TCG Edincik Gets A New Mine Hunting Sonar

The legacy DUBM 20B sonar system on board of TCG Edincik, here off Istanbul in 2017, was replaced by indigenously developed MATESS system.

It was revealed during the industry day of the Nusret 2018 mine warfare exercise, that the Turkish minehunter TCG Edincik was fitted with the mine detection sonar of Aselsan.

Aselsan started to development of MATESS, mine detection sonar as a private project without a firm order from Turkish Navy. When the system was evolved to certain maturity, it was installed on board of Edincik class minehunter TCG Edincik.

The minehunter started her life as FS Calliope in 1971 in French Navy. In 1999 she and her 4 sisters were bought by the Turkish Navy. She was renamed as TCG Edincik and transferred in 1998. In her original configuration, she was fitted with DUBM 20B minehunting sonar.

According to Aselsan MATESS is a mine detection and object avoidance sonar, providing automatic detection, localization and classification capability for underwater objects, supporting ships navigation safety at high reliability.

The system is made up from the transducer array, transmitter and receiver, signal processing and user interface units.

Aselsan expects the testing of the sonar system on TCG Edincik will end in late December and in early 2019 the system will officially be inaugurated to Turkish Navy. Her attendance to the Nusret mine warfare exercise should be regarded as a part of the testing and evaluation process of the MATESS by Turkish Navy.