VAS (motorboat)

Vedetta anti sommergibile (anti-submarine picket boat), commonly abbreviated as VAS and also known in Italy as VAS Baglietto (from the name of the shipyard that designed VAS and built a number of them), was a class of motor torpedo boats that served as coastal anti-submarine patrol boats in the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) during World War II. Several boats that survived the war later served in the post-war Italian Navy.

Class overview
Operators
Built1942
In service1942–1956
General characteristics (as built)[1]
TypeMotor torpedo boat
Displacement
  • Type 1&2: 68.8 t (67.7 long tons; 75.8 short tons)
  • Type 3: 90 t (89 long tons; 99 short tons)
Length
  • Type 1&2: 28 m (92 ft)
  • Type 3: 34.1 m (112 ft)
Beam
  • Type 1&2: 4.3 m (14 ft)
  • Type 3: 5 m (16 ft)
Draft
  • Type 1&2: 1.35 m (4 ft 5 in)
  • Type 3: 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in)
Propulsion
  • Type 1:
    • 3 shafts
    • 2 Fiat + 1 Carraro petrol engines
    • 1,500 hp (1,100 kW)/300 hp (220 kW)
Speed20 knots (37 km/h)
Rangeup to 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Crew26
Armament

The boats were officially classified as "anti-submarine patrol boats"[2] and the first 30 boats were ordered by the Regia Marina at the Baglietto shipyards on 3 September 1941,[2] entering service between March and November 1942.[2]

The concept had first appeared in World War I and by the 1940s similar boats served with the US Navy where they were known as the PT boats, and they also had their European analogues in the German S-boots. The VAS were in fact a development of the S-boot, derived from the German-built Orjen-class torpedo boats of the Royal Yugoslav Navy captured by the Italians after the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia.

References
  1. Gardiner, Robert. Conway's all the world's fighting ships: 1922-1946.
  2. Capitolo XXXIII de: Erminio Bagnasco, I MAS e le motosiluranti italiane, collana Le navi d'Italia, Vol. 6°, 2ª Edizione, Marina Militare, Stato Maggiore - Ufficio Storico, Roma, 1969
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