Ukrainian Navy press service has released a video report featuring one of the boats of the Kentavr-LK project, or simply Centaur. In fact, this small assault ship had never been brought up since russia launched its all-out onslaught on Ukraine and practically blocked maritime traffic near the country's southern port cities. Although this report doesn't mention the name of the particular vessel, there are hints to the "combat history" of this boat.
When the invasion began, the Centaur assault boat already had a fully staffed crew that on emergency boarded the ship on February 23, on the eve of the russian unprovoked military campaign start.
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However, perhaps the ship itself at that moment was still at the manufacturer's factory because one of the technical personnel when handing the ship over to the Navy, right on the spot received an offer to join the crew, and accepted it.
According to the report, this assault craft has carried out 15 troop landings during the "operations aimed at de-occupying the south of Ukraine." The Centaur quite frequently had to engage in combat itself in order to provide fire support for the soldiers who had already landed, with the available on-board armament. Or vice versa, shoot back from pursuit while evacuating troops from the battlefield.
The crew also managed to take down two russian cruise missiles with portable air defense missile launchers taken on board alongside other man-carried weapons.
Moreover, this ship made especially stood out during an operation when it had to evacuate another boat, damaged by a russian anti-ship missile. What was that damaged vessel and when the mission took place, no details were provided. Only mentioned that it was at night, the Centaur managed to stay undetected by a russian helicopter, and the whole operation was a success because of the skills displayed by both the crew of Centaur and the marines who were being rescued, as a result of earnest learning and training.
The authors of the report say this boat was damaged during one of the russian missile strikes, multiple crew members were injured but the watercraft managed to stay afloat. We can also see an odd moment in the video, in the screenshot above: the camera stops at the view of the Centaur's deck, there is a marking that refers to six landing operations completed, the "mine" marking says seven (maybe it's the number of water mines laid), and the lifebelt marking says one (apparently, means one rescue mission). Whether it points to that midnight rescue specifically, it's not clear.
For reference, let's recall the declared specifications of the Centaur-LK boat: the hull is 24.3 meters (76.4 feet) in length and 4.8 meters (15.7 feet) wide, water displacement – 55 tons, cruising speed – 35 knots, crew – 4 to 5 personnel, and up to 28 soldiers in the landing team. Armament: two turrets with 12.7mm machine guns, rocket launchers firing S-8 unguided rockets and anti-aircraft missile launchers.
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