Turkish Coast Guard RHIB With Thermal Camera

24 Jul 2019

It is interesting to note that the Turkish Coast Guard changes the configuration of hardware of small vessels depending on the region they are operating.

The above photo shows two small RHIBs of the Turkish Coast Guard. One of the left KB4307 was photographed on 1st July 2019 in İstanbul. One of the right KB4309 was photographed in Çeşme ten days later.

Both have a Raymarine radar. KB4309 has additionally one fixed mount thermal camera. The camera is either ML132 or ML232 from the USA company FLIR. In 2010 FLIR bought Raymarine so essentially FLIR and Raymarine are one. Why the RHIB in Çeşme has the thermal camera and the one Istanbul doesn’t have? The answer is illegal immigration and human trafficking. Çeşme being very close to the Greek Island Xios has been a hot spot for those who want to get across the sea and those who want to stop it.

The thermal camera on KB4309 helps its crew to see the boat full of immigrants in the night and probably records the events for further investigations.

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Turkish Coast Guard Rescues 275 People, During Search And Rescue Exercise

15 May 2018 1 Comment

Dost class OPV, TCSG Güven acted as the flagship for the Turkish Coast Guard units taking part in the exercise.

Turkish Coast Guard rescued 275 illegal immigrants from the sea on 6 different occasions during the Deniz Aslanı 2018 search and rescue exercise.

According to Turkish Coast Guard, on 14 May 2018 during the search and rescue exercise held in the Aegean Sea, in 6 different incidents total of 275 the illegal immigrants were rescued from hardly seaworthy rubber boats.

Deniz Aslanı is an annual exercise held, in international waters of the Aegean Sea covered by Turkish Search and Rescue Area. Search and Rescue units from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and elements of Transportation, Maritime Affairs, and Communications Ministry participated in the exercise.

The aim of the exercise is to improve the coordination and collaboration between the military and civilian search and rescue units and coordination centers.

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First Damen SAR 1906 Boat Is Getting Ready For The Service

16 Apr 2017

In November 2016, Dutch shipyard Damen has signed a contract with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Ankara, Turkey for the supply of six, search and rescue (SAR) vessels for delivery in 2017.

The boats are designed for SAR operations in all-weather and can self right within seconds after a capsize or even a 360° roll. The 19 meter long boat, has a maximum speed of 31 knots and can carry up to 120 survivors.

The six boats will be built by Damen’s Turkish Shipyard in Antalya. The first two boats are scheduled for delivery in the first half of 2017 and the deliveries will be finished by the end of 2017.

These will be the first Damen built boats for Turkish Coast Guard. And these boats are going to be the first dedicated and purpose designed search and rescue vessels of Turkish Coast Guard. Damen was not a supplier for Turkish Coast Guard. The fact that the contract was financed by EU funds must have helped the Dutch company. Turkish Coast Guard usually prefers local shipyards and local designs.

Below is a video of the self righting test of the first boat courtesy of Mr. Murat Güçlü.

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Update On TCSG-25’s Collision With M/V Tolunay

16 Apr 2017

On 17 August 2016, Turkish Coast Guard vessel TCSG-25 collided with the Cook Island flag and Turkish owned bulk carrier M/V Tolunay, near the southern entrance of Bosphorus.

TCSG-25 was tasked to escort the Russian Natya class mine hunter Valentin Pikul which was returning from her Syrian deployment. The coast guard boat capsized after the collision.  Lieutenant Ali Rıza Yücel, Petty Officers Yavuz Gökhan Şahin, Bülent Demirkaya and rating Sinan Göktaş died while the remaining 3 crew members were rescued.

The captain of M/V Tolunay, Abdullah Hamadı and 2 members of the crew are currently on trial. They are charged with causing death and injury through negligence. The prosecution asks for imprisonment from 4.5 years to 22.5 years.

There is a video taken by a sailor on board of the Russian mine sweeper showing the accident. TCSG-25 had the agility and the speed to sprint and move away from the merchant ship.

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Turkish Coast Guard To Receive 6 Damen Vessels

5 Nov 2016 1 Comment

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A 3D-rendering of SAR Vessel 1906 by Damen Shipyards.

The Dutch shipyard, Damen has signed a contract with the International Organisation for Migration, for the supply of six, Search and Rescue (SAR) vessels for delivery in 2017. The boats are being financed by the European Union and will be operated by the Turkish Coast Guard, to support the refugees and migrants rescue operations, according to Defence Turkey Magazine.

