>Live Firing Exercise of Turkish Navy

>Turkish Navy conducted an exercise in west Black sea and at northern entrance of Bosphorus on 10th March 2010.

Seven frigates, six fast attack craft and two submarines took part in the first part of the exercise, in western Black Sea. The order of battle was not made public. According to official statement TCG Gökova and TCG Salihreis took part. I also saw (with my own Mk-1’s) that F-244 TCG Barbaros sailed north on 9th March 2010 Tuesday. Thus these three frigates must have taken part in the exercise.

The frigates TCG Salihreis and TCG Gökova conducted live missile firings. TCG Salihreis fired one Sea Sparrow SAM missile and TCG Gökova fired one SM-1 Standart SAM missile to drons. According to official statement both missiles hit their targets.

Naval special forces teams demonstrated in Poyrazköy Bay at the northern entrance of Bosphorus their infiltration, recon, ambush and EOD techniques.

Several high ranking officers including the Chief of Turkish General Staff General Başbuğ attended the exercise.

A three minute video of the exercise was made public. Click here for a slightly larger version with a worse resolution.

The first 2 minutes of the video show the actions of naval special forces. In the last minute the live firings of the SAM missiles can the destruction of one drone can be seen.

At the very end of the video, General Başbuğ awards, successful sailors.