The Ultra Fast Attack Craft, commonly known as the Colombo Class, is a Sri Lankan ultra high-speed class of patrol boats meant for a variety of naval missions from off-shore coastal patrol missions to high-speed, high-maneuver littoral warfare. Built by Colombo Dockyard Limited for the Sri Lanka Navy, it became the workhorse of the SLN against Sea tiger boats of the LTTE.
Variants
Series I
The boats of the Series I are of 24m long with a mono hull with a vibration-free deck, powered by twin MTU main engines developing 1,630 kW each, driving Kamewa water jets. This enables the boat to reach speeds of 45 knots and have an endurance of 500 nm. It has a crew of 10. Around 12 were delivered to the Sri Lankan Navy.
Series II
Series II the successor to the earlier type. Main upgrades include the increase of accommodation for a crew of 12 and major improvements the superstructure. Like the Series I, around 12 were delivered to the Sri Lankan Navy.
Series III
The Series III is the recent addition to the class and has incorporated current combat requirements and experience in the battlefield archived by the Sri Lanka Navy. This new type can achieve speeds in excess of 53 knots, the fastest of its class in the region while housing to the 15 persons. Series III was designed by the Colombo Dockyard to the Israeli Shaldag Mk II design. First launch of Series III held on 27 July 1996 and it went beyond the abilities of Shaldag Mk II design by exceeding it from the speed, range and payload. The propulsion system consists of two Diesel MTU 12V 396 TE94 engines driving two articulated surface drives, which were initially designed for competitive speedboats. Arneson Surface Drive-16 articulating propulsion systems drives provide the vessel with thrust vectoring control similar to the Super Dvora Mk III and Shaldag Mk II. Their thrust-vectoring propulsion system allows Series III to function in shallow waters at drafts of 1.2 meters facilitating special operations forces delivery on enemy shores and catastrophe relief missions.
Coastal surveillance vessel
The two Coastal surveillance vessels built for the Maldivian Coast Guard are very similar to the Series III Ultra Fast Attack Craft. It has more range but at a lower speed of 40 Knots and no armament.