The boats are designed for SAR operations in all-weather and can self right within seconds after a capsize or even a 360° roll. The 19 meter long boat, has a maximum speed of 31 knots and can carry up to 120 survivors.

The six boats will be built by Damen’s Turkish Shipyard in Antalya. The first two boats are scheduled for delivery in the first half of 2017 and the deliveries will be finished by the end of 2017.

These will be the first Damen built boats for Turkish Coast Guard. And these boats are going to be the first dedicated and purpose designed search and rescue vessels of Turkish Coast Guard. Damen was not a supplier for Turkish Coast Guard. The fact that the contract was financed by EU funds must have helped the Dutch company. Turkish Coast Guard usually prefers local shipyards and local designs.

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Coast Guard Boat Collided With A Merchant Ship And Capsized

18 Aug 2016 7 Comments

TCSG25

TCSG-25 in her better days

Yesterday morning, during the morning rush hour, the Turkish Coast Guard vessel TCSG-25 collided with the Cook Island flag and Turkish owned bulk carrier M/V Tolunay on Bosphorus. The accident happened near the southern entrance of Bosphorus. The coast guard boat capsized after the collision. Both civilian and military rescue ships and other vessels were rushed to the scene. Unfortunately 3 members of crew Rıza Yücel, Yavuz Gökhan Şahin and Sinan Göktaş died while the remaining 3 were rescued.

The boat was tasked to escort the Russian Natya class mine hunter Valentin Pikul which was returning from her Syrian deployment.

If you wonder -like me- how a slow and large bulk carrier could collide with a very fast and agile boat the video below gives us some clue. For a reason, not clear, to me the coast guard boats stays motionless in front of the bulker. At this point it was not possible for the merchant ship to see the boat or to stop.

After the collision the merchant ship sailed till the northern entrance of Bosphorus to Büyükdere Bay. That Bay is the first place along the Bosphorus where a safe anchorage without disturbing the transit traffic is possible. Conveniently the headquarters of Istanbul Coast Guard Command is also located there.

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Turkish Coast Guard Order Of Battle

13 Feb 2016

A few weeks earlier I have compiled the order of battle of Turkish Navy here. This is the order of battle for Turkish Coast Guard:

Active Building Planned
Offshore patrol vessels 4
Large patrol craft 58
Small patrol craft 47
Control craft 85
Search and rescue craft 44
Helicopters 14
Planes 3

A detailed version of the above list:

Active Building Planned
Dost class off shore patrol vessels 4
Type 80 class 18
Sar 35 class 4
Sar 33 class 10
Türk class 4
Kaan 33 class 13
Kaan 29 class 9
Kaan 19 class 17
Kaan 15 class 18
Piket  class 2
Hector 42 class 10
Saget class 23
Various RHIP type craft 62
Search and rescue craft 44
AB-412 helicopters 14
CN-235 MPA planes 3

For more information about the future shipbuilding project for Turkish Navy and Turkish Coast Guard, here is an interesting read.

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Future Shipbuilding Projects For Turkish Navy And Coast Guard

17 Oct 2015 8 Comments

One of the most interesting presentations of the 7. Naval System Seminar was done by Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (UDI). The topic of it was the future shipbuilding projects.

The organisers of Naval System Seminar prepared a CD containing the presentations done during it. It is a useful thing if you want to reread any particular presentation(s) later at home.

However the UDI was either too lazy or too arrogant to send the presentation to the organisers so their presentation is not included in the CD. Therefore you have to be content with the table I have preapred from my notes and memory.

There are 20 acquisition projects related to Turkish navy and Turkish coast guard. Of these 20 project UDI is working on 13 of them.

