TCSG Dost Started Her Duties In The Black Sea

23 May 2013 2 Comments

SG-701 TCSG Dost in Samsun. Photo: Official Turkish General Staff Photo.

The first pair of offshore Patrol vessels of the Turkish Coast Guard have arrived to their home ports and started to their duties.

SG-701 TCSG Dost is located in Samsun and SG-703 TCSG Umut is located in Marmaris.  TCSG Dost started her duties in the Black Sea on 19 May 2013. It is not clear now when TCSG Umut will start her duties but I do not think it will take too long.

Both ships  were commissioned in Turkish Coast Guard on 5 April 2013.

The contract for the construction of 4 ships at RMK Marine Shipyard was signed on 16 January 2007. The keel of the first ship TCSG Dost was laid on 3 May 2008. She was launched on 9 June 2010 and was supposed to enter service last year. Similarly TCSG Umut was launched in 2011 and supposed to enter into service this year. So TCSG Dost is entering two years late and TCSG Umut is entering into service just about time.

These are the first large ships of the Turkish Coast Guard which never used any boat with a large displacement than 200 tons. Their primary task will be search and rescue missions on heavy seas and in bad weather conditions when the smaller boats cannot operate. Secondary missions will be showing the flag, patrolling the seas and prevention of smuggling.

This class of ships have fire fighting equipment and a hangar and a flight deck for helicopter operations.

SG-701 TCSG Dost in Samsun. Photo: Official Turkish General Staff Photo.

UPDATE: I have corrected the names of the ships. I should not be posting when tired.

Filed under Black Sea Tagged with , , ,

Turkey Exported GENESIS CMS To Pakistan

3 May 2013 3 Comments

genesis11

The renowned Pakistani Naval expert and journalist Usman Ansari mentioned in his article in the May issue of the Warships International, about the Aman 2013 exercise, that Pakistani Navy has acquired the GENESIS combat management system for its Perry class frigate F-260 PNS Alamgir.

This is the first official acknowledgement that Turkey has sold the GENESIS CMS to Pakistani Navy, thought this has been rumored in Turkish for a couple of years. This is the first export success of the GENESIS CMS.

GENESIS was conceived by the Research, Project Development, Department of Turkish Navy. They built a prototype as a proof of concept and developed the system to the full extend.  After the system got enough maturity the GENESIS project was handed over to Turkish defence contractor Havelsan for further improvement, serial production and international marketing.

The GENESIS was created to update the old CIC of the Perry class frigates and replace all legacy consoles, displays with modern multifunction operator consoles. More importantly with the implementation of GENESIS all existing sensors and weapon systems of the Perry class frigates will be able to communicate with each other.  This system enhances the ships’ situation awareness and accelerates the defense capabilities, decreasing the detect-to-engage reaction time by more than half.

F-492 TCG Gemlik was the first ship to receive the GENESIS system.

As is GENESIS is marketable to almost all second-hand PERRY class frigate users. Thus Pakistani Navy becomes the first foreign user of the GENESIS CMS. Of course important questions like when the deal was signed what is the value of the contract what is the delivery time line are remain unanswered yet.

Filed under Turkey Tagged with , , ,

Jean Bart In Istanbul

1 May 2013 Leave a comment

D615

D-615 FS Jean Bart arriving in Istanbul, on 30 April 2013

After visiting Novorossiysk and Varna, the French destroyer D-615 FS Jean Bart arrived for a 3 day visit.

FS jean Bart is very similar in operational capabilities with her 40 SM-1 MR surface to air missiles fired by the Mk-13 launcher and Smart Mk2 3D radar to the Turkish Navy Gabya class frigates.

She looks old and tired. Her crew must have a hard time in keeping her in good shape.

Filed under Bosphorus, Port Visit, Sighting Tagged with ,

PLAN Hovercraft Passed Through Turkish Straits

1 May 2013 1 Comment

HHL New york

M/V HHL New York, passing through the Dardanelles with the first Pomornik class hovercraft of PLAN to China. Photo: Mr. Ahmet Güven. 

The Pomornik (Project 1232.3) class hovercraft built for the PLAN passed through the Turkish Straits; but not on her own power.

The craft was on board of M/V HHL New York, a special ship designed for large and difficult cargo. M/V HHL New York left the Ukrainian port Feodosia on 27 April 2013 and passed through Bosphorus on 30 April 2013 in the early hours of before sunrise. She passed through the Dardanelles later the same day.

