As Morski writes on the 18th of November, 2018, the Vukovar warship, along with the Dubrovnik ship of the same class, has been part of the Croatian Navy for the past ten years.
Its service in the Finnish Navy was withdrawn in 2007 and the vessel was sold to Croatia for nine million euros, as part of Croatia’s “offset” program for the procurement of Armored Patria vehicles. Otherwise, “Vukovar” is the first Croatian warship to successfully serve in a NATO mission.
The Helsinki class rocket launchers are a type of rocket launcher used by the Finnish Navy. There were a total of four vessels built in this class, with the Helsinki class following the Rauma rocket launcher class. All ships of this class were built at the Wärtsilä Hietalahti Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland.
The ship has a 300 tonne load dispacement, is 45 metres long, 8.8 metres wide, and boasts a three-metre long beam. It is equipped with three MTU 16V 538 TB92 diesel engines of 9,000 kW, and can reach a speed of 32 knots.
The ship is staffed by 33 members of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia, and the commander of “Vukovar” is Ante Uljević.
As mentioned, Croatia’s “Vukovar” rocket launcher is the first Croatian Navy vessel to take part in a NATO operation and has covered more than 4,100 nautical miles. In the Sea Guardian operation, it covered the most miles between the ships in the tactical group, and covered an area of about 180 nautical miles, and an average of 100 nautical miles from the western coast of Sicily to the coast of Tunisia, and then towards Malta.
It’s a little known fact that in the Croatian Navy, a torpedo ship of the same name was in use until the year 2000, known as TB-51 Vukovar. It was built at the Kraljevica Shipyard back in 1971 and was initially put into service in the Yugoslav Navy under its original name TČ-222 Partizan II. The ship was renovated in 1991 in Šibenik where it was put into the service of the Croatian Navy under the name Vukovar. The crew of the ship consisted of twelve officers and twelve sailors. The ship was eventually withdrawn from service in the year 2000 and was stored in Brižine, near Split.
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