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Fast Raiding Craft for Special Forces

Maritime Activity Reports, Inc.

January 12, 2016

Photo courtesy of FRC

Photo courtesy of FRC

Dutch Special Marine Group has designed a small range of Fast Raiding Craft (FRC). A FRC’s combines the speed and manoeuvrability of an interceptor with an increased size and carrying capacity to hold elite troops and their equipment. It is specially designed for border protection, marine counter terrorism, military and special forces operations.

 
Effective interception and patrol require a Fast Raiding Craft with high speed, excellent reliability, manoeuvrability and sea keeping abilities. In order guarantee this our designer, Pieter Meuzelaar, took the proven hull of our Fast Rescue Craft 903 (KNRM), enlarged length and replaced the foam fender with air-filled tube. This to ensure that the maximum beam with deflated tubes is well under 2.700m, to fit through the cargo door of a C-130 Hercules.
 
The FRC’s are built by Habbeké Shipyard of seawater resistant Aluminium (5083- H111), the hull is a fully planing, deep V type and have a low freeboard aft to facilitate diving operations, are self-bailing, have sufficient deck space to transport cargo, have a reinforced inflatable tube and are supplied with diesel inboard engines with water jet propulsion units or sterndrive units.
 
The Fast Raiding Crafts are designed and tested in accordance to latest Bureau Veritas and SOLAS requirements.
 
For the (standard) propulsion is chosen a combination of Volvo Penta engines with Twin Disc gearboxes, driving UltraJet waterjets or Volvo Penta Aquamatic sterndrives. A proven combination on the Fast Rescue Craft  903.
 
Class notation : I + Hull (• Mach) Light Ship / Fast Raiding Craft, Sea Area 2 (1,88 m significant wave height)
 
Applicable Regulations
Construction: HSC Rules NR396 chapter 1,2 and 3 incl. rudders
Subdivision and freeboard arrangement: NR566 ships less than 500GT chapter 1
Navigation lights: Colregs regulations 23