The Flying Frenchman

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This was brought to my attention by my fellow ship spotter Mr. Alper Böler. He was looking for the ships taking part in Sea Shield exercise off the coast of Romania he noticed that the French F-70 class destroyer D-643 FS Jean de Vienne was sending her AIS signals from the Black Sea.

This was odd as her passage through the Turkish Straits was totally unobserved which is not impossible but highly improbable.
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The ship tracking site Marine Traffic noted her last position to be in the Black Sea 43,24472° N and 30,26093° E.on 21 July 2015. But when looked to her older position recording one day ago she was in Tyrrhenian Sea at 41,41823°N and 9,4666° on 20 July 2015.

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The distance between these two coordinates is about 1300 nautical miles depending on the course taken. If she really made that trip in the given time frame she must have sailed at least with a speed of 54 knots. This is almost the double of her indicated top speed of 30 knots.

So here we have either a real flying Frenchman (her high-speed must have made her observance from the shores impossible as she passed through the Turkish Straits) or the AIS transponder is not correctly configured. Her real whereabouts is still a mystery to me.

Chinese Warships To Be Constructed In Turkey

I must confess that I was appealed when I read this news article for the first time. The article is not a hoax but I do seriously doubt if the honorable Admiral Shiliang Su was not pulling the legs of the Turkish journalist.

This whole story reminded me when the People’s Republic of China promised to send 1 million Chinese tourists to Turkey to agree Turkey to allow passage of the aircraft carrier Varyag through Turkish Straits.

Here is the English translation by Google of the article that is originally in Turkish.

Chinese Warships To Be Constructed In Turkey

China, which is the construction of a number of the world’s cargo and passenger ship, is to order the battleship landed in Turkey. Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy Commander Vice Admiral Su Shiliang, said they wanted to work with warship construction of the Turkish shipyards.

WORLDWIDE, with 85 per cent of freight and passenger ship orders in China , Turkey chose to order the military war ship. Participation from 18 countries, the 12th Europort Istanbul Fair, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy Commander Vice Admiral Su Shiliang headed for 6 people participated in a delegation. The delegation of Turkey stated that naval shipbuilding successful in this regard anlaşabilirlerse said they wanted to work with Turkish shipyards.

Taking advantage of opportunities that would be the years of 2013 and 2014 for Turkey, President of the Chamber of Maritime Commerce Text Kalkavan very big chances for new markets, he said. Turkish shipyards crisis by acting fast ship, repair, maintenance, and repair tends to not only repair the rapidly increasing number of shipyards that Kalkavan, “which is produced in the world to spend 3 times the maintenance got off the ship, each ship can not go to China. There is a market, especially in Europe 80 billion euros, but the ship is unable to price competition with China new ship orders, repairs, maintenance and repair of the lower’ve China, “he said.

DEFENCE offensive with

Turkish sailors with their own means of energy carriers have a wide range of military warships Kalkavan stated that, “the biggest exports in the coming years will the defense industry. Issues such as warships and military defense boots to the success and quality of Turkish shipyards do not have a country that is currently cultivated. Many countries of the world, mainly in Europe warships attack and defense boots orders and re-export of Turkish sailors will pass, “he said. Kalkavan the next 10 years, the industry’s major goals of putting a new 200 thousand jobs, he said.

Are not equal,

Text indicating that they are unequal countries have competing THE INDUSTRY Kalkavan, “If you consider what we are equal, no? Began a new era in the maritime sector. This sector, which survived as long as a crisis, then the path will continue to grow more then progressed. Comes from a very young population and a staff of trained, “he said. Government support in the world that they are not the only maritime sector underlines the President of the Chamber of Maritime Commerce Text Kalkavan, “Thank you for that state. In this way, the shipping industry, shipbuilding industry, ship repair, maintenance, and repair warships headed to the fields of energy and specific so many different platforms, floating plants in the world shipbuilding
to be a single, ship repair, maintenance, managed to be the second, “he said.

>Bulgaria Allows Women To Serve In Submarines And Decommissions It’s Sole Submarine

>Bulgarian defense ministry allowed women to serve in submarine force but the Bulgarian parliament slammed the door as it decided to decommission the country’s only submarine.

The Romeo class (Project 633) class submarine, Slava was inoperational since 2000 anyway, and as reported earlier, she has been slated for decommissioning.

Bulgaria’s defence ministry on Thursday lifted a ban on women serving aboard submarines just as parliament decided to mothball the country’s only submarine.

“There is no such ban anymore,” Defence Minister Anyu Angelov told journalists, adding that women would be free to apply for jobs on submarines and in the national guard — which was also banned previously — as early as next month.

In effect, however, women wishing to serve on submarines will have no such opportunity, as parliament on Thursday also passed a plan to reform the armed forces that involved mothballing the nation’s lone sub.

Click here to read the original story.

H/T: Kobus

>Sunday Funnies

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According to http://www.australia.to website Turkish Navy is is way out of line in Somali waters when naval special forces were seen attacking seven Somali teenagers in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia.

I guess somebody was watching too much Pirates of the Caribbean and Midnight Express and got confused. Or they would also mention the sufferings of the innocent sailors captured by the “Somalia teenagers” were way out of line.

Or may be it is just plain old Turkey bashing.

How I love Einstein’s quote: “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”

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