Water Jet Fast Attack Craft review

Built to have a deadly combination of speed, range and agility, the INS Cankarso and her ilk are also known as the ‘Grey Ferraris of the Sea’. Like a Ferrari, this ship is all about low drag, low weight and careful weight distribution. Actually quite large for the role it plays, this 48m long and 7.5m wide boat is positively gigantic when compared to the machines we normally test. But though it may be as large and as unwieldy as a block of flats, the hull is pretty slippery. It has a drag coefficient of 0.45 and this slippery shape helps the INS Cankarso and her siblings achieve their top speed of 35 knots (65kph), and that’s pretty quick on water.

Part of its sheer speed also comes from the pared-down weight. To save kilos, the hull is made of different thicknesses of steel and the superstructure above is made of aluminium! Sounds like Audi was involved here. “We managed to shave around 20 tonnes,” said Bhattacharya of GRSE, which left all of us gasping. So ‘kerb’ weight is down to a featherweight 325 tonnes, which is like a saloon weighing less than a hatchback.  

“Chassis stiffness also plays a big role here,” the engineer said, to which we all nodded knowingly. There are 42 transverse braces (U-shaped ribs that hold the hull’s steel plates together), and the spine has special reinforcements, which means the Cankarso can operate with full effectiveness at up to Sea State 4 (waves the height of buses) and can survive Sea State 5.

What makes water-jet-powered boats different, however, is that, unlike conventional ships, there are no protruding rudders or screws at the rear. Water jets handle both propulsion and steering, and that allows the ship to operate in very shallow water. In fact, since the Cankarso needs water just 3m deep for it to operate, it could theoretically sail right into your local swimming pool if a Jolly Roger is spotted.

This isn’t a battleship, so armament is light. There’s the aforementioned 30mm automatic cannon with an electronic day-and-night fire control system and armour-piercing rounds, two 12.7mm heavy machine guns and multiple light machine guns. The vessel also has its own boarding party to counter a pirate attack.