Hydrofoils in Naval service

[Redlands18]

Whatever Happened to Hydrofoils

One of the coolest vessels ever the hydrofoil was designed to provide high speed sprinting. The website Dark Roasted Blend ran a great post on the history of hydrofoils and another on Soviet era mo…

www.thinkdefence.co.uk

So as to not derail the RAN thread I have started a thread for Hydrofoils.

https://navy-matters.blogspot.com/2015/06/pegasus-class-hydrofoil.html

Sparviero-class patrol boat - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The US, Japan and Italy operated very small numbers for around 15-16 years and were not replaced, the UK also trialled one as well, strongly suggesting they were not really a great Military success story.

Turya-class torpedo boat - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Soviets where the biggest users operating 51 of the Turya class.

 

[Meriv90]

Reading a bit around since as i wrote I have zero knowledge on the topic.

Wondering if electric engine could bring them back like in this case

Candela C-8 - An unrivaled experience on the water

The Candela C-8 electric boat allows you to travel further than any other electric boat at high speed while keeping operation costs to a minimum. Delivered worldwide.

candela.com

EDit: Obviously not viable with actual tech, but in 20 years with solid batteries and better electric tech could be again viable.

 

[Ananda]

The Pinnacle of Hydrofoil for Naval combatan design, I do believe is USN Pegasus class. This class of 6 actually what being proposed as standard fast light strike capabilities for NATO that can be used in more enclosed waters like Baltic and Mediterranean even Black Sea.



Boeing civilian Jet Foil design shares basic hull design with Pegasus, in which why Boeing also marketing both Internationally.

I do see this as the last big effort to market Hydrofoil for Naval and Commercial market from 70's to 90's. The interest from large players for Hydrofoil market seems fizzle after this.

 

[cdxbow]

The Pinnacle of Hydrofoil for Naval combatan design, I do believe is USN Pegasus class. This class of 6 actually what being proposed as standard fast light strike capabilities for NATO that can be used in more enclosed waters like Baltic and Mediterranean even Black Sea.

View attachment 48743

Boeing civilian Jet Foil design shares basic hull design with Pegasus, in which why Boeing also marketing both Internationally.

I do see this as the last big effort to market Hydrofoil for Naval and Commercial market from 70's to 90's. The interest from large players for Hydrofoil market seems fizzle after this.

Quite a few fast ferry services still use hydrofoils, though I get the impression multihulls are more the thing for fast ferries, especially if of any size and required to carry vehicles. Basically the limitations of the hydrofoil out way their single benefit, speed.

• Hydrofoils are limited to less than about 500 tons
• Hydrofoils are expensive to build, they are technically complex and require high maintenance.
• Hydrofoils are expensive to run . The Boeing Jetfoil currently costs 3x times the price of an equivalent catamaran ferry
• Hydrofoils are highly sensitive to impacts with floating objects and marine animals.
• High speed hulls now are usually achieved using catamaran/trimaran multihulls or hydroplaning monohulls. The USN LCS program adopted both these approaches to get speeds of > 43 knots from both the Freedom and the Independence class.

 

[Ananda]

• Hydrofoils are expensive to build, they are technically complex and require high maintenance.
• Hydrofoils are expensive to run . The Boeing Jetfoil currently costs 3x times the price of an equivalent catamaran ferry

This second and third reason that you put, from what I gather most the factors that hindered attraction from Navies on operating this type of vessels.



In the 80's Boeing work with Indonesian PT. PAL for licensing their civilian based Jet Foil into something similar with USN Pegasus. This's just few of pictures left that I got in internet on the trials. They put 40mm Bofors to see the stability of the platform for Naval operation.

From what I gather the trials shown good results. However the costs of maintenance and support is the factor that make TNI-AL not recommending the usage of the type for operational.

As you have put, there're other types of hull that are providing more 'economics' to achieve what Hydrofoil can offer.

 

[Unric]

Great summary - thanks for the explanation cdxbow. Seems like they're quite niche role. It occurs to me that it might be a useful tech for some unmanned missions if there is a call for an ultra high speed craft. A mothership arrangement might mitigate some of the range and operating costs. However, complexity/build cost would likely still be a major stumbling block.