This hovercraft , the world largest, is the first one of a class of four. The second one will also be constructed in Ukraine by JSC Feodosia Shipbuilding Company. The third and fourth vessels will be produced in China with Ukrainian help.

The ship was built at JSC “Feodosia shipbuilding company” Sea “, which is part of DC” Ukroboronprom “for the needs of Chinese navy. Currently, the company continued the construction of the second ship of Project 958 for the Chinese customer.
Reference:
  Under a contract signed before the JSC “Feodosia shipbuilding company” Sea “for the Chinese navy will build two amphibious hovercraft project 958. Two of these vehicles will be built with the participation of Ukrainian specialists in the use of domestic components in China.
  The world’s largest amphibious landing hovercraft Project 958 is designed to receive unequipped or equipped with a bank of equipment and personnel marines, shipping them by sea, landing on unequipped coast and fire support landing forces.It can also make transporting mines and setting mine barrages.

Filed under Bosphorus, Dardanelles Tagged with , , , ,

TCSG Dost And TCSG Umut To Be Commissioned

4 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

SG701 TCSG Dost on builders trials two years ago.

SG701 TCSG Dost on builders trials two years ago.

Two new vessels will join Turkish Coast Guard tomorrow.

The first ship of the new search and rescue ship TCSG Dost and the third ship of the class TCSG Umut are joining the Turkish Coast Guard with a ceremony held at the RMK Shipyard.

The contract for the construction of 4 ships at RMK Marine Shipyard was signed on 16 January 2007. The keel of the first ship TCSG Dost was laid on 3 May 2008. She was launched on 9 June 2010 and was supposed to enter service last year. Similarly TCSG Umut was launched in 2011 and supposed to enter into service this year. So TCSG Dost is entering two years late and TCSG Umut is entering into service just about time.

But what happened to the second ship of the class TCSG Güven which was launched in 2011? When will she commissioned, why is she delayed? 

Filed under Turkish Coast Guard Tagged with , ,

A New Photo Of Yonca Onuk Boats In Turkish Navy

20 Mar 2013 Leave a comment

P-142 TCG Yunus 2

P-142 TCG Yunus 2

Today I was lucky to see one of the two patrol boats constructed by Yonca Onuk shipyard for Turkish Navy. A photo of the other boat P-141 TCG Yunus 1 was made public in December 2012. This is her identical sister P-142 TCG Yunus 2.

The Turkish Coast Guard is the largest customer of the KAAN class boats in Turkey. The Turkish Navy surprisingly uses on four boats: Two for the infiltration of special forces teams and two for harbor patrol. I am even not sure if the two boats for special forces have a name. The patrol boats are given proper pennant numbers and names.

Filed under Turkish Navy Tagged with , ,

Greek Frigate Bouboulina Decommissioned

18 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

Lowering of the Greek flag on Boubolina. Photo: Official Hellenic Navy Photo.

Lowering of the Greek flag on Boubolina. Photo: Official Hellenic Navy Photo.

Today Greek Nay decommissioned one of her 10 Elli lass frigates F-463 Bouboulina with a solemn ceremony.

Like all Elli class ships the ex Bouboulina started her life in the Dutch Navy. At that time she was known as Pieter Floriz. She was transferred after 18 years of service in Royal Netherlands Navy.

She was commissioned in Greek navy in 2001 where she spend about 1,200 days at sea, covering a total of more than 148,000 nautical miles. Greek Navy conducted a mid life modernization to six of the ten ships in service. Bouboulina, Kanaris, Themistocles and Nikiforos Fokas which were not modernized are going to be decommissioned gradually.

Her hull will be probably used to supply parts for the remaining 9 ships of the same class.

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Finally: The First Maritime Surveillance Plane Officially Inaugurated

27 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

TCSG552

The first maritime surveillance plane for the Turkish Coast Guard entered into service. Photos: Savunma ve Strateji Forumu.

15 years after the project has started the first plane of the Meltem project  was finally handed over to the Turkish Coast Guard on 23th January 2013. When the Meltem project started, this and this aircraft were not even on drawing boards. Since then they have taken off.

The plane TCSG-552 is the first of the three planes acquired for the surveillance missions. The planes of the coast guard are equipped with a side looking airborne radar (SLAR), AselFLIR-200,  Ocean Master 400 radar. The remaining two planes will enter into service in 2013.

