ROVKiller: A Countermeasure For Mine Hunting ROVs

5 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment

The prototype of ROVKiller. Photo: BUTECH.One of the private universities in Turkey, Bahçeşehir University has founded a Technology Development Center (BUTECH) in August 2005. BUTECH’s main mission is to realize custom projects created for various industries and government in Turkey and in the Middle East region of the world. They employ their students so that they would have sufficient work experience.

BUTECH has developed a number of defense related projects. They are mostly in concept or development phase but I trust that a few of them might even get in to prototype and test and evolution phase by the armed forces.

The ROV Killer is one of the projects I believe that has a good potential to enter into production. The ROV Killer is essentially an intelligent mine that is connected to a standard “dumb” mine and will destroy the mine hunting ROV by exploding.

The ROV’s are the soft under belly of today’s naval mine hunting vessels. In our age where we adore anything that can perform dangerous and mundane task by a unmanned way ROV’s are more valuable assets than divers. If a mine hunter ship, cannot deploy a ROV to neutralize or to identify a mine then a human diver have to be risked for the mission of the ROV.

According to BUTECH’s website the prototype of the system was completed in April 2009 and, testing has begun.

ROVKiller Technical Specifications

  • High precision and accuracy
  • 5 meter detection distance
  • Operable under 300 meter depth (31 atm)
  • Light difference detection
  • Specific light color detection
  • Attachable via magnetic node to bottom mines
  • Easy integration to mine
  • Ability to be built in various size and models

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Turkish Navy Replaces The Flagship Of SNMCMG-2

29 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment


Turkish warship A-577 TCG Sokullu Mehmet Paşa replaced A-579 TCG Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Paşa as the flagship of Standing NATO Mine Counter Measures Group 2, on 23rd January 2012. The Turkish Captain Abdulhamit Şener is commanding this task force.

Actually both ships are more or less same. They were originally built for the German Navy as Rhein class tenders. Four ships of this class Elbe, Donau, Isar and Ruhr were transferred to Turkish Navy in 1980′s. Isar was the first   TCG Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Paşa. She was replaced by Donau. Similarly Ruhr was the first TCG Sokullu Mehmet Paşa; she was replaced by Elbe.

When not used as flagships both ships are used for long distance training sails of Turkish Naval Academy and Turkish Naval High-school cadets.

It was just the Turkish Navy that replaced the warship it has committed to this task force.  This is the current composition of SNMCMG-2:

Number
Name
Nation
Participants
A-577 TCG Sokullu Mehmet Paşa Turkey Flagship
M-268 TCG Akcakoca Turkey Minehunter
M-34 SPS Turia Spain Minehunter
5556 ITS Alghero Italy Minehunter
M-30 HMS Ledbury UK Minehunter

This was the composition of SNMCMG-2 in November 2011:

Number
Name
Nation
Participants
A-579 TCG Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Paşa Turkey Flagship
M-270 TCG Akçay Turkey Minehunter
M-35 SPS Duero Spain Minehunter
5557 ITS Numano Italy Minehunter
M-1063 Bad Beversen Germany Minehunter

Standing NATO Mine-Countermeasures Group 2, is a multinational, integrated maritime force – made up of vessels from various allied nations, training and operating together as a single team – that is permanently available to NATO to perform a wide range tasks, from participating in exercises to crisis response and real world operational missions. Usually the Force is employed in the Mediterranean area but, as necessary, will be available anywhere NATO requires it to deploy.

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Nusret 2011 Mine Warfare Exericse

17 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment

Between 20th and 30th November 2011 The Turkish Navy will host the Nusret 2011 Exercise. This is an annual exercise to hone mine hunting skills of the participants.

This years exercise area is Bay of Saros just west of the Gelibolu peninsula which is a very appropriate place for a mine warfare exercise.

The list of the participating ships is below. In addition to these forces a naval explosive ordnance disposal team, one air force C-130 Hercules aircraft and a helicopter will take in the exercise too.

Number
Name
Nation
Type
A-579 TCG Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Paşa Turkey Flagship
M-270 TCG Akçay Turkey Mine hunter
M-35 SPS Duero Spain Mine hunter
5557 ITS Numano Italy Mine hunter
M-1063 Bad Beversen Germany Mine hunter
NL-125 Osmangazi (Note-1) Turkey Mine layer
M- 9 mine warfare ships Turkey Mine hunter /sweeper
P- Fast attack craft Turkey Fast attack craft
P- Patrol vessel Turkey Patrol vessel
P- Fast attack craft Turkey Fast attack craft
P- Patrol vessel Turkey Patrol vessel
A-589 Işın (Note-1) Turkey Salvage
SG- Coast Guard Vessel Turkey Patrol Vessel
Note-1: Participation these ships are not confirmed but assumed. Bosphorus Naval News

Click here and here to read about the last year’s exercise.

