Corvette

French Corbeta FS Dupleix (1856–1887).

The corvette is a warship with a displacement of between 900 and 2,000 tons.

Description

Current corvettes are designed for tasks of surveillance and defense of the territorial sea or for occasional and short-duration overseas missions. They differ fundamentally from a fast attack boat (FAC) or a patrol boat (patrol boat) in that they have electronics and means of combat close to the frigate, although with less autonomy and supply, since they they are not capable of long-duration overseas missions, like frigates.

History

The corvette, like the frigate, is a historical name that was applied to a ship with the foresail and mainmast with square sails and the mizzen mast with gaff sail and outrageous sail. It is also known by the name of bric-barca. They had a single fighting deck with a single battery and rarely more than 20 guns.

Their mission was the escort of merchant traffic, coastal surveillance and sometimes scouting for war squads. Like the frigate, it disappeared in the mid-19th century only to reappear in the First World War. Britain needed to fight the German U-boats, but couldn't afford the Americans' spending on destroyers, and thought of a more modest but seaworthy escort ship, limited to escorting ships from port to port rather than patrolling. on his own for weeks. Thus was born the modern corvette, with a displacement of 1,000 tons.

The success obtained was repeated in World War II, when the British built more than 200 units of a new generation of corvettes, the so-called (Flower Class), better prepared than the previous ones, although maintaining a tonnage of less than 2,000 tons (1,170 t).

Short class BraunschweigThe German Navy.

Modern corvettes are equipped with radar and sonar, just like military patrol boats, but have more sophisticated weaponry and electronics than these, usually only carrying up to a 76mm naval gun and a couple of heavy machine guns. The corvette has at least one anti-ship missile launcher system and one anti-aircraft missile launcher, as well as anti-submarine mortars and sometimes torpedo tubes. The corvette is sometimes called a light frigate.

Modern corvettes can be equipped with advanced missiles, like the Russians with the Kalibr.

Used bibliography

• Armada, Chile (2014), Glossary Naval - Letra C.