Bora Class (Project 1239 Class) Russian Hoverborne Guided Missile Corvette

Bora Class (Project 1239 Class) Russian Hoverborne Guided Missile Corvette is primarily intended for coast defense operations. These very large surface-effect ship corvettes have proven mechanically unreliable. Completion of these units was much delayed and they probably are not effective combat units. Two vessels have been built by the plant for the Russian Navy according to this project: «Bora» (1989) and „Samum“ (1999). The two ships were in service, with a future series intended for the Russian Federation's Black Sea/Baltic Fleets. The key design feature of this hydrodynamic configuration is an air cushion that separates the hull from the water surface, combined with maintaining contact with the water surface by means of sidewalls. The latter provide very low resistance to motion of the ship, but significantly reduce air loss from the air cushion area, partially unload the cushion, increase course-keeping stability and ship steering performance. The Russian missile-carrying hovercraft is meant to carry out missile attacks on ships. It is the largest military hovercraft unmatched anywhere in the world. With the displacement of 1000 tons, the craft has a cruising speed of 100 kilometers an hour. With blowers on, the air cushion enables achieving a speed of more than 50 knots. In addition, intermediate speed modes with reduced air supply to the air cushion zone are available. This is called «multimode motion capability» – a property no other ship in the world can boast.