Plan 215 corvette
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The Plan 215 corvette was a warship class built in the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe during the 1970s and 1980s. In the West they are generally classified as corvettes, though their official Menghean hull classification is Daehyŏng Yudotan Kwaesokham (대형 유도탄 쾌속전 / 大型誘導彈快速艇), or Large Fast Missile Craft. During the 1990s, many were modernized with newer anti-ship missiles, though the type is still considered largely obsolete today.
Development
Beginning in 1968, Menghe license-built a large number of Osa-class missile boats as Plan 621 KY. While Menghean naval planners were impressed with the type's usefulness in fast sorties from coastal strongholds, eventually producing more than 120 in total, by 1970 there was already some concern over its limitations. It had an at-sea endurance of only 5 days, greatly limiting its sortie range. Once its four anti-ship missiles were expended, it also had little in the way of self-defense armament, leaving it vulnerable to attacks by other corvettes.
To correct these problems, the Menghean Navy began design work on a large missile boat incorporating more supporting systems and defensive weapons. An early prototype design, designated Plan 210, called for a semi-planing hullform with a new combined-gas-and-diesel powerplant, which would have resulted in a ship similar in configuration to Letnia's Tarantul-class corvettes. This was ultimately rejected in favor of the Plan 215 design, which used an older hullform resembling a scaled-down Jangmi-class corvette. The new design also borrowed the Jangmi's entire powerplant, though the sonar and the fuel capacity reduced, allowing for a smaller internal space.
Description
Ships in the class
During the 1970s and 1980s, Menghean Navy ship naming customs held that fast attack craft (missile boats, torpedo boats, and small minesweepers) would be given unique numbers, but not names. As the Plan 215 ships were technically classified as large missile boats, they were initially given numbers as well, though numbering started in the 100s because they were a new type. To confuse Western and Dayashinese intelligence, the first ship was named KYD-107, implying the existence of at least six earlier hulls. Number assignment for the next several ships followed a random order.
In the mid-1990s, the Menghean Navy updated its ship naming conventions, stipulating that KYD-type ships would be named for distinguished individuals. The rules were retroactively applied to the Plan 215 corvettes from 1996 through 1998, with most of the ships still in service given names from an approved Navy register. Ships designated for scrapping or sale within the next few years were not named, and regular naming was not extended downward to smaller missile and torpedo craft.