One of the most modern naval research ships within NATO is the FGS PLANET A 1437 (Type 751) which was seen at Grand Harbour, Malta between Sunday 27th and Monday 28th May, 2005 during a 24 hour port call.
She was built by Nordseewerke in Emden with a length of 72 m; beam of 27.2 m. She was built as a small waterplane area twin hull (SWATH) design in order to reduce the hull volume and to increase the ship’s stability, particularly in high seas and at high speed and which makes it the largest SWATH twin-hull vessel ever built by a German shipyard.
FGS PLANET is the first All Electric Ship (AES) built in Germany. The machines for propulsion and generators for energy supply are conceived in Permanent Magnet Excitation Technology (PM). Her propulsion plant consists of two diesel gensets of 1275 kW each, two diesel generators of 1700 kW and four propulsion motors, all using PM technology. Even the ship mains and the ship propulsion network are used for the first time in this configuration on a sea-going ship. A special challenge for the shipyard were the high acoustic requirements for the vessel. For this purpose, the know-how from submarine technology was very helpful.
The service speed is 15 knots giving the ship an operational range of 5000 miles and an endurance of about 30 days. She carriers a crew of 25 and also accommodates 20 scientific personnel. She is used for geophysics and naval technology trials and research. While technically not armed, she is equipped with torpedo launch capability. Other weapons systems can be installed for weapon trials.
She left Grand Harbour, Malta on Monday 28th May 2005 in the afternoon from VISET (Now Valletta Cruise Port) Pinto 5 Wharf.
Watermarked photos are by Capt. Lawrence Dalli. Do not use these images without my permission. © All rights reserved. Malta Ship Photos & Action Photos –www.maltashipphotos.com
Published – Monday 15th June, 2020