Project End User Units RfP Notes
LCAC construction Navy 4
Preveze class submarines midlife modernisation Navy 4 In preparation
Underway replenishment tanker design Navy 1 Proceeding according to contract
Underway replenishment tanker construction Navy 1 In preparation
Conceptual design of Milden Navy To be determined No detailed information avalible
Floating dry dock construction Navy 1 In preparation
Hydrographical research vessel construction Navy 2 In preparation
Search And Rescue boat construction Coast Guard 20 (+ 24 optional) Before end of 2015
SAT boat construction Navy 2 In October 2015
Diver training boat construction Navy 2 September 2015
İstanbul class frigate construction Navy 4 In preparation
TF-2000 class air defence frigate construction Navy To be determined No detailed information avalible
Harbour tug construction Navy To be determined No detailed information avalible
Barbaros class mid-life modernisation Navy 4 Before end of 2015
Mine sweeper construction Navy To be determined No detailed information avalible
Sail training vessel construction Navy To be determined No detailed information avalible
New type LCT construction Navy To be determined No detailed information avalible
Ocean going tug construction Navy To be determined No detailed information avalible
 Turkish type fact attack craft construction Navy 4 In Q1 or Q2 of 2016
Fast patrol boat construction Navy 8 In November 2015
600 class coast guard vessel construction Coast Guard 8 In preparation

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Russian Border Police Vessel Took Part In Turkish Led Exercise

21 Aug 2015 1 Comment

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TCSG Dost was one of the Turkish participants to the Black Sea Hawk exercise.

702

TCSG Güven served as the observation platform for guests and press.

MAI1105

MAI-1105 Stefen Cel Mare was the Romanian participant to the exercise.

525

Bulgaria was present with the patrol craft Obzor.

052

The Russian Coast Guard participated with Rubin class patrol boat Zemchuk.

Turkish Coast Guard hosted the international exercise Black Sea Hawk, in Istanbul.

The two-day exercise started on 18 August 2015 and ended the next day.

The aim of this exercise was to increase and improve the workability and cooperation agreement between the Security Services of the Black Sea nations. Border Police and Coast Guard units from Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and Turkey have taken part in the exercise.

On 18 August 2015 there was an opening ceremony at the Coast Guard base in Istanbul. The sea phase of the exercise was held on 19 August 2015 off the Black Sea coast of Istanbul.
The participating units departed from the base early in the morning and performed joint training on repelling asymmetrical threads, medical evacuation, search and rescue, boarding a hijacked boat.

As host Turkish Coast Guard provided one plane, two helicopters, one special operations team, two security teams, 4 large vessels and two OPV’s: TCSG Dost and TCSG Güven.
Bulgaria took part with Damen Stan Patrol 4207 class boat 525 Obzor. Romanian Border Police was present with the Damen OPV 900 class MAI-1105 Stefen Cel Mare. And the Russian participant was Rubin class patrol ship 052 Zemchuk.

This exercise was the first of any joint activity between the Black Sea states since the annexation of Crimea by Russia. Notably Georgia and Ukraine did not participate in the exercise. Prior to the occupation of Crime, all Black Sea navies participated to the Black Sea For task force which was activated twice in a year. The BlackSeaFor initiated by Turkey has played an important role in increasing interaction among the Black Sea littoral states’ navies. The BlackSeaFor activations stopped with the annexation of Crime by Russia.
The Black Sea Hawk exercise is important as it is a sign that the ice is melting in the Black Sea and there is a political will to keep the interaction alive even in a low-level

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Turkish Coast Guard Released Photos And Videos Of M/V Doğan Kartal

22 Mar 2015

IMG-20150312-WA0036

Two Type 80 class Coast Guard vessels use their water canons to stop the vessel. Photo: Official Turkish Coast Guard photo.

 

Detailed information has been published by Turkish Coast Guard on their intervention on the freighter M/V Doğan Kartal on 12 March 2015.

The Coast Guard was informed that this ship loaded with refugees was sailing on Marmara Sea heading to the Çanakkale Strait. Coast Guard vessels reached the vessel near Şarköy but the ship refused to stop and tried to get away. It was only close to Gelibolu about 22 nautical miles south-west when M/V Doğan Kartal was stopped by firing upon it.

The released videos and photos show that it was a very dangerous operation. Various tactics including hosing pressured water into the bridge of M/V Doğan Kartal was tried before using the machine guns. The Type 80 class boats of Turkish Navy have one water cannon.

The videos and the photos show that every aspect of the operation was recorded by each boat.

This is the video posted on the Turkish Coast Guard website.

This is another video from the operation. This show the firing upon the ship.

The videos show that the passengers(!) of M/V Doğan Kartal were hostile to the Coast Guard crews. It is a very delicate act of force to stop a ship fully loaded with unfriendly people without hurting them at all. I think in the end it was a job well done by our coast guard.

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