Soldier class strike craft

Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship class overviewTemplate:Infobox ship characteristics

The Soldier class strike craft is a type of fast attack craft designed and manufactured in North Point. Built to meet North Point Sea Command requirements for a fast, all-purpose, all-weather strike craft, they were the first missile boats to ship North Point's domestically-designed Swordfish anti-ship missile. Though the first ships entered service in the late 1960s, the craft are still in use in North Point. They are named for soldiers who distinguished themselves in North Point service.

In 1978, the design of the Soldier class was revisited. An improved version, dubbed the Soldier class Block II, was the result. The first Block II units were brought into service in 1981, and incorporate various electronic warfare and weaponry upgrades as well as a redesigned mainmast with a lower radar cross section. Most importantly, provisions were made to ship the newly-designed Sea Lance anti-ship missile, which entered service with the North Point Sea Command in 1980.

A total of twenty-five strike craft were built in North Point and the type has seen extensive combat service, most famously during the ill-fated Operation Flintlock where two North Point Sea Command strike craft were sunk while evacuating civilians from the docks at Allanstown, Questers. The versatile craft have all received various upgrades throughout their service lives, with most units receiving the Phalanx close-in weapons system in the 1990s and later box launchers for the rolling airframe missile.

Twenty-two craft were ordered by the Commissariat Naval Contingent, where they different Blocks are classified as the Type 041 and Type 042, respectively. The initial 5 craft were constructed in North Point, with a further 17 built domestically in the Structure from 1978. 3 were lost in action against Zegoran forces. All surviving craft have been extensively upgraded.

Development

Largely a derivative of the Quiberan-designed La Combattante class strike craft, the Soldier class was developed due to rising pressures within North Point to equip the North Point Sea Command with a viable all-purpose fast attack craft that could carry and launch the new anti-ship missiles becoming available in the 1960s. While North Point had a sizable fleet of small patrol/torpedo boats (some equipped with experimental canister launchers for the RGM-64 Swordfish missile), there was no purpose-built missile boat in service. Taking cues from the Quiberan missile boats, the Soldier class design was finalized and submitted to North Point's War Department in August of 1965. The first orders were placed in 1966, with the first of the class, NPS Rush (FAC-1), being commissioned in April of 1967.

The Soldier class design was later revisited with the development of the Sea Lance missile in North Point, and Block II (and subordinate configurations) replaced the remaining orders (FAC 14 through 20). As close-in weapons systems began to be developed in the 1980s, the strike craft slowly started to receive the Phalanx system as ships went into the yards for repair and refit periods. The last four ships, all of which had been built in the 1980s, were deemed the most suitable for receiving the RIM-116 rolling airframe missile which came into service in the late 1990s; Warrington, Hanner, and Powers received a single RAM launcher on the stern during modernizations in the early 2000s. Holder was used to test the Praetonian Goalkeeper system, which had been offered as a rival to the domestically-developed Phalanx. FAC-19 kept the Goalkeeper installation even after the North Point Sea Command opted to fit the Phalanx (and its later mods) to all ships. A lawsuit was underway to have the installation dismounted and returned to Wentworth in Praetonia (who had leased it free of charge during the trials); this was revoked by Wentworth, however, when Holder's Goalkeeper successfully shot down two Exocet missiles while the boat was covering the landing of Praetonian troops during the Questarian Rebellion.

Operational history

North Point Service

Diamond Atoll Confrontation

The strike craft were first employed for fisheries protection during disputes with neighboring Valmiero in 1975. These tensions eventually boiled over, resulting in the Diamond Atoll Confrontation during April and May of 1985. During the conflict, NPS Rhodes (FAC-4) was sunk by Valmiran Navy destroyers during a night action on 4 April and sank with all hands. Swordfish and Sea Lance missiles launched by other strike craft in the formation later hit and sank the Valmiran destroyer Veinticico de Abril (D15) and badly damaged the light carrier Valdelacasa (C3). Additionally, NPS McKean (FAC-10) scored the only ship-to-air kill of the war when it downed a Valmiran Naval Aviation IAe Skyhawk on 10 May. Both sides claimed different losses and kills, a dispute that still stands to this day.

Questarian Rebellion

North Point strike craft were later employed for shore bombardment, anti-ship strike, special forces insertion, and maritime patrol during the Questarian Rebellion. The strike craft NPS Rogers (FAC-6) and NPS Mason (FAC-15) were lost during Operation Flintlock while covering civilian evacuations from Allanstown, Questers. Both ships had come into the port at Allanstown and had begun loading escaping civilians and Questarian military personnel. As they exited the harbor, each were hit in quick succession by Exocet missiles fired from shore batteries. Rogers exploded almost immediately, with 101 casualties. Mason suffered a hit astern which knocked out its Phalanx turret, blew its RHIB overboard, and disabled its steering. Unable to maneuver, the boat was taken under tow by the nearby NPS McCard (FAC-16), but the slow speed of both made the pair an easy target for Syndicalist attack aircraft. McCard was hit by a Mark 82 bomb dropped by a Skyhawk jet, which disabled one shaft and cut the tow line to Mason. The stricken Mason then took a direct hit from a Rockeye cluster bomb and caught on fire. McCard, despite being damaged, was credited with downing one of the attacking Skyhawks with its 76mm gun.

