Corvettes to sail smartly: nearly half a century ago the major navies' last corvettes were being towed ignominiously to the scrap yards. But over the past two decades there has been a renaissance in this category; not just among Third World navies but also some of the major naval powers, indeed even the Royal Navy has shown interest in this type of warship.

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Naval: corvettes

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Corvettes to sail smartly: nearly half a century ago the major navies' last corvettes were being towed ignominiously to the scrap yards. But over the past two decades there has been a renaissance in this category; not just among Third World navies but also some of the major naval powers, indeed even the Royal Navy has shown interest in this type of warship.

The modern corvette owes its origins to a British requirement for what Churchill referred to as a 'cheap and nasty' anti-submarine vessel. Designed to operate over the continental shelf the corvettes evolved into small, general-purpose escort vessels, but even the improved designs were slow, had range restrictions and limited capacity for antisubmarine sensors and weapons so in their original role they were gradually replaced by frigates. These limitations accelerated their post-war demise in most major navies, especially their poor anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities as the Cold War saw the growing threat from submarines with high underwater speeds.

However, the Soviet Union did not regard these limitations, especially the restricted anti-a...

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