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Romania Naval Construction
After the early 1970s, the Soviet Union curtailed
transfers of
naval vessels, and licenses to construct them, to Romania,
forcing
it to turn to other potential suppliers and develop a
domestic
program of naval construction. China allowed Romania to
build units
of two classes of fast attack craft under license. In the
late
1970s, Romania began constructing the first of nineteen
Huchuanclass boats in the Drobeta-Turnu Severin shipyard and
several
Shanghai II-class boats in the Mangalia shipyard. At the
same time,
Romania developed some more original units. It built
eighteen
eighty-five-ton VB-class armored riverine patrol boats
beginning in
1973. Based on their experience in building Chinese boats,
Romanian
shipbuilders designed and constructed fourteen
Epitrop-class
hydrofoil fast attack craft in the early 1980s. Romania
built
thirty VD-class riverine minesweeping boats and several
units of
the heavily armed Brutar-class riverine patrol boat
(see Naval Forces
, this ch.).
The Soviet Union began to reestablish its earlier role
in
Romanian shipbuilding in the 1980s, granting licenses to
build
copies of the Kashin-class guided missile destroyer and
Koni-class
frigates--the Romanian Muntenia- and Tetal-classes,
respectively.
Although Romania built the hulls for ships of these
classes, the
Soviet Union supplied all armament and electronic
equipment needed
to outfit them.
Data as of July 1989
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