The Mirage project 14310 fast patrol boat is designed by the Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau in Saint Petersburg and production is underway at the Vympel Joint Stock Shipbuilding Association in the town of Rybinsk in the Yaroslavl Region of Russia.
The role of the Mirage fast patrol boat is to carry out protection of territorial waters and exclusive economic zones, and to provide support to police, coastguard and customs forces. In August 2008, it was deployed by the Russian Navy in a naval encounter with Georgia.
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Mirage design
The vessel is capable of operation in rough seas up to sea state 7. The hard chine hull features a transverse step and a transom flap. The bottom of the hull is equipped with stabilising fins, which are controlled by electric servo drives. The stabilising fins give rise to a 2 to 2.5 reduction in the roll, a 1.5 fold reduction in pitch and vertical acceleration by 20% to 50%. The boat remains afloat even when one watertight compartment is completely flooded.
The boat’s hull and superstructure are constructed mainly from aluminium magnesium alloy, which has very high strength and a yield point value of 180MPa. The hull is subdivided lengthwise into watertight compartments. The main engines and rotating machines are shock-mounted. The fore bulkhead of the engine room is covered with Polyacryl-VS vibration absorbing material and the surfaces in the crew spaces are clad with Viponite vibration absorbing material.
Weapons
The Mirage is equipped with an AK-306 automatic artillery system and eight Igla-1M portable air defence missile systems.
The 30mm AK-306 automatic artillery system is supplied by the Tula Engineering Plant JSC and the Sporting and Hunting Guns Research and Design Bureau both based in Tula. The AK-306 is installed on the front deck and provides defence against lightly armoured land and sea targets, floating mines and isolated airborne targets. The system is equipped with an AO-18L six-barrel automatic gun with an electrically driven revolving barrel cluster.
The gun mount magazine holds a 500-cartridge ammunition-loaded belt. The firing rate is up to 1,000 rounds a minute and the muzzle velocity is 880m a second. Air targets can be engaged at a range up to 4,000m and sea and coastal targets up to 5,000m.
The ship carries eight Igla-1M portable air-defence missile systems. Six systems are stowed along the sidewalls of the superstructure. Two missile systems are installed on the action station guard supports on the afterdeck ready for immediate deployment.
The patrol boat also has spaces for the installation of pedestal mounts for two 14.5mm machine guns together with 1,000 rounds of ammunition, a Shturm missile system with Ataka missiles or the Vikhr missile system with six missiles.
Sensors
The Mirage is equipped with a surface search I-band radar and a low-light level television camera for night-time surveillance.
The Mirage also has navigation radar, a gyroscope course indicator, MK69-M2 magnetic compass, log and echo sounder, radio navigation system, satellite navigation equipment (global positioning system) using positional data from the Russian Tskada space navigation or from the USA Transit space navigation system.
Propulsion
The Mirage is equipped with two diesel engines each operating with its own shaft and fixed-pitch propeller. For operation in temperate climates the boat is equipped with a type M520 diesel engine which provides a maximum speed of 50kt. For tropical climates an M520 TM5 diesel engine is fitted: in a tropical climate at an ambient air temperature of 34°C, the M520 TM5 gives a maximum speed of 48kt.
The M520 and M520 TM5 are water-cooled four-stroke diesel engines, with drive turbo compressors and a reverse reduction gear. The boat also has two diesel generators with a rated power of 50kW each.
