Turkish Navy modernization and shipbuilding plans through 2030

Written by D-Mitch

Turkish Navy 2017 - 2021

Without doubt, Turkey today has the strongest and most numerous naval forces in the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkish Navy has more frigates, submarines and fast attack missile boats (Egypt has more FACM but most of them are not serviceable) than any other navy with significant naval fleet in the region such as the Hellenic Navy, Egyptian Navy and Israeli Navy. Not only Turkey has more warships but also those vessels have been modernized or upgraded recently as it will be described thoroughly in the next paragraphs. But Turkey has even greater naval ambitions. This article will summarize the most important developments in the Turkish Navy force structure and its impressive shipbuilding plans from 2010 with a look toward 2030. It should be mentioned here that when I refer to "upgrade" I mean new electronics - sensors and weapons while "modernization" is either new weapons or new electronics and not both.

FLEETS #17: Spanish Navy, Polish Navy and Irish Naval Service today

Written by D-Mitch

This is the fifth article about various countries' navies today. In these articles, I briefly describe a country's naval fleet by reporting the ships in each type/category of warships and by providing a nice image where all the types of warships are illustrated and the units of its class are reported. I include the vessels that will enter in service this year and I have excluded those that are about to be decommissioned. I deliberately excluded many classes of auxiliary ships; those that they have "0" defence capacity and those that have secondary roles such as hydrographic survey ships, tugs, depollution vessels and training ships.

FLEETS #16: Combined Naval Fleets of the Royal Netherlands Navy and Belgian Navy and the Admiral Benelux (ABNL)

The flag of ABNL

The Dutch and Belgian Navies have been working together since 1948. In that year, the two countries agreed that their navies would operate under single command during times of war. The Admiral Benelux (ABNL) is the Commanding Officer of the combined military staff of the Royal Netherlands Navy and the Naval Component of the Belgian Armed Forces. The Benelux union, is the politico-economic union of three neighbouring states: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The position of ABNL, a result of developing naval cooperation between the Royal Netherlands Navy and the Belgian Navy, was created together with the combination of the Staffs of the two contributing navies on March 28, 1995 in the BENESAM Accord (from the Belgisch-Nederlandse Samenwerking, English: Netherlands Cooperation Accord). This cooperation was first geared at mutual battlefield cooperation and later at mutual defense in the Cold War as part of NATO's Allied Command Channel. After the end of the Cold War the focus of the Dutch-Belgian cooperation turned more and more to the efficient use of equipment and personnel (also driven by cutbacks in military spending after the collapse of the Soviet Union). The ABNL is responsible for the combined operations of the Dutch and Belgian Navies and can be tasked with the responsibility for the operational readiness and deployment of the combined fleets in joint operations, both in war- and peacetime operations. Most of all the ABNL is responsible for the efficient use of joint material and personnel and oversees the joint training programs of the two navies. That is the reason why the two navies use the same types of ships and helicopters. Recently, the two countries signed an agreement to replace their four (4) modernized Karel Doorman class frigates with new vessels under a joint programme as well as their twelve (12) Tripartite class mine countermeasure vessels with new ones (source).

The major surface combatants of the most powerful European Navies in 2030 - An analysis of the future developments

Written by D-Mitch

In this article, I will describe briefly the future developments in the major surface combatant fleet of the five most powerful in Europe, the five navies that historically maintain and develop a strong naval fleet of very advanced warships. But what do we mean when we talk about surface combatant? According to the Office of Naval Research of the United States Navy, "..surface combatants (or surface ships or surface vessels) are a subset of naval warships which are designed for warfare on the surface of the water, with their own weapons. They are generally ships built to fight other ships, submarines or aircraft, and can carry out several other missions including counter-narcotics operations and maritime interdiction. Their primary purpose is to engage space, air, surface, and submerged targets with weapons deployed from the ship itself, rather than by manned carried craft.". The term is primarily used to mean any modern vessel type that is not a submarine; although a "surface ship" may range in size from a small cutter to a large cruiser, the largest surface combatant today in any Navy.

FLEETS #15: Russian Navy

Some of the heaviest surface combatants of Russian Navy today in formation,
Marshal Ustinov in the foreground and Peter the Great in the background.

The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), published an excellent report accompanied by some very good graphs, about the current and future capabilities of Russia's maritime forces. ONI's most recent unclassified report on Russia's navy, The Russian Navy - A Historic Transition, looks historically and currently at the role played by Russian Naval forces. It is the first such report discussing the Russian Federation Navy by ONI since the seventh and last issue of Understanding Soviet Naval Developments published in 1991. The document is titled  "The PLA Navy: New Capabilities and Missions for the 21st Century", and you can read it here. Moreover, the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is making available publicly two great tables, the one about the Russian Major Navy Forces by Fleet, Russian Major Navy Forces by Fleet (Continued) and Russian Navy New Constructions.

