Houbei class missile boat
Encyclopedia
The Houbei class (Type 022) missile boat
Missile boat
A Missile Boat is a small craft armed with anti-ship missiles. Being a small craft, missile boats are popular with nations interested in forming an inexpensive navy...
is a class in the People's Liberation Army Navy
People's Liberation Army Navy
The People's Liberation Army Navy is the naval branch of the People's Liberation Army , the military of the People's Republic of China. Until the early 1990s, the navy performed a subordinate role to the PLA Land Forces. Since then, it has undergone rapid modernisation...
. The first boat was launched in April 2004 by the Qiuxin Shipbuilding Factory at Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
. The boats incorporate stealth features and wave-piercing catamaran
Catamaran
A catamaran is a type of multihulled boat or ship consisting of two hulls, or vakas, joined by some structure, the most basic being a frame, formed of akas...
hulls. Approximately 83 of these missile boats are currently in service with three flotillas having gone through serial production over a span of seven years .
Design
The Houbei class FAC (fast attack craft) are China's entry into a growing list of missile-armed FAC which include Finland's Hamina class missile boatHamina class missile boat
The Hamina class missile boat is a 4-strong class of fast attack craft of the Finnish Navy. Technically they are classified as "missile fast attack craft", ohjusvene, literally "missile boat" in Finnish.-History:...
, and Norway's Skjold class patrol boat
Skjold class patrol boat
The Skjold class patrol boats is a new class of superfast, large stealth missile craft, formerly known as MTBs . From 2009, the Royal Norwegian Navy officially label them as coastal corvettes because their seaworthiness is seen as comparable to corvettes. They are built at the Umoe Mandal yard...
.