National Submarine Workshop

18 Jun 2017 5 Comments

A digitally created rendering of Milden shown during the workshop. The end product may have a much different shape. Interesting to note that it has X type rudders a shrouded propeller. The thin line prodding form the aft of the submarine is like to house a towed array sonar or a towed counter measure. There is a provision for flank array sonar. The sail is streamlined and houses the forward diving planes.

Turkish Naval Forces organised a national Submarine Workshop on 15. and 16. June at Tuzla Naval Shipyard.

This invitation only workshop was attended by marine engineers both military and civilian, representatives of defense companies and scholars.

The aim was to create a viable road map for the National Submarine, to identify competencies and competences of the national companies and potential short comings, risks in design and production phases.

Turkish Navy wants to commission its first indigenous submarine in 2030. Commander of Turkish Naval Forces Admrail Bostanoğlu stated in his opening speech that Turkish Navy was overhauling its submarines in Gölcük Naval Yard for the last 53 years. He also mentioned that Turkey constructed 11 submarines in 35 years and the building of Type 214 submarines was proceeding.

For me the most interesting part of the speech when Admiral Bostanoğlu mentioned that Turkish Navy developed its own engineering solution to 5 major design faults of Type 214 submarines.

These solutions were verified by TKMS and incorporated into the design of Turkish Type 214’s. Therefore the Turkish submarines will have slightly different dimensions compared to the one’s already serving in Greek, Portuguese and South Korean navies.

Admiral Bostanoğlu indicated the following objectives where local work and innovations is needed:

  • Integrated sonar and fire control system
  • High resolution optronics systems
  • Periscope
  • LPI navigation radar
  • ECM system capable of detecting LPI radars
  • Enhanced COMING and SIGINT capabilities
  • Accurate inertial navigation system
  • EHF and SHF satellite communication system
  • Link 16/22 ability
  • AIP
  • High powered batteries
  • Long range land attack capable cruise missiles
  • Locally developed torpedoes and mines
  • Torpedo and mine countermeasures.

Milden is the Turkish abbreviation of MİLli DENizaltı meaning National Submarine in English. It will be quite a buzz word for the next decade like Milgem.

It is not a secret that Turkey aims to develop and built its own submarines and reduce its dependency to foreign suppliers in critical areas. This workshop indicates that the local know-how and production abilities reached a critical mark where a local development is considered feasible.

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Turkey Makes A Sales Pitch For Type 214 Submarines To Indonesia

24 Apr 2017 1 Comment

This presentation by TKMS from 2014, shows the local Turkish content in the Type 214 submarines, which is substantial compared to the previous submarine construction projects.

6 years ago Indonesia was looking for new submarines to replace her old German Type 209 class boats. Turkey and South Korea were in competition to supply the new submarines.

That was odd, very odd since both nations can only construct German submarines under license but neither has a locally developed submarines design. In other words, Turkey and South Korea were offering newer German Type 209 class submarines to Indonesia, to replace her old German Type 209 class submarines. And Germany was not in the competition.

In December 2011 it was announced that Daewoo Shipbuilding had been awarded a contract, to build 3 submarines. The first submarine is scheduled for delivery later in this year.

Jane’s Navy International reports that in early 2017, a team from Gölcük Naval Shipyard and TKMS ,the company that created Type 209 and Type 214 submarines and  visited Indonesian Navy Headquarters.

In 2015, Gölcük Naval Shipyard commenced a 10 year programme, to build 6 Type 214, locally know as, Reis class submarines, for Turkish Navy. A contract with TKMS was signed in 2009. The first boat TCG Pirireis is expected to launch in 2019.

According to JNI, the Indonesian Navy has received an offer from Gölcük Shipyard to supply a variant of the Reis class submarine. The meetings and presentations on the Type 214 class in Jakarta will be followed by a visit of Indonesian naval officials to Gölcük Shipyard’s facilities, where they will observe construction work on TCG Pirireis. This visit is currently scheduled to take place from 7 to 12 May 2017, in parallel to the IDEF 2017 exhibition.

