Russian Submarine Krasnodar Transited Southbound Trough Istanbul

14 Mar 2019

Today improved Kilo class (Proj. 636.3) submarine of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Krasnodar made an unexpected southbound passage through Bosphorus.

The submarine one of the six units built specially for the Black Sea Fleet has been deployed in the region since 7.8.2017. She has 6 533mm torpedo tubes and carries a combination of up to 18 torpedoes, SS-N-27 anti-ship, and Kalibr land attack missiles.

While a southbound passage of a Russian submarine is very rare, it is has happened before. Russian Kilo class (Proj. 877) submarine Alrosa suffered an engine fire in 2009 and had to go to the Baltic for extensive repairs. She did even take part in the NATO exercise Bold Monarch 2011. Yes, it was different times then.

The Montreux Convention regulates the passage of submarines. While the submarines of non-Black Sea nations are forbidden to pass through the Straits, the submarines of the Black Sea riparian States may pass under certain conditions

Article 12.

Black Sea Powers shall have the right to send through the Straits, for the purpose of rejoining their base, submarines constructed or purchased outside the Black Sea, provided that adequate notice of the laying down or purchase of such submarines shall have been given to Turkey. Submarines belonging to the said Powers shall also be entitled to pass through the Straits to be repaired in dockyards outside the Black Sea on condition that detailed information on the matter is given to Turkey. In either case, the said submarines must travel by day and on the surface and must pass through the Straits singly.

The provision in the convention is very clear. If Krasnodar exited the Black Sea for repairs then this passage does not break the rules of the convention. If the submarine, however, joins her 2 sisters all ready stationed in the Med since 2017 and conducts military operations, then this will be a clear breach of the Montreux Convention. We will know better in a few days.

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Turkish Navy Conducted Live Test With Korkut Air Defence System

6 May 2018 6 Comments

TCG Sokullu Mehmet Paşa returns from live fire test of Korkut D.

The unmanned gun turret and the 3D radar mount occupy the place, where once the 100mm gun turret was.

Turkish Navy and Aselsan have conducted live firing tests of the Korkut D gun system on board of TCG Sokullu Mehmet Paşa. The trials are believed to be performed during the first week of May.
Korkut is a Self Propelled Air Defense Gun System developed by Aselsan.

The initial customer for this system is the Turkish Land Forces. A typical system has one command vehicle and 3 gun vehicles. The command vehicles carry a 3D target acquisition and tracking radar, IFF system, and necessary to command and control systems. The gun vehicles carry an unmanned turret with 2 x 35mm guns, a fire control radar and electro/optical sensors.

The navalized system has a stabilized, unmanned gun turret and a mount for 3D target acquisition and tracking radar.

The Korkut D system made headlines in December 2016 when a Turkish boat carrying it for initial tests, run ashore on the Greek islands Kos island due to bad weather.

This time the test platform was provided by Turkish Navy. TCG Sokullu Mehmet Paşa is a very versatile ship. She was built for Germany Navy by Schlichting-Werft in Travemünde as a tender for fast attack boats. In Turkish service, she is used as a flagship of small ship formations, training ship for cadets and in a war as an auxiliary minelayer.

Prior to the tests, the original 100mm gun mount in X position on her board was removed, freeing space for the Korkut D gun turret and radar mount.

The position of the turret on board of TCG Sokullu Mehmet Paşa provides extra elevation angle to engage low flying targets and possibly to engage close small surface targets. The gun turret seems to be not penetrating the deck. This suggests that this is not a permanent installation and the original 100mm gun may return to claim its place on the ship.

Filed under Turkish Navy Tagged with , ,

Republic Day 2017

29 Oct 2017


Today we are celebrating the 94th anniversary the creation of Turkish Republic.

I am grateful to those who made it possible for me and my family to live in this beautiful country under our own flag.

And I can’t think of a better way to celebrate our independence with a couple of elegantly decorated ships.

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Vietnamese Warship Sighted

17 Sep 2017 1 Comment


The Dutch-flagged heavy load carrier M/V Rolldock Star made a short stop in Istanbul on 16 September 2017. She has departed from Novorossiysk, Russia and is on her way to Vietnam. Her cargo is the first ship of the second batch of Gepard class frigates Vietnam has ordered.

In 2012 Vietnam has ordered a pair of additional Gepard 3.9 class frigates from Gorky Shipyard in Zelenodolsk. The second batch is different as they are optimized for ASW role and have 533mm torpedo tubes, the first two pair lack.

Gepard 3.9 is the export class of the 11661E class patrol ship. She is 102 m long, 2,200 tons displacement, 103 crew members, a maximum speed of 23 knots, 9200 km operating range.

The warship is not named yet and has the temporary pennant number of 486.

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Back From Vacation

17 Aug 2017 1 Comment

I have been silent for the last couple weeks. I was on vacation. And returned with the following photos:

Fast tanker RFA Wave Ruler

Cable laying ship USS Zeus.

Type 23 class frigate, HMS Montrose

Survey vessel HMS Scott. Ship’s emblem on her funnel, tells us where she spends most of her time.

Type-23 frigate HMS Somerset.

Trafalgar class submarine Ex- HMS Torbay being decommissioned, while HMS Bulwark in the background being deactivated.

HMS Albion being re-activated to replace HMS Bulwark.

Another Trafalgar class submarine ex- HMS Triumph being deactivated.

Type-23 class frigate HMS Argyll.

The former flagship of Royal Navy HMS Ocean.

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Chinese Warships Visited Istanbul

25 Jul 2017 2 Comments

Type 054A frigate 532 Jingzhou (left) and Type 052C destroyer 150 Changchun docked to Istanbul Sarayburnu quay.

