Royal Navy of Oman

Royal Navy of Oman
Naval Ensign of Oman
Country	Oman
Type	Navy
Size	4,200 personnel
Garrison/HQ	As Sib
Colors	Blue and Yellow

The Royal Navy of Oman (Arabic: البحرية الملكية من عمان), abbreviated RON, is the maritime component of the Royal Armed Forces of the Sultanate of Oman. Given it's long coastline and strategic location along the Indian Ocean, as well as being close to the Strait of Hormuz, the Royal Navy is one of the priorities of the government of Oman. It has a fleet of fleet of gunboats, fast missile boats and support, training, cargo and hydro-graphical survey vessels, which can be deployed to defend the territorial waters and coastline of Oman as well as protect tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The Royal Navy's headquarters are in As Sib, several miles west of Muscat, the capitol. A modernization program is ongoing, with the objective of creating a first rate fleet.

History

In 1992, the Royal Oman Navy had a strength of 3,000 personnel. The main naval base, near As Sib, was the Said ibn Sultan Naval Base, located in Wudham Alwa (near As Sib). One of the largest engineering projects in Oman, it serves as a homeport for the fleet and includes training facilities as well as repair bays. The Oman Naval Training Center, located at the base, provided instruction for officers and enlisted personnel, as well as specific branch training. Originally, most of the officers were British, with non-commissioned officers being mostly Pakistani. However, by 1980, most of the officers were Omani, though British and Pakistani technicians remained.

The Royal Oman Navy does not have a marine corps or any naval infantry formations, though has multiple amphibious ships. A modernization program is ongoing in order to protect the coastline as well as the strategically important Strait of Hormuz. The British Royal Navy, in 2011, helped train corvette crews in the Flag Officer Sea Training.

Ships

Hull Number	Name	Class	Builder	Type	Displacement	Laid down	Launched	Commission	Decommission	Notes
Surface Combatants
Q40	Al Shamikh	Khareef Class	BAE Systems	Corvette	2,660 tons		22 July 2009	October 2013
Q41	Al Rahmani	Khareef Class	BAE Systems	Corvette	2,660 tons		23 July 2010
Q42	Al Rasikh	Khareef Class	BAE Systems	Corvette	2,660 tons		27 June 2011
Q31	Qahir Al Amwaj	Qahir class	Vosper Thornycroft	Corvette	1185 tons		21 September 1994	3 September 1996
Q32	Al Mua'zzar	Qahir class	Vosper Thornycroft	Corvette	1185 tons		26 September 1995	26 November 1996
Patrol vessels
Q30	Al Mubrukah		Brooke Marine	Patrol Ship	785 tons		7 April 1970	1971		Former royal yacht converted to training ship; serving as a patrol ship since 1997.
B10	Dhofar	Province Class	Vosper Thornycroft	Fast Attack Craft	390 tons
B11	Al Sharquiyah	Province Class	Vosper Thornycroft	Fast Attack Craft	390 tons
B12	Al Bat'nah	Province Class	Vosper Thornycroft	Fast Attack Craft	390 tons
B14	Mussandam	Province Class	Vosper Thornycroft	Fast Attack Craft	390 tons
Z1	Al Bushra	Al Bushra class	France	patrol craft	450 tons
Z2	Al Mansoor	Al Bushra class	France	patrol craft	450 tons
Z3	Al Najah	Al Bushra class	France	patrol craft	450 tons
Amphibious vessels
L3	Fulk al Salamah		Bremer Vulkan	Amphibious Transport	10,864 tons					270 troops. Multirole amphibious transport and general logistics ship. Now assigned to Royal Yacht Squadron.
L2	Nasr al Bahr		UK							(with hel deck capacity 7 tanks; 240 troops.
A2	Al Sultana		Netherlands
Auxiliaries

Missiles

• 50 VT-1Crotale NG SAMs
• 162 Exocet MM-40 (122 Block-1+ 40 Block-2)
• Exocet MM-38
• Harpoon (missile) Block-II
• Mica-SAM

Electronics

• MASS Ship protection system
• 3x SMART-S MK-II Ship sensors
• 2x MW-8 Air search radar
• 5x Sting fire control radar
• 2x DRBV-51C fire control radar
• 3x RA-20S air search radar
• 4x 9LV radar
• 3x CEROS-200 radar

The Future

Procurement

New Corvettes

Al-Rahmani, Portsmouth, UK, 2013.

Al-Rahmani, Portsmouth, UK, 2013.

Al-Rahmani, Portsmouth, UK, 2013.

The Royal Navy of Oman (RNO) has contracted BAE Systems Surface Ships, in the United Kingdom to construct three Offshore patrol vessels. The OPVs are to be known as the Khareef Class Corvettes and are under trials for delivery in 2012. They will feature a 12-cell VL Mica launcher, MM40 Exocet Block 3 SSMs, an Oto Melara 76/62 Super Rapid gun, 2 MSI DS 30M 30 mm guns and MASS decoy system. The first vessel - Al-Shamikh - underwent sea trials in 2010.

New Research Vessel

The Royal Navy of Oman (RNO) has contracted with the US Pentagon through a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program to provide a new research vessel based on the RV F.G. Walton Smith, a University of Miami vessel.

Thoma-Sea Shipbuilders of Lockport, Louisiana reportedly won a $7.3m contract to build a Catamaran Hull Hydrographic Survey Vessel for the government of Oman, according to a report. This vessel will be built by Thoma-Sea. Thoma-Sea’s partner in this proposal is Technology Associates Inc. (TAI) of New Orleans in Louisiana. TAI prepared the proposal for Thoma-Sea and will be in charge of performing the Design, Program Management and Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) functions for Thoma-Sea. The Sultanate of Oman will receive this 90-foot vessel, which is designed to conduct hydrographic and environmental surveys of harbors and bays, and will work in Oman’s territorial waters, according to the release.

Oman has also issued RFI for a new ‘hydrographic survey vessel’. US Naval Sea Systems Command is promoting ship design based on the Walton Smith Catamaran design.

Al-Ofouq Class Patrol Vessels

Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (ST Engineering) announced that its marine arm, Singapore Technologies Marine Ltd (ST Marine) had secured a contract worth €534.8m (about S$880m) to design and build four patrol vessels (PVs) and the provision of associated logistic support for the Royal Navy of Oman. This contract was awarded by the Ministry of Defence of the Sultanate of Oman through a competitive international tender. ST Marine will build four 75-metre PVs based on its proprietary Fearless class patrol vessel. The project will commence immediately with the first vessel expected to be delivered in 2Q 2015 and the final vessel in 3Q 2016.

Former ships

• Four Brooke Marine patrol craft

See also

• Qahir Al Amwaj