It will be interesting to see which side the Germans will take. South Korea could not win 6 years ago, without help and support from Germany. Both Turkey and South Korea have an ongoing Type 214 construction program both can and probably will compete again. The Indonesian submarine project will definitely interesting to watch.

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The Construction Of TCG Pirireis Has Started

10 Oct 2015

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Admiral Bülent Bostanoğlu, making the first ceremonial welding.

Turkish Navy reported that the construction of TCG Pirireis the first Type 214 class submarine has officially started.

There was a ceremony at the Gölcük Naval Shipyard were the construction will be done. This is a big event actually which was not served to the mass media which I find it a little bit odd. The construction of a new submarine the first of its class deserves a bigger public attention. I assume that the silent service wanted the ceremony to be true to their motto.

On 2nd July 2009, a contract was signed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (HDW), Kiel, a company of ThyssenKrupp Technologies, and MarineForce International LLP (MFI), London, for the delivery of six material packages for the construction of Class 214 submarines to Turkey.

The value of the contract is estimated as 2,5 billion €. There is %80 offset agreement. The submarines will be built in Gölcük Naval Shipyard where 11 submarines of Type 209, were previously built. According to the original contract terms the construction was to start in 2011, and the first sub delivered in 2015.

The reasons for the delay of the construction is both technical and commercial.

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Will TKMS Pay Penalty For the Delays In Reis Class Construction Project?

1 Feb 2015 1 Comment

Typ214_TR_contribution

This presentation by TKMS shows the local Turkish content in the upcoming Type214TN submarines. which is substantial compared to the previous submarine construction projects.

The German newspaper Handelsblatt run a story about the penalty to be paid by German submarine constructor Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems (TKMS) to Turkey. The reason for this payment is the delay in, construction of 6 Type 214 TN submarines Turkey as agreed to buy From TKMS in 2009.

On 2 July 2009, a contract was signed between Turkey and Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (HDW), Kiel, a company of TKMS, and MarineForce International LLP (MFI), London, for the delivery of six material packages for the construction of Class 214 submarines which are now called as the Reis class.

The value of the contract is estimated as 2,5 billion €. There is %80 offset agreement. The submarines will be built in Gölcük Naval Shipyard where 11 submarines of Type 209, were previously built. According to the original contract terms the construction was to start in 2011, and the first sub delivered in 2015.

The reasons for the delay of the construction is both technical and commercial.

The technical delay is related to the much reported to the stability problems the Type 214 submarines experienced. The stability problem was one of the main reasons why Greek Navy refused to accept its first Type 214 HS Papanikolis years ago in the first place. The solution to the stability problem by TKMS was to add weights to certain places in the submarine in order to create a stability. But Turkish Navy was not satisfied with this come up with its own solution where the center of gravity of the submarine was relocated,by adding extending the length of the submarine. The solution has to be validated by TKMS and this is one of the delay in the project. This also means that Turkish Navy is working seriously in submarine design and problems associated with it.  In the end Turkish Type 214 submarines will be a few meters longer than the other nations Type 214 submarines.

The Type 214 construction project is the last project where Turkish Navy will construct a submarine to a foreign design and subsystems. It is not a secret that the next submarines constructed by Turkish Navy will be local design with most of the critical components ans sub systems produced with local input. It is not surprising to see the large Turkish industrial participation in the Type 214 project as this project is regarded as preparation phase for the Milli Denizaltı  (Milden). Milli Denizaltı means National Submarine in Turkish. So it is understandable for the Germans to drag their feet in the Type 214 project especially when they know that this is the last of its kind.

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>Turkey signs contract for six Type 214 submarines

6 Jul 2009 1 Comment

>On 2nd July 2009, a contract was signed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (HDW), Kiel, a company of ThyssenKrupp Technologies, and MarineForce International LLP (MFI), London, for the delivery of six material packages for the construction of Class 214 submarines to Turkey.