FLEETS #14: Swedish Navy, Israeli Navy and Egyptian Navy today

Written by D-Mitch

This is the fifth article about various countries' navies today. In these articles, I briefly describe a country's naval fleet by reporting the ships in each type/category of warships and by providing a nice image where all the types of warships are illustrated and the units of its class are reported. I include the vessels that will enter in service this year and I have excluded those that are about to be decommissioned. I deliberately excluded many classes of auxiliary ships; those that they have "0" defence capacity and those that have secondary roles such as hydrographic survey ships, tugs, depollution vessels and training ships.

Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary - Today, past and future (a quick overview)

Written by D-Mitch

RN warships from WWI to 2010. By www.dailymail.co.uk

In this post I aim to present in brief the impressive decline of the United Kingdom's naval force (Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary) through the last decades as well as the current and the future status of the fleet and its synthesis according to the decisions that have been taken the last years. I will not describe all the kind of cuts in the numbers of the various warship categories and craft neither I will expand upon this topic as numerous other very good sites (first of all the savetheroyalnavy.org that its main aim is to put pressure on the UK government to properly resource the RN, others such as the ukarmedforcescommentary.blogspot.com, the britisharmedforcesreview.wordpress.com, the thinkdefence.co.uk, the ukdefencejournal.org.uk and more) have focused and analyze thoroughly this issue and the decline of UK's naval power. My main target is to summarize in a simple way the UK's naval power through the last decades by using a variety of infographics, charts and useful information compiled from some good sources.

FLEETS #13: French Navy, Portuguese Navy and Finnish Navy today

Written by D-Mitch

This is the fifth article about various countries' navies today. In these articles, I briefly describe a country's naval fleet by reporting the ships in each type/category of warships and by providing a nice image where all the types of warships are illustrated and the units of its class are reported. I include the vessels that will enter in service this year and I have excluded those that are about to be decommissioned. I deliberately excluded many classes of auxiliary ships; those that they have "0" defence capacity and those that have secondary roles such as hydrographic survey ships, tugs, depollution vessels and training ships.

FLEETS #12: People's Liberation Army Navy

People's Liberation Army Navy, the rise of a new naval power

The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), published recently (April 9, 2015) an excellent report, the first unclassified report in six years, about the current and future capabilities of China's maritime forces. The document is titled  "The PLA Navy: New Capabilities and Missions for the 21st Century", and you can read it here. Moreover, for the first time ever, the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is making available publicly two great identification and recognition guides of China’s myriad People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and Maritime Law Enforcement (MLE) ships. The first poster, a very detailed fleet poster, illustrates all the classes of PLAN and MLE warships and ships respectively, with 148 carefully labeled silhouettes. A second poster includes 89 photos, one for each class of ship (warship or law enforcement ship), aircraft, helicopter and drone. The first poster definitely is an excellent and very difficult work considering the amount of detail and information in order to depict the numerous classes of naval units.

FLEETS #11: French Navy, German Navy, Royal Navy and Austro-Hungarian Navy in WWI

The following images illustrate the most important classes of warships that were in service with the navies of France, Germany, United Kingdom and Austria-Hungary (Austro-Hungarian Empire) during the World War I. More posts will follow for your collection of current naval fleets but also of fleets from the past.

French Navy (Marine Nationale) in WWI

Click to enlarge and save the image to view the details - French Navy in WWI

FLEETS #10: Royal Navy, German Navy and Romanian Navy today

Written by D-Mitch

This is the fifth article about various countries' navies today. In these articles, I briefly describe a country's naval fleet by reporting the ships in each type/category of warships and by providing a nice image where all the types of warships are illustrated and the units of its class are reported. I include the vessels that will enter in service this year and I have excluded those that are about to be decommissioned. I deliberately excluded many classes of auxiliary ships; those that they have "0" defence capacity and those that have secondary roles such as hydrographic survey ships, tugs, depollution vessels and training ships.

FLEETS #9: Royal Australian Navy, Belgian Navy and Royal Canadian Navy today

Written by D-Mitch

This is the fifth article about various countries' navies today. In these articles, I briefly describe a country's naval fleet by reporting the ships in each type/category of warships and by providing a nice image where all the types of warships are illustrated and the units of its class are reported. I include the vessels that will enter in service this year and I have excluded those that are about to be decommissioned. I deliberately excluded many classes of auxiliary ships; those that they have "0" defence capacity and those that have secondary roles such as hydrographic survey ships, tugs, depollution vessels and training ships.

FLEETS #8: Turkish Navy, Royal Danish Navy and Hellenic Navy today

Written by D-Mitch

This is the fifth article about various countries' navies today. In these articles, I briefly describe a country's naval fleet by reporting the ships in each type/category of warships and by providing a nice image where all the types of warships are illustrated and the units of its class are reported. I include the vessels that will enter in service this year and I have excluded those that are about to be decommissioned. I deliberately excluded many classes of auxiliary ships; those that they have "0" defence capacity and those that have secondary roles such as hydrographic survey ships, tugs, depollution vessels and training ships.

