New ESM Sensor For Burak Class Corvettes

The above photo, taken in March 2018 shows TCG Bartın with her original ESM sensor on top of her mast. The below photo, taken in January 2023, shows TCG Bartın with her new ESM sensor.

TCG Bartın was spotted fitted with a new set of electronic support measures systems this week when this ship made a port visit in Istanbul.

This was the first time that the Burak, (ex-Aviso) class corvettes fitted with this new and unnamed system. These ships were procured from the French Navy in the early 2000s.

A close-up view of the new ESM system.

While there is no publicly available information regarding this new ESM system, it is safe to assume that it was a labor of a collaboration between the Turkish Naval Forces and Aselsan. This outside sensor does not look like the one installed on board Ada and Meko 200 T1 class warships. Thus it must be specially designed to fit on the mast of Burak class corvettes.

This is not the first time that Aselsan has replaced a legacy ESM system on board a Turkish warship. In 2017, Aselsan started to replace the Signaal Rapids/Ramses ESM suit with a locally made one. That system was made of a new ESM sensor, dedicated or shared multi-function operator consoles, and a decoy launching system.

The new system installed on board TCG Bartın, has a new ESM sensor, as it was recognizable from the outside. I believe there will be a new dedicated or shared multi-function operator console inside the combat management center to display the data received by the sensors. To shorten the reaction time the decoy launchers are probably connected to the new ESM suite.

Existing Aselsan ESM systems have the capability of detecting, intercepting, identifying, classifying, tracking,  direction finding, localizing, platform correlating, and recording electromagnetic emissions.

This new system will without a doubt increase the ship’s situational awareness and enable the crew to make more informed decisions.