Romanian frigate Mărăşeşti

F-111 Mărășești Frigate
Career (Romania)
Name:	Mărășești
Builder:	Mangalia Shipyard (now DMHI)
Laid down:	1984
Launched:	1985
Commissioned:	1992
Fate:	In service
General characteristics
Class and type:	Frigate
Displacement:	5,790 tons[1]
Length:	144.6 m
Beam:	14.8 m
Draught:	4.9 m
Propulsion:	4 X 8440hp - diesel engines
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h) cruise 27 knots (52 km/h) sprint
Range:	1,500nm
Complement:	270
Armament:	8 x P-20M (SS-N-2) anti-ship missiles (4 x twin launchers) 2 x RBU-6000 213 mm anti-submarine rocket launchers 4 x AK-726 76 mm guns (2 x twin turrets) 4 x AK-630 six-barreled 30 mm Gatling guns 2 x triple 533 mm torpedo tubes mines
Aircraft carried:	1 X IAR 330 Puma Naval

For other uses, see Mărășești (disambiguation).

Mărășești (F-111) is a frigate currently serving with the Romanian Navy, named after Mărășești, the site of a Romanian victory in World War I. Mărășești served as the flagship of the navy between 1985 and 2004, when Regele Ferdinand (formerly HMS Coventry) became the new flagship. It is the largest warship ever built in Romania.

History

The construction of the warship began on the 1st of March 1978 at the 2 Mai military shipyard from Mangalia. In 1984, she began sea trials. The warship was initially classified as a light cruiser by the Communist government and was named Muntenia, after the historical province of Romania. Nicolae Ceaușescu christened the ship himself on the 2nd of August 1986.^[2] The cruiser was entirely a Romanian project, with the exception of the armament which was licensed built or of Soviet origin. The warship had an excessive topweight that caused stability problems even in calm waters. As a result, in June 1988 Muntenia returned to the shipyard where she underwent a major reconstruction program that lasted until August 1992.

On the 2nd of May 1990, Muntenia was renamed Timișoara in honor of the city where the Romanian Revolution of 1989 first started. The warship was also reclassified as a destroyer. However, on the 27th of August 1990, the destroyer was renamed Mărășești, after the Battle of Mărășești in World War I. On the 1st of April 2001, Mărășești was classified as a frigate by the Romanian General Staff.

See also

• Mărăşeşti destroyer (Mărăști class), a World War I and World War II-era namesake
• Romanian Naval Forces

References

1. ^ World Navies
2. ^ "The flagship of the Romanian Navy was relegated from a destroyer class to a frigate" (in Romanian). adevarul.ro. http://www.adevarul.ro/actualitate/Nava-amiral-flotei-romanesti-distrugator-fregata_0_81593238.html. Retrieved 2011-03-08. 

External links

• Romanian Navy