Attack Craft for Kuwait

The French shipbuilding company Construction Mecaniques de Normandie (CMN) handed over the last two of eight Um Al Maradim Class of missile attack craft to the Kuwaiti Government at a ceremony in Cherbourg. The eight vessels were procured in 1995 to replace those lost during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.

Based on CMN's Combattante I design the Um Al Maradim class will be used for surveillance and coastal defence. The vessels are armed with two twin launchers for the Matra BAe Dynamics Sea Skua surface-to-surface missiles, mounted on the aft deck. The Sea Skua missile has semi-active radar homing, speed of 0.9 Mach and range of 15 kilometres. Before returning to Kuwait the craft will carry out eight weeks of training in with the shipyard and the French Navy.