Since the start of the Meltem has been beleaguered with delays. The project has 3 parts:

  • Meltem I:  The purchase of three CN-235′s for Exclusive Economic Zone surveillance missions by the Turkish Coast Guard and six CN-235′s in AsuW and ASW missions for Turkish Navy. This part of the project started in 1998 and ended in 2002.
  • Meltem II:  The integration of AMASCOS  (Airborne MAritime Situation & Control System) and its sub components on the above mentioned planes. The Thales made AMASCOS  was selected as the main C3I system for the above mentioned CN-235 planes back in 2002. Thales acts as the main contractor and Turkish companies TAI, Havelsan, Aselsan and Milsoft are acting as sub contractors. According to the contract the planes were to be in service in 2007. But the first modified plane made its maiden flight one year after the contractual delivery date. The aircraft started to enter into contemporary commission only in 2012 both in Turkish Navy and Turkish Coast Guard.
  • Meltem III: The purchase of ten ATR-72 ASW planes and integration of AMASCOS on to them. For Meltem (III) Aleina is the prime contractor. No aircraft has yet been delivered to the Navy and this stage of the project too encountered some delays already. It is possible that in the end Turkish Navy will get less than 10 planes.

More photos from the maritime surveillance plane:
tcsg552c
tcsg552b

Filed under Equipment, Turkish Coast Guard Tagged with , , , ,

A Rare Photo Of Yonca Onuk Boats In Turkish Navy Service

19 Dec 2012 4 Comments

This is the first photo of P-141 TCG(?) I have seen. Photo: Anadolu Ajansı via NTVMSNBC.

This is the first photo of P-141 TCG Yunus 1 I have seen. Photo: Anadolu Ajansı via NTVMSNBC.

The Turkish Coast Guard with at least 50 units is the biggest local user of fast patrol boats build by Yonca Onuk shipyard. The Turkish Navy recently started to commission boats of this shipyard. Two are used for the infiltration of special forces teams. There were reports that two more boats were bought by the Navy for base protection duties but these boats had a very low public profile.  Unlike her near sisters in Coast Guard service this craft is well armed with a 7.62 mm machine gun on a stabilized gun platform made by Aselsan.

Filed under Turkish Navy Tagged with , , ,

Turkish National Intelligence Organisation Asks For A SIGINT Ship

21 Oct 2012 Leave a comment

Turkish intelligence agency ”National Intelligence Organisation” (MIT) is planning to procure an intelligence gathering ship. The ship will be maned and maintained by Turkish Navy but the operators of the intelligence gathering section will be MIT staff.

In January 2012 the main Turkish signals intelligence (SIGINT) organization, General Staff Electronic Systems Command (GES) was handed from Turkish General Staff to National Intelligence Organisation. Thus it is not unusually for MIT to demand an intelligence gathering ship (AGI).

A-590 TCG Yunus shown here as A-50 FSG Alster. Photo: from the book Die Deutsche Marine 1955 – 1985

The only purposes build AGI used by Turkish Navy was the ex German ship A-50 FGS Alster.  The ship was an Atlantic trawler purchased by German Navy in 1969 and was converted to an intelligence  ships. She served in Turkish Navy as A-590 TCG Yunus from  1989 until 2000.

It is rumored that the Silas Bent class survey ships A-589 TCG Çeşme is used currently by Turkish Navy as AGI. The Silas Bent class were designed to be capable of surveys supporting hydrographic and bathymetric charting and oceanographic requirements for US Navy. Thus TCG Çeşme has extensive underwater survey ability, but  it is not known her over water SIGINT capability.

In the “Annual Report 2011 Undersecretariat for Defence Industries” published in April 2012 it was mentioned that a feasibility study for the construction of an intelligence ship was initiated. And two weeks ago, during the 5th Naval Systems Seminar one of the future procurement projects for Turkish Navy was an SIGINT ship with an estimated cost of 120 million USD.

The Turkish military electronics company Aselsan has a wide range of SIGINT solutions for the use of the land forces. The company also produces ARES-2N naval electronic support system. I assume once the shape of the hull and her propulsion is decided the electronic direction finding and intelligence equipment of the ship can be adapted for maritime use by Aselsan from their existing product portfolio.

Now it is a little bit early to tell whether the intelligence ship for MIT will be an addition to the ongoing project for the Turkish Navy or will it be the same ship. But the project has started and Turkey definitely needs an intelligence gathering ship.

 

Filed under Turkey Tagged with , ,

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