Mason burned into the night before sinking with 97 dead. McCard escaped to be repaired in a Varnian shipyard before returning to the combat zone. The North Point Sea Command was later criticized for allowing civilians to board the ships, knowing that they would be targeted with prejudice by Syndicalist aircraft and missiles. Observers on both sides remarked that, had both craft not been loaded down with civilians, the Phalanx close-in weapons systems on each boat could likely have shot down the incoming missiles.

Another strike craft, the NPS Meredith (FAC-8), later hit a mine off Baringham, Questers, while supporting the Praetonian and Tairendian landing operations. Despite valiant efforts at damage control by her crew, the amount of water taken aboard was too great and the boat later sank. Three men were killed in the initial explosion, but the rest escaped in life rafts to be rescued by the Praetonian Navy.

Structure Service

2 sunk by Zegora 1 sunk by mine, Zegora suspect

List of ships

Hull number	Name	Commissioned	Fate	Disposal date	Configuration
North Point Sea Command
FAC-1	Rush	1967	scrapped	January 2013	Block I
FAC-2	Southerland	1967	in reserve, reactivating	N/A	Block I
FAC-3	Tucker	1968	in reserve, reactivating	N/A	Block I
FAC-4	Rhodes	1968	sunk by gunfire during the Diamond Atoll Confrontation	April 1985	Block I
FAC-5	Perkins	1968	in reserve, reactivating	N/A	Block I
FAC-6	Rogers	1969	sunk by Exocets during Operation Flintlock, Questers	August 2012	Block IA
FAC-7	Craig	1970	active	N/A	Block IB
FAC-8	Meredith	1973	mined off Baringham, Questers	January 2013	Block IA
FAC-9	O'Hare	1973	active	N/A	Block IA
FAC-10	McKean	1974	active	N/A	Block IA
FAC-11	Eversole	1975	lost during the Eversole Incident	October 1979	Block I (experimental RGM-94 canisters and Phalanx CIWS fitted before loss)
FAC-12	Goodrich	1977	active	N/A	Block IA
FAC-13	Craig	1970	active	N/A	Block IA
FAC-14	Thompson	1981	active	N/A	Block II
FAC-15	Mason	1982	sunk by Exocets during Operation Flintlock, Questers	N/A	Block IIA
FAC-16	McCard	1983	active	N/A	Block II
FAC-17	Warrington	1984	active	N/A	Block IIB
FAC-18	Hanner	1984	active	N/A	Block IIB
FAC-19	Holder	1985	active	N/A	Block IIX (Goalkeeper CIWS trial mount fitted)
FAC-20	Powers	1986	active	N/A	Block IIB
Template:Country data StructureCommissariat Naval Contingent
FSC-1	Strike-1	1972	active	N/A	Block I, upgraded to S-IC
FSC-2	Strike-2	1974	active	N/A	Block I, upgraded to S-IC
FSC-3	Strike-3	1974	sunk	August 1980	Block I
FSC-4	Strike-4	1975	active	N/A	Block I, upgraded to S-IC
FSC-5	Strike-5	1976	sunk	August 1980	Block IA
FSC-6	Strike-6	1978	active	N/A	Block IA, upgraded to S-IC
FSC-7	Strike-7	1978	struck mine and sunk	February 1989	Block IB
FSC-8	Strike-8	1979	active	N/A	Block IB, upgraded to S-IC
FSC-9	Strike-9	1990	active	N/A	Block S-II, upgraded to S-IIA
FSC-10	Strike-10	1991	active	N/A	Block S-II, upgraded to S-IIA
FSC-11	Strike-11	1991	active	N/A	Block S-II, upgraded to S-IIB
FSC-12	Strike-12	1992	active	N/A	Block S-II, upgraded to S-IIB
FSC-13	Strike-13	1992	active	N/A	Block S-II, upgraded to S-IIC
FSC-14	Strike-14	1994	active	N/A	Block S-II, upgraded to S-IIC
FSC-15	Strike-15	1995	active	N/A	Block S-IIA
FSC-16	Strike-16	1995	active	N/A	Block S-IIA
FSC-17	Strike-17	1996	active	N/A	Block S-IIB
FSC-18	Strike-18	1997	active	N/A	Block S-IIB
FSC-19	Strike-19	1998	active	N/A	Block S-IIB
FSC-20	Strike-20	1998	active	N/A	Block S-IIC
FSC-21	Strike-21	1998	active	N/A	Block S-IIC
FSC-22	Strike-21	1999	active	N/A	Block S-IIC

Operators

File:Type 042.png

Strike-10 on patrol

• North Point
  • North Point Sea Command
    • Block I - 3
    • Block IA - 4
    • Block IB - 1
    • Block II - 2
    • Block IIA - 2
    • Block IIB - 3
    • Block IIX - 1
• Template:Country data Structure
  • Commissariat Naval Contingent
    • Block S-IC - 5
    • Block S-IIA - 4
    • Block S-IIB - 5
    • Block S-IIC - 5