Kalistani Major History

[Doc]

Revolutionary Socialist Militia of Kalistan deploys New Generation of LAFAInflatable seaworthy craft "virtually unsinkable", says designer
Sulari, Suldanor
March 18, 4704


New LAFA MS-12 tested by Militia Pilots in Sulari last month

KalMilInCo has developed a new LAFA for use by militia naval and marine forces.  The new LAFA, known as the MS-12 has been released even as tensions in the Strait begin to heat up once more.  KMC has completed testing and building this new Generation of ships, and has released the first 324 ships, costing the Militia more than 7.65m KRB.  Each ship carries a crew of 3, including a pilot, a gunner and an a-gunner, as well as up to 8 Militia marine units who care capable of boarding ships or landing ashore. 

The ships are extremely lightweight and fast.  The dual propulsion engines can propel the ship up to 40 knots fully loaded, and 50 with just the skeleton compliment. The ship is armed with one M2 50 caliber machine gun, as well two 40 caliber machine guns and a 7.62mm CSW.  The ship's max effective range is up to 200nm, making its operational range between 80 and 100 nm from either an ocean refueling site or a port.  The inflatable nature of the ship, as well as the aerated mylar sheeting which forms the body of the boat makes them "virtually unsinkable, even in rough seas," said KalMilInCo spokesperson David Calloway.  "In the exceedingly rare event that the boat is ever overturned, it can easily flipped back over, or, it can form a shelter at sea until such time as it is needed once more."

The Militia called for a new design of the LAFAs as the old versions were seen as too bulky and too prone to being sunk to mount an effective defense against more modern ships.  Said Militia Marine Lt. Delores Helmsworth "The new LAFAs are more seaworthy than their older brothers, easier to maintain, and are much faster in the water.  They keep an incredibly low profile to avoid easy spotting, and their props sit just deep enough in the water to make their cavitation difficult to distinguish on radar from wave action.  Granted, a LAFA flying across the surface will create a lot of noise and that will probably set the radars off.  But luckily, their radar silhouette is quite small, and their speed and agility in the water makes them difficult targets to hit.  We find this to be a tremendous improvement over the larger, solid hull boats, which could be easily sunk or swamped with a well placed shot from one of the deck guns."

All 324 ships have been deployed, a quarter of them being prepared to load on privateering vessels should the need ever arise.  RSMoK Militia LAFA crew are currently training on the vessels, and Marine training will begin in four months at Port Elga in Sulari, Port Sweedes in Vrassa and Port Devon in Kaliburg.