Guided Missile Patrol boat - Panther

GUIDED MISSILE PATROL BOAT 1973

PANTHER One of a class of 19 missile-armed fast attack craft built in France and completed by Lurssen Werft for the Federal German Navy, the S 41 Tiger class took names traditional in Germany for vessels of the type.

THE TYPE 148 FAST ATTACK CRAFT
Despite her long Baltic coastline, Germany had no real fast attack craft prior to the Second World War, but then her S-boats (E-boats to the British) came to virtually define the type in Europe. In the late 1950s a new type, the 140, was produced by Lurssen, and the 30 vessels of the class were replaced 15 years later by the rather bigger Type 148s, also Lurssen-designed but built in Cherbourg by Constructions Mecanique de Normandie (CMN). Panther (S 50) was constructed there, and launched on 10 December 1973, but towed to Bremen for completion. She was commissioned on 27 March 1974.

EXCELLENT SEA-KEEPERS
The Type 148s were steel-hulled to a hard-chine design, powered by four MTU 20V-538-TB91 diesel engines, each giving something over 4500bhp, which was sufficient to give them a maximum speed approaching 40 knots. They were excellent sea boats; in addition to those acquired by the Federal German Navy. Germany, Greece, Iran and Malaysia also bought the design (known generically as the "Combattante II", and the four constructed for the latter made the 13,000 mile delivery voyage around the Cape of Good Hope under their own power, arriving in fully operational condition despite having encountered severe weather on the way.

TECHNICAL DATA
Type: Fast attack craft
Machinery: 4 shafts each with MTU diesel, giving a total of 18,000bhp
Dimensions (overall): Length, 47m (1 54.25ft); beam, 7m (23ft) Displacement: 234t standard, 264t full load
Drought: 2.2m (7.25ft)
Complement: 30
1. 40mm Bofors gun in turret
2. Launchers for MM38 Exocet SSMs
3. Triton-G radar

Range at 30 knots 570 miles 1050km