Turkmenistan Makes Another Quiet Purchase Of Warships

Mr.  Joshua Kucera who has en extensive knowledge about Central Asia has written a post about the Turkmenistan naval rearmament. I am glad to say that I help him to write his post, originally published by EurasiaNet.org. He also allowed me to share his post as whole here:

TURKMENISTAN MAKES ANOTHER QUIET PURCHASE OF WARSHIPS

June 6, 2013 – 4:26 pm, by Joshua Kucera

Turkmenistan is buying eight new well armed naval vessels from Turkey, marking a substantial increase in capability for the country’s nascent navy.

The ships will be built by Dearsan, the Turkish shipyard Which had already been contracted by Turkmenistan for two fast patrol boats. The eight new ships will be of the same size as the two previous ships, but better armed.Each will be equipped with four anti-ship missiles, two remote-controlled MANPADS-sized surface-to-air missile launchers, a 40 mm main gun, a six-barreled anti-submarine mortar, two remote-controlled 12.7 mm guns and two Remote-controlled 25 mm guns.

This is according to Cem Devrim Yaylali, who blogs at Bosphorus Naval News . Yaylali Dearsan spoke to a representative at the recent IDEF defense expo in Istanbul, and took a photo of the model that Dearsan was presenting. And he was generous enough to pass along the information and photo to The Bug Pit.

Turkmenistan had already been reported to be acquiring five missile boats from Russia, in addition to the two Dearsan fast patrol boats.
Dearsan I asked for confirmation and more information, but did not hear back. That is not surprising: they have been very quiet about their previous deals with Turkmenistan, no doubt at Ashgabat’s request.

The model as appears to have the same 40 mm main gun and the ASW mortar used in Tuzla class. The ASW mortar has been moved to B position to create space for surface to surface anti ship missiles. I was not told the type of the missiles but the launcher boxes of the model resemble very much to Otomat/Teseo. There are two remotely controlled SAM launchers one in the forecastle one in the aft. The missiles and launchers look like adaptation of some MANPADS surface to air system. In addition to these weapons there are two STAMP 12,7 mm remote-controlled machine gun turrets a top of the bridge and two 25 mm STOP remote-controlled gun turrets.