In Croatian Service
Two of the vessels were sold to the Croatian Navy for a symbolic price of €9 million (65 million kuna) as a part of an off-set deal for to the previous Croatian purchase of 126 Patria AMV vehicles.
The ships arrived in Croatia on 2 November 2008. They underwent a basic refit and repainting, and entered service in January 2009. Although well maintained, under consideration by navy officials is an air-defence upgrade. The existing Sako 23 mm/87 may be augmented or replaced by a short-range system such as French-built Mistral SAMs or Croatian-built S-10CRO-M (itself a modernized version of SA-13). According to current plans the ships are scheduled to stay active until 2020–2022.
Read more about this topic: Helsinki Class Missile Boat
Famous quotes containing the word service:
“We could not help being struck by the seeming, though innocent, indifference of Nature to these men’s necessities, while elsewhere she was equally serving others. Like a true benefactress, the secret of her service is unchangeableness. Thus is the busiest merchant, though within sight of his Lowell, put to pilgrim’s shifts, and soon comes to staff and scrip and scallop-shell.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)