The value of the contract is estimated as 2,5 billion €. There is %80 offset agreement. The submarines will be built in Gölcük Naval Shipyard where 11 submarines of Type 209, were previously built.

The signing of the contract was the end of a long series of bureaucratic procedures that started in 2006. In spring 2006 Undersecretariat for Defence Industries called for companies to summit technical information. In late 2006 the request for proposal was published. In December 2007, 3 companies submitted their offers:

1) DCNS – France
2) HDW – Germany
3) Navantia S.A.-Spain

HDW offered Type 214, Navanita offered the brand new S-80A and DCNS offered Scorpene with AIP. According to technical specifications, Turkish Navy wanted to have a proven and working AIP boat with 8 torpedo tubes.

This eliminated the French and Spanish contenders. Spain is the only country that has ordered S-80A submarines. But the first boat is still being built and not launched yet. S-80A was a risk for Turkish Navy as it was an unproven design and boat. As Papanikolis showed everybody that the first boat of a new design may have problems that are difficult to cure.

DCNS boat, Scorpene has a better export success than S-80A. Scorpene was selected by Chile, Malaysia and India. But none of these boats have an integrated AIP. Both Malaysia and India have option to retrofit AIP, by cutting submarine in half and inserting the AIP module. Thus DCNS was not able to show a Scorpene submarine with a working AIP capability.

In July 2008, the selection of Type-214 was announced. After that the contract negotiations have started. Mk-48 torpedoes have been selected as the main weapon for the Turkish Type 214 submarines.

Usually and naturally, the German company HDW, offers German DM-2 heavy torpedoes as the standard weapon. The technical parameters of the German torpedoes are by default configured in the the fire control software developed by another German company Atlas Elektronik. In Type 209 submarines off Turkey German torpedoes are used as standard weapon. According to media reports HDW demanded a very high sum for the integration of Mk-48 torpedoes in to Type 214. This is typical HDW. When Greece wanted to have Italian Blackshark torpedoes for their Type 214 submarines, the money HDW demanded for the integration was so high that Greece decided to use German torpedoes instead. Therefore, Turkey selected Atlas Elektronik instead of HDW as the main contractor for the integration of Mk-48 torpedoes into the Atlas Elektronik’s ISUS command and control software.

This, will a debut for Mk-48 in Turkish service. USNI’s Combat Fleets of The World reference book speculated that 10 Mk-48 were delivered to Turkey in 1980’s with Tang class submarines. But this was never confirmed by other sources.

The production Type-214’s will be the third batch of submarine production in Turkey. The first batch was the production of 3 Type 209/1200 submarines. The second batch was the production of 4 Type 209/1400 submarines also known as Preveze class. The last batch was the production of 4 additional Type209/1400 submarines with different electronics and software. These boats are called Gür class.

In all these previous productions Turkish input was limited. But in the Type-214 production, many Turkish defense companies will supply their own systems.

  • HAVELSAN will take part in creation of the command and control software of the submarines. With GENESİS project this company gained a lot of know-how for surface ships. With the Type-214 project they will also gain know-how of software integration and creation for submarine systems.
  • Koç Savuma Sistemleri will develop an torpedo countermeasure system
  • MİLSOFT will deliver Link11/22 data transfer software
  • TÜBİTAK will supply their underwater telephony system and self-noice and other signature measuring systems
  • STM will gain know-how in submarine construction and system integration.

When Greece decided to procure 4 Type 214 boats with AIP capability back in 1998, Turkish Navy decided to build 4 Gür class boats with conventional diesel-electric propulsion. For some, this was a bad decision as Greece would have modern and more capable submarines and would gain the upper hand.

Ironically, this conservative decision of Turkish Navy turned out the be the right one. 4 Gür class submarines Turkey ordered in 1998 are in active service today, whereas Greek Navy is still waiting for her Type 214 boats. And in the end they will get 3 boats instead of the original four.

The Turkish Type-214 are expected to enter into the service 2015 and will surely replace the first 4 and oldest Atılay class submarines, which will be on average 39 years old.

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