Type 093 replenishment tanker 890 Chaohu

Between 18 and 21 July 2017 a task force of 3 Chinese warship made a visit to Istanbul

Task Group 150 consisting of Type 052C destroyer 150 Changchun, Type 054A frigate 532 Jingzhou and Type 093 replenishment tanker 890 Chaohu have left China on 23 April 2017, on the 68th anniversary of the founding of the PLAN, for a goodwill voyage to some 20 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and Oceania.

The task force headed by Admiral Miao Hua were welcomed by Chinese Military Attaché to Ankara Zheng Qinli, Consul General to Istanbul Qian Bo and a group of Chinese citizens.

This year’s visit was very similar to the previous PLAN visit to Istanbul in 2012 and 2015. In both cases the PLAN fleet was made of one destroyer, one frigate and one replenishment ship.

In 2012 and in 2015 however the destroyer and the frigate have passed through the Bosphorus and entered the Black Sea. This year the ships stayed in Istanbul and have not transit through the Strait northbound. The PLAN task force spend 4 days in Istanbul and left for the Mediterranean.

Here are some close up photos of the destroyer Changhun:

And here are some close up photos of the frigate Jingzhou:

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TCG Kınalıada Coming Along Nicely

7 May 2017 1 Comment

TCG Burgazada (left) is in dry dock and being fitted out. TCG Kınalıada (right) is still on the slipway. Her shape indicates all major constructing is almost finished. She seems to be almost ready for launching in September.

There are some interesting steel blocks lying just to the left of the slipway. They can’t be made for TCG Kınalıada since her shape is full and there is no room to add these blocks. Thus they must the first blocks of TCG İstanbul. They will be placed on the slipway once TCG Kınalıada is launched.

The fitting out of the third Ada class (Milgem) corvette TCG Burgazada is proceeding on the dry dock. The fabrication of the hull of the fourth and final Ada class corvette TCG Kınalıada is almost finished.

The pre-fabrication of the first İ class frigate is continuing. First two blocks of the hull is ready to be placed on the slipway once the last Ada class corvette is launched.

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Standing NATO Mine Counter Measures Group Two In Istanbul

26 Mar 2017

The Standing NATO Mine Counter Measures Group Two arrived in Istanbul on 24 March 2017. The task group had made her northbound passage through the city 20 days before.

During this 20 days the task force first took part in Poseidon 2017. The mine warfare exercise was held between 5 and 15 March 2017.

After the completion of the exercise the task force sailed to Odessa, Ukraine. There the ship were open to public and received thousands of visitors during their stay there.

One day short of their allowance by the Montreux Convention the Task force sailed southbound through Istanbul Strait and docked in Istanbul port for a well-earned post visit.

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18 March 2017 Naval Parade

20 Mar 2017 2 Comments

On 18th March 2017, to commemorate the Turkish Victory over the Allied Armada 102 years ago a naval parade was held in Çanakkale.

10 ships two Ada class corvettes, 6 fast attack craft and 2 patrol boats took part in this years parade which was followed by a beautiful show of Turkish Air Force’s air demonstration team Turkish Stars.

The ships arrived in three rows. The east row was made of TCG Tufan, TCG Zıpkın and TCG Yıldız. The main row consisted of TCG Büyükada, TCG Heybeliada, TCG Türkeli and TCG Karabiga, all locally made warships. The west row had TCG Kılıç, TCG Mızrak and TCG Martı.

 

Turkish Navy fleet approaches the Çanakkale Martyrs’ Memorial, the largest Turkish military graveyard in the area.

TCG Büyükada was the lead ship.

TCG Heybeliada was following TCG Büyükada.

TCG Kılıç

TCG Mızrak

TCG Tufan

TCG Zıpkın

TCG Martı

TCG Türkeli

TCG Yıldız with TCG Karabiga in foreground.

The parade fleet as it was exiting Çanakkale Strait.

The show of Turkish Stars was breath-taking even for a ship spotter.

Click here for previous naval parades.

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TCG Bayraktar Is Getting Ready For The Service

19 Feb 2017 2 Comments

cdy_5203

TCG Bayraktar on acceptance trials in Marmara Sea this weekend. Note her Phalanx CIWS have not been fitted yet.

The first ship of the new landing ship class, TCG Bayraktar is undergoing sea trials and acceptance tests.

The contract for the construction of a new LST’s was signed between Ministry of Defence and ADIK_Furtrans shipyard on 11 May 2011. The value of the contract is 370 million Euros. It took almost two years for the shipyard to find the 370 million Euro credit to cover the project as required by the contract. The first steel was cut on 14 May 2014 at ADİK Shipyard and was launched on 3rd October 2015. The shipyard has succeeded in keeping its contractual obligation and delivering the ship in 34 months.

The second ship TCG Sancaktar is still under construction.

The Bayraktar class ships have a crew of 129 and will carry 350 soldiers. The ships have a citadel to protect the crew from effects of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
The closed parking area is 1100 square meters and the open deck parking area is 690 square meters enough for about 20 main battle tanks and between 24 – 60 vehicles.

The armament consists of 2 single barreled 40mm Oto Melara guns, 2 Mk15 Phalanx CIWS, 2 machine guns on a stabilized remote-controlled chassis.

The ships have a Smart Mk2 3D air/surface search radar, which not common for an amphibious ship. Furthermore there are 2 AselFLIR 300D EO directors, torpedo counter measures systems, laser warning receiver and Link 16/22 system. All these sensors and weapons will be controlled by 5 consoles of GENESIS CMS.

 

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