The United Arab Emirates, located on the eastern, southern and southwestern borders saudi arabia, borders the Persian Gulf to the north and Iran across the sea. The geographical location determined that it was very suitable for the development of corvettes, such as today's protagonist, persian gulf sea light cavalry, The Uae Navy's Bai nunner-class corvettes.
Uae Geography
Or The French Ship Incense
Before 1990, the UAE Navy was still a small navy with combat boats as the main force, but due to the increasing complexity of the situation in the Persian Gulf, coupled with the fact that the next big brother Saudi Arabia purchased three high-end Version Lafayette Riyadh-class frigates from France in two batches in 1994 and 1997, the UAE Navy, which was deeply threatened by safety, proposed a naval blood exchange plan.
Saudi Navy Riyadh-class frigate DAMM
The UAE Navy first caught up with the wave of downsizing of the Dutch Navy after the Cold War, and in the late 1990s took over two decommissioned Cotten-class frigates from the Dutch Navy and renamed them Abu Dhabi-class frigates, of which Al Amirat served in the UAE Navy for ten years and was decommissioned in 2008 and was also purchased by local tycoons to convert into the handsome Yas yacht.
On the other hand, the UAE Navy, after introducing the 3,800-ton Corton-Ayr-class frigates with a full load displacement, found that the flexibility of large surface warships in the Persian Gulf waters was limited, so it turned to 1,000-ton corvettes to replace the six aging Adhana-class patrol boats in the formation. In January 2004, it officially signed a construction contract with the French Normandy Shipbuilding Industry Group (CMN) for the construction of four new corvettes worth 540 million US dollars (two more were added in 2005), which is the Bayonne class corvette.
Bainuna class corvette
The ship is small and big
The Bainuna class corvette is based on the BR-70 corvette scheme of the French Shipbuilding Industry Group, with a large stealth design, including a multi-sided geometry of the main mast design. The hull is designed with a deep V-shaped hard ridge, and with the exception of a few parts made of aluminum alloy material, almost all of them use high-strength steel. The ship mainly highlights wave resistance, shallow water combat and high maneuverability.
| captain | 71.3 meters |
| Wide port | 11.3 meters |
| draft | 2.9 meters |
| Displacement | Full load displacement 915 tons |
Powered, the Bainuna-class corvettes are equipped with four MTU 12V595 TE90 diesel engines to drive three sets of waterjet propulsion units, with a maximum speed of 32 knots and a maximum range of 2400 nautical miles at 15 knots of economic speed.
On the shipboard, the main gun of the Bainuna-class corvette is an Ottomelera 76 mm rapid-fire gun, which is also equipped with two Mauser MLG-27 mm remote control weapons stations. In terms of anti-ship, it is equipped with two quad-mounted flying fish MM40 block3 anti-ship missile launchers with a range of 180 kilometers. In terms of air defense, a total of 8-unit MK56 vertical launch systems were equipped on both sides of the hangar, which can launch ESSM-improved Sea Sparrow anti-aircraft missiles, and a 21-unit MK-49 Mod3 "Ram" close-in missile launcher was also placed above the hangar. The Bainuna-class corvettes are also designed to carry an AS-565 Panther helicopter for long-range combat missions.
On board electronics, the Bainuna-class corvette carries a Saab Group's "Sea Giraffe" multi-beam G-band light active phased array radar in the tapered radomes at the top of the main mast, which has excellent sea-to-air search accuracy and a maximum air-to-air search distance of 100 kilometers.
A total of 6 Bayunna-class corvettes are in service, hull number P171-P176. The first ship was built in mainland France, and then the French shipyard provided Abu Dhabi Shipyard with subsequent construction materials and technologies, which were produced in the UAE itself. After entering service, the Bainuna-class corvettes are mainly responsible for patrolling, reconnaissance and laying mines in the territorial waters of the UAE and the exclusive economic zone.