s Project 206MR sisters. The R-44 “Corsar” recieved the AK-630M1-2 CIWS system!
The AK-630M1-2 was an experimental version of the AK-630M. The biggest change is the addition of a second 30mm rotary cannon!
Which now gives this CIWS a total rate of fire of up to 10.000 rounds per minute!
The CIWS is located at the stern of the ship.
In total, this CIWS carries 4000 rounds of ammunition, giving you 40 seconds of continuous fire, which is not half bad actually!
Also the AK-630M1-2 got the nickname “Roy” . So whenever you shoot someone down make sure to let them know that Roy said hello.
But the Project 206.6 also comes with anti ship missiles. And these too are different from the Project 206MR. The R-44 was modified to carry two quad KT-184 anti-ship missile launchers, armed with four 3M24 anti-ship missiles each. These missiles had an operational range of 130 km! What is around 1.5 to double the range of the Project 206MR’s missiles! And also you carry a total of eight missiles, so compared to the Project 206MR, you get 6 more missiles.
Now the Project 206MR class could also mount a MTU-4 SAM launcher, armed with four Strela-3 missiles. But I believe this mount was never used on the Project 206.6. Mt biggest proof of this is that this SAM launcher would have been located just behind the CIWS. But as can be seen in the photo below, this spot seems to be taken up by a SP-521 Rakurs combat data system (Or atleast I believe it is the SP-521)
As one final note, I also found this photo:
This photo is interesting since it shows the AK-630M1-2, with the PK-16 decoy system behind it. But note that no anti-ship missile launchers are fitted on this photo.
I’m not sure during what time period the ship was like this, but the lack of the SP-521 Rakurs combat data system behind the CIWS means it’s from before 1996.
Now the stands on which the missile launchers would be mounted on are still present, so I’m pretty sure they removed the launchers for a short time to test other systems maybe.
But since we have better photos of the ship showing the missiles and CIWS being present at the same time, this photo is not much of a problem.
I thought it would still be nice to share, and talk a bit about it.
Specifications
Spoiler
Basic specifications:
Top speed: 42 knots (77.8km/h / 48.3mph)
Crew: 29
Standard Displacement: 230 tons
Full load Displacement: 265 tons
Weaponry:
1 x 1 76 mm AK-176M automatic cannon
300 rounds carriedSpoiler
Note: These photos are taken of other ships, not of the Pr 206.6.
1 x 12 30 mm AK-630M1-2 “Roy” rotary cannon (close-in weapon system)
4000 rounds carriedSpoiler
2 x 4 KT-184 anti-ship missile launchers, armed with four 3M24 anti-ship missiles each
Operational range of 130 kmSpoiler
Note: These photos are taken of other ships, not of the Pr 206.6.
Extra list of specifications of the Project 206MR-class
Keep in mind this is of the Project 206MR, not the Project 206.6!
R-44 “Corsar”, around 1990
Sources
Spoiler
Primary sources:
Blueprints & Cutaways:
Photos:
- cmano-db.com
- 30-мм АВТОМАТИЧЕСКАЯ УСТАНОВКА АК-630М 1-2 «РОЙ» (This link takes a long time to load, but it does work!)
- https://war-book.ru/raketnye-katera-proekta-206/
Weapons:
- 76 mm AK-176M: Russia / USSR 76.2 mm/60 (3") AK-176 - NavWeaps
- 30 mm AK-630M: Russia / USSR 30 mm/54 (1.2") AK-630 - NavWeaps
- 3M24 missile: Kh-35 - Wikipedia