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Comments from Guy Roden[ Here is a totally unexpected point of view from a combatant craft warrior from the other side of the world. His comments are a great addition to the pages.. - Dan ]03/03/01 Nearly fell of the chair when I saw this site. I served with the Israeli Navy between 1979-1983 and this looks conspicuously like INS Shimrit (or her sister ship). I can't tell you much about them - I was on the Saar 4 class missile strike craft - but I'm sure our hydro's were built in the US, so I guess the basic design was the same. The Israeli boats had a 2x35mm AA mount upfront rather than the 76mm OTO-Melara cannon seen here. I can't tell you the top speed but they were faster than the coach to Tel Aviv on the coastal highway. I seem to remember they were turbine powered as well. I don't know if the Navy still has them; my e-mail address should tell you I'm not in the crazy Holy land at the moment (haven't been for a while). Like I've said, I was on the Saar 4's - an Israeli development of the German Lursenwerft PBs. Just like them, our's had 4xMaybach v-16 diesels of app 3600 hp each. Unlike the Deltics, those were 4-strokers and hence not as fiendishly complicated (but complicated enough). I believe the ultimate version is still made in Germany by a division of Daimler Chrysler. Must be the longest running design ever - the first versions were developed towards the end of the WWII! I find it ironic that the Deltic found fame in the UK and the USN. After all, it was a development of the Junkers Jumo 205 series aero engine... Neither of which is with us anymore.
Went through your excellent site and it brought back lots of memories for me. Not so puzzling as it sounds: I served in Lebanon and the kind
of missions we had were not dissimilar to the ones carried out by you guys in Vietnam.
You might find the following interesting: http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/saar5/saar8.html Like I've said, superb site, keep it up.
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