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£l (S-173) is one of 18 1,300-ton er»aSc°astal submarines deliv- to the West German Bun- smamie in 1973-75. A dozen are con*? ni0t*ern'zed in lieu of new U-2Qruction; the first to convert,
’ ^gan her update in June Liih ' Pes'8ned by Ingeneir Kontor Ulr'h under the direction of
num ” ^“bler, these ships have
erous near-sisters in foreign fleets.
The Bundesmarine's ten Class-143 guided-missile boats are unusual in having composite construction hulls employing wooden-planked skins over a steel frame. The ten similar Class- 143As omit the after 76-mm. OTO- Melara gun in favor of provision for the much-delayed rolling airframe missile (RAM) point-defense missile system. Both classes carry four MM-38 Exocet missiles, and the Class-143s also have two tubes for wire-guided torpedoes. The first of the 393-ton Class 143s, the Albatros was completed in 1976 and is seen here in June 1989.
The days are numbered for the 28-year-old West German fast minesweeper Jupiter due for replacement in 1990 by a new and much larger Class-343 minesweeper. Of the original group of 30 Class-340/341 sisters completed between 1959 and 1963, only seven of the 24-knot craft will remain by the end of this year. A half dozen others were built for Brazil in 1971-75.