Turkish Navy Receives Upgraded Submarines

This photo shows TCG Batıray in August 2014. She is a sister boat to TCG Dolunay and TCG Doğanay.

Last week Turkish project management company STM Mühendislik, announced that they have finished the modernization project of two Turkish Ay class submarines.

As reported in earlier in this blog, in March 2010 Defense Industry Executive Committee (SSIK) decided to upgrade two  Atılay class submarines and one year later the contract was signed with STM.

Atılay class is based on German  Type 209 design and they are the oldest submarines in Turkish silent service. The oldest one was commissioned 34 and the newest one 20 years ago. Last year S-348 TCG Saldıray was decommissioned.

The newest two boats, S-351 TCG Doğanay and S-352 TCG Dolunay received an extensive modernization. The old Kollmorgen periscopes were replaced with Zeiss periscopes either SERO 400 or OMS 100. Furthermore a new inertial navigation system from Raytheon and the ARES-2N ESM system from Aselsan have replaced the existing ones.

It was planned to modify four of the torpedo tubes so that they can use Mk48 ADCAP Mod6 AT heavy weight torpedoes. But the press release made from STM omits any mention about this. The modernization project led by the STM remains significant in a way that for the first time in the history of Turkey, a civilian company has been appointed as a main-contractor of a navy submarine project.