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>A Mine Was Found In Güllük

11 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment

>A fishing boat found a mine in its nets when it was hunting in Güllük Bay, Muğla.

The rusted mine was brought to the harbor by the boat and was carefully lifted to the shore.  

In such cases the local authorities call in the naval special forces EOD teams in order to destroy the mine.

In 2010 alone in three different occasions a mine was found in Didim, Karasu and Artvin.

The photo is from Posta daily.

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>Look What The Net Dragged In

28 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment

>Last week a fishing boat operating of the coast of Hopa, Artvin found this in its net.

The 150 kilo, British made mine was tangled in the net as the fishermen were collecting the net. They have placed the mine on the deck of their boat and returned to the harbor.

The local security forces summoned an underwater EOD team  from Istanbul to inspected the mine. Later it was taken to military shooting range where it was destroyed by demolition charges.

Every year a couple of sea mines are found and destroyed in Turkey. This year alone in two different occasions a mine was found in Didim, and Karasu.

Click here for more photos.

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>German Minehunter Bad Rappenau On Nusret 2010 Exercise

22 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment

>The German 332 class minehunter, M-1067 Bad Rappenau has an interesting webpage where they write about their deployment in SNMCMG 2.

They have shared their experience in the Nusret 2010 invitation mine exercise. Click here to read it.

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>Nusret 2010 Starts On Saturday

4 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment

>Apparently November will be a busy month. While Turkish submarines are playing hide and seek with Turkish and SNMG-2 frigates, SNMCMG-2 will be hunting mines with Bulgarian, Greek and Turkish mine hunters.

The annual Nusret naval exercise will be held between 6 and 13 November. The aim of this exercise is to improve anti mine warfare techniques of the participants.

The list of participants is not available yet but according to Bulgarian MOD, M68 BGS Priboy will take part.

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>Old, Rusty And Dangerous

12 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment

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Mine, destroyed. Photos from Hürriyet

Mines, whether buried under dirt or lurking in the deeps of the seas are in my humble view are the most loathsome weapons as they can be still deadly after decades.

The scenes of old battlefields are ripe with them all over the world. There are an estimated 80,000 unexploded mines remain in the Baltic, mostly laid by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II.

Every year a couple of sea mines are found and destroyed in Turkey. Most of these mines are dating back to the 1st World War. On 8th September a mine was discovered by a swimmer off a popular beach in Didim.

An underwater EOD team arrived from Istanbul inspected the mine. It had a diameter of 70 cm and estimated around 200 kg. Later it was taken off the shore, where it was destroyed by demolition charges.

A similar mine was found on the Black Sea in April 2010.

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>TCG Amasra Taking Part In Olives Noires 2010

7 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment

>

M-269 TCG Anamur, sister ship of TCG Amasra

The Turkish mine hunter M-266 TCG Amasra is taking part in naval exercise Olives Noires 2010 organized by French Navy. TCG Amasra is the Turkish contribution to NATO’s Standing MCM Group 2.

TCG Amasra was commssioned in 2005. She belongs to Aydin class mine hunters, is based on German Frankenthal Class (Type 332).

Contrary to the widely adopted use of GPR, these ships are made of non-magnetic steel. Thus the Turkish Navy became the second navy using non-magnetic steel in MCM ships, after German Navy.

The ship has 2 PAP-105 Mk5 mine counter ROV’s and Nautis-3M command and control system. The Type 2093 variable depth sonar is hull mounted and can operate up to 200m depth and 12 kts speed.

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>Old, Rusty And No More Dangerous.

12 Apr 2010 2 Comments

>

The mine that washed up to the coast of Karasu was destroyed by Naval EOD teams.

As reported earlier an old and rusty object was found on the beach by locals. After positively being identified as a mine, the Navy decided to destroy it.

The Naval Special Forces EOD teams cleared the sand around the mine and with help of an excavator the mine was lifted to a RHIB.

It was taken approximately one and half miles off the shore, where the EOD divers sunk the mine to the sea floor. Later it was by demolition charges.

The mine was a German one. The weight of the mine was 1000kg, 300kg of that was the warhead.

She is from the wreck of the sunken German submarine U-20 It is difficult to classify it mine form the pictures but it looks like a Type II mine to me. But I am no expert. The fact that it can be still dangerous after all these year is awfull.

Photos from: Haberler.com and Karasu Medya

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