Kala-class landing craft
The Kala-class landing craft were a series of utility landing craft operated by the Finnish Navy from the 1950s to early 2000s. The class had six ships and several ships of the class remain in civilian use as of 2025.
Design
The Kala class was designed in 1950s as part of Finnish Navy post-World War II reconstruction. Finnish defence forces 1955 equipment development plan included six larger and six smaller utility landing craft. Kala class was designed to fulfill the larger landing craft requirement; the smaller became the. The design requirements called for cargo capacity with at least a single unit load. The ships were to be able to unload cargo directly on the shore without the need of a pier. The Finnish Navy had experience with German Siebel ferries during World War II and partly based the Kala class on their design. The Kala class was designed with catamaran hull for both large cargo area and stability. A bow ramp was provided for vehicles. The ships had also provisions for naval mine rails so that they could act as minelayers. The original requirements also included the ability to break the ships into loads for road transport, with two hull pontoons and dismantled deck structure. In practice the road transport ability was seldom used.Ships in service
The ships in the class, Kala 1 through Kala 6 were built by Rauma-Repola in Valko and Haminan konepaja in Hamina, three ships each. The ships were used to supply coastal forts, served with amphibious troops and were used for general logistics supply and transport needs. The design was considered successful and the following is an enlarged and improved version of the Kala class. As originally built the Kala class had minimal superstructure with only a small control cabin in the rear and received the nickname "floating telephone booths". The ships were rebuilt between 1975 and 1980 with enlarged superstructure and new, modernized bridge.Kala 4 and Kala 5 were experimentally armed with German 10.5 cm SK C/32 naval guns between 1960 and 1964, a single gun each. The guns were removed after the experiment and the other members of the class were not armed with them.