FLEETS #7: Royal Netherlands Navy, Royal Norwegian Navy and Italian Navy today

Written by D-Mitch

This is the fifth article about various countries' navies today. In these articles, I briefly describe a country's naval fleet by reporting the ships in each type/category of warships and by providing a nice image where all the types of warships are illustrated and the units of its class are reported. I include the vessels that will enter in service this year and I have excluded those that are about to be decommissioned. I deliberately excluded many classes of auxiliary ships; those that they have "0" defence capacity and those that have secondary roles such as hydrographic survey ships, tugs, depollution vessels and training ships.

Hellenic Navy 1940-2016

Written by D-Mitch

Hellenic Navy in WWII

Hellenic Navy in 1940 in the beginning of the Greco-Italian War (War of' '40/Battle of Greece), the conflict that marked the beginning of the Balkans campaign of World War II, it consisted of the following warships:

- 1 armored cruiser (Averof); popularly known as a battleship

- 1 pre-dreadnought battleship (Kilkis) partly disarmed and operating as naval AA artillery

- 10 destroyers (Vasileus Georgios, Vasilissa Olga, Psara, Spetsai, Hydra, Kountouriotis, Leon, Panthir, Aetos, Ierax)

- 6 submarines (Proteus, Glaukos, Triton, Nireus, Katsonis, Papanikolis)

- 13 torpedo boats (Thyella, Sfendoni, Niki, Aspis, Prousa, Pergamos, Kyzikos, Kios, Kydoniai, Aigli, Akyoni, Arethousa, Doris)

- 4 minesweepers (Aliakmon, Aksios, Nestos, Strymon)

- 1 repair ship (Hephaestus)

The three battleships of Hellenic Navy, Georgios Averof, Kilkis and Lemnos.

FLEETS #6 and HISTORY #1: Soviet Navy after WWII - A very unusual fleet!

Written by D-Mitch

Kuybyshev of Chapayev class cruisers at Sevastopol on Navy Day,
25 July 1954. On the background you can see Novorossiysk,
the former Italian battleship Giulio Cesare

The following image depicts the major surface combatants of Soviet Union some years after the end of World War II. Of the warships that are illustrated we can assume that the image presents the Soviet Union fleet in the beginning of the '50s, possibly 1950-2. Why "An unusual fleet"? Because this fleet, with the exception of some Soviet-built classes, it consists of Italian, German, Japanese and Finnish warships that were transferred to Soviet Union as war reparations! In order to describe better the situation of Soviet Navy after WWII towards the establishment of a naval superpower based on indigenous projects, I did not just upload the fleet-image as I did in the previous "Fleets" but I aimed to provide some details about the classes and the vessels of that time and especially their fate during their service under the Soviets. Thus, I have copied information related to the classes from wikipedia and I have slightly modified the text as my purpose in this article was not to make an analysis of a class or a vessel based on bibliography as I do in other naval analyses but to provide simple information about the Soviet naval vessels of the 1950s. I would like to mention also that most of the photos were obtained from the excellent forum.worldofwarships.com.

FLEETS #5: Royal Navy in WWI and WWII: classes, vessels and losses

In the following images they are depicted the most important classes of warships which were in service with the Royal Navy in World War I, all the vessels that were in service with Royal Navy in both World Wars and those were lost during these great wars. More posts will follow for your collection of current naval fleets but also of fleets from the past.

All the ships of Royal Navy in WWII (1939)

Click to enlarge and save the image to view the details - Royal Navy vessels in World War II. High resolution here. Image by Oscar Parkes for Daily Telegraph. They are included two of the Lion class battleships that never completed. Also notice two of the five King George V class battleships with the old names (Jellicoe, later Anson and Beatty, later Howe). Ships that their construction started after 1939 are not included such as the battleship HMS Vanguard.

FLEETS #4: Italian Navy, German Navy, Russian Navy and Japanese Navy in WWII

The following images illustrate the most important classes of warships which were in service with the navies of Italy, Germany, Russia and Japan during the World War II. More posts will follow for your collection of current naval fleets but also of fleets from the past.

Italian Navy (Regia Marina) in  WWII

Click to enlarge and save the image to view the details - Italian Navy in WWII

FLEETS #3: Royal Australian Navy, US Navy, Royal Navy and French Navy in WWII

The following images illustrate the most important classes of warships which were in service with the navies of Australia, United Kingdom, United States and France during the World War II. More posts will follow for your collection of current naval fleets but also of fleets from the past.

Royal Australian Navy in WWII

Click to enlarge and save the image to view the details - Australian Navy in WWII

FLEETS #2: Italian Navy (Marina Militare Italiana) in 2014

A nice work that depicts all the Italian Navy warships that are in service by the members of shipbucket.com Enrr, Little Bird, Lazer_one, MConrads and MichoshiK.

Save the image to view the details: Italian Navy in 2014