LÉ Eithne Class

Illustration of the Eithine Class Patrol Vessel Class overview Name LÉ Eithne Class. Builders Operators Royal Corkonian Navy CNDNS Preceded by Cost €71.9 million per unit including main gun In Commission 7 December 1984 Planned 13. Building 2. Completed 12. Active 12. General characteristics Type Offshore patrol vessel Displacement 1,920 tonnes Length 84.8 m (278 ft) Beam 12 m (39 ft) Draught 4.3 m (14 ft) Propulsion Speed 37 km/h (20 kn) maximum Range 6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) Endurance Boats & landing craft carried Completement 10 (2 officers and 8 ratings) Sensors and processing systems Electronic Warfare & decoys Armament 1× Bofors 57 mm gun 2× Rheinmetall 20 mm Cannon 2× 7.62 mm GPMG Aircraft Carried Aviation Facilities 1× helicopter flight deck

The LÉ Eithne Class or the Eithne is a class of Offshore patrol vessel that are still actively in service. It is primarily in service with Celtic Nations largely due to the fact they were seized after the Corkonian war of independence and the Tipperarian succeeding from the Republic of Ireland.

History

Two Corkonian Sailors on the Eithne Class 8th May 2023.

The Eithne Class has only ever been used by Celtic Nations. That of Cork and Celtic Union.

Variants

The Eithne has had multiple variants be put into service by its users, for one benefit to another there have been numerous: changes; adaptations and redesigns of the class.

cn-1

Illustration of the cn-1 variant.

The cn-1 variant replaces the Bofors 57mm main gun for a Phalanx base 0 gun. This variant is only in use by the Corkonian coast guard. This was commissioned by the coast guard in January of 2024 to serve the patrol fleet around Brittany and north Africa, the replacement of the Bofors is the result of more protection needed against missiles launched from rebels and terrorist groups. Additionally a Bofors 57 mm cannon was seen as unnecessary and unreliable for a force who's job it was not to engage directly with other ships but too patrol the coast.

The cn-1 has yet to see any active combat. It usually carries a wildcat utility helicopter for transport and logistics.

cn-2

Illustration of the cn-2 variant.

The cn-2 completely removes the main armament of the 57mm Bofors with no replacement as this ship is purely a communications ship. It strips the old Eithne of its radar and replaces with a Type 1045 Sampson radar scrapped from formerly deployed Type 45s. This variant is in service with the coast guard and every task force has at least one which acts as a task force headquarters ship due to its large communications capacity. They are at all time to be guarded when deployed. The cn-2 is also designated as "flagship" by coast guard taskforces.

There have been some talks of downscaling the amount of cn-2 patrol vessels in service and the shrinking of task forces due to the capabilities of the cn-2, currently as of January 2024 the Corkonian coast guard only has about 4 cn-2's in service with 2 ever deployed at once. There have been some considerations of commissioning them into the navy.

Operators

Corcaigh

Royal Corkonian Navy

Two Corkonian Naval Eithne Class patrol vessels with the 57mm Bofors removed.

The Royal Corkonian Navy operates the Eithne class ship of the original variant and only of the original variant, they are largely used as escort vessels.

Corkonian Coastguard

The Corkonian Coastguard actively uses the cn-1 cn-2 and regular variants of the Eithne class patrol vessels.

Celtic Navy

Celtic Navy Eithne Class conducting training exercises.

Celtic Navy Eithne Class conducting training exercises.

The Celtic Navy is known to operate multiple ships of the Eithne class, regularly the ships are use in support roles rather for engagements, they are also used as training ships

Celtic Nations Defence Naval Service

The Celtic Nations Defence Naval Service only uses the regular variant with the 57mm Bofors gun.