VAS (motorboat)

Vedetta anti sommergibile (anti-submarine picket boat), commonly abbreviated as VAS and also known in Italy as VAS Baglietto (from the name of the shipyard that designed VAS and built a number of them), was a class of motor torpedo boats that served as coastal anti-submarine patrol boats in the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) during World War II. Several boats that survived the war later served in the post-war Italian Navy.

Class overview
Operators
Built1942
In service1942–1956
General characteristics (as built)[1]
TypeMotor torpedo boat/Submarine chaser
Displacement
  • Type 1&2: 68.8 t (67.7 long tons; 75.8 short tons)
  • Type 3: 90 t (89 long tons; 99 short tons)
Length
  • Type 1&2: 28 m (92 ft)
  • Type 3: 34.1 m (112 ft)
Beam
  • Type 1&2: 4.3 m (14 ft)
  • Type 3: 5 m (16 ft)
Draft
  • Type 1&2: 1.35 m (4 ft 5 in)
  • Type 3: 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in)
Propulsion
  • Type 1:
    • 3 shafts
    • 2 Fiat + 1 Carraro petrol engines
    • 1,500 hp (1,100 kW)/300 hp (220 kW)
Speed20 knots (37 km/h)
Rangeup to 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Crew26
Armament

The boats were officially classified as "anti-submarine patrol boats"[2] and the first 30 boats were ordered by the Regia Marina at the Baglietto shipyards on 3 September 1941,[2] entering service between March and November 1942.[2]

The concept had first appeared in World War I and by the 1940s similar boats served with the US Navy where they were known as the PT boats, and they also had their European analogues in the German S-boots and the Royal Navy's Vosper and Fairmile MTBs. The VAS were in fact a roundabout development of the original S-boot, derived from the German-built Orjen-class torpedo boats of the Royal Yugoslav Navy captured by the Italians after the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia.

For all that the VAS were derived from MTBs, they were ultimately far closer in performance and intended role to the British Fairmile B motor launch, being both far slower & more defensive in nature than true MTBs.

References
  1. Gardiner, Robert. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946.
  2. Capitolo XXXIII de: Erminio Bagnasco, I MAS e le motosiluranti italiane, collana Le navi d'Italia, Vol. 6°, 2ª Edizione, Marina Militare, Stato Maggiore - Ufficio Storico, Roma, 1969
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