Barbaros-Class Frigates Enter "Beast Mode" with Major MLU

Written by D-Mitch

TCG Orucreis frigate after MLU during Exercise Dynamic

Mariner / Flotex 25. Photo by Anadolu Agency.

Today, the Turkish Turkish Naval Forces (Türk Deniz Kuvvetleri) operate a fleet of four Barbaros-class multipurpose frigates. Two of these ships were built by the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, while the other two were constructed at Turkey’s Gölcük Naval Shipyard with German assistance. Construction of the lead ship, TCG Barbaros (F-244), began in April 1992, and all four vessels were commissioned between 1995 and 2000. The Barbaros-class frigates are approximately 7 meters longer than the earlier Yavuz-class frigates (four ships) and have a full load displacement of around 3,400 tons. Compared to their predecessors, they feature a more advanced propulsion system—CODOG (Combined Diesel or Gas)—which allows for a higher top speed. They also incorporate upgraded electronic and sensor systems. Until the commissioning of TCG Istanbul (F-515, the lead ship of the first indigenous Istif-class frigates in January 2024, the Barbaros-class frigates were considered the most modern vessels in the Turkish Navy. Today, the ships of the class are undergoing a comprehensive Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU) to enhance their combat capabilities and extend their service life into the 2040s. This article offers a detailed and thorough examination of the Barbaros-class frigates and their extensive (and impressive) MLU.

FLEETS #33: Voksmarine, Bundesmarine, Royal Netherlands Navy and Turkish Navy in Cold War

The following images illustrate the most important classes of warships that were in service with the navies of East Germany, West Germany, the Netherlands and Turkey during the Cold War. All the images are created by www.naval-encyclopedia.com. In that page you can read some excellent naval history articles, to download other graphs or you can purchase the same graphs in high resolution in the online shop! More posts will follow for your collection of current naval fleets but also of fleets from the past.

 

East German Navy (Volksmarine) in Cold War

East German Navy (Volksmarine) in Cold War

INFOGRAPHICS #60: Future Surface Combatants Vol. V (Amiral Ronarc'h-class, Kimon-class, Anadolu-class)

Written by D-Mitch

In this post, I include some of the infographics I made and published on social media, about new surface combatants that are under construction and about to enter service in the near future. 

 

1. Amiral Ronarc'h-class (FDI) frigates of the French Navy (5 ships)

 

Amiral Ronarc'h-class (FDI) frigate of the French Navy

INFOGRAPHICS #57: Future Surface Combatants Vol. II (DDX, Istif-class and FAC55-class)

Written by D-Mitch

In this post, I include some of the infographics I made and published on social media, about new surface combatants that are under construction and about to enter service in the near future.

 

1. DDX (under development) class destroyer of the Italian Navy (2 ships) 

 

DDX (unknown class), the future destroyer of the Italian Navy. High resolution image here.

 

MEKO 200 Frigate Mild-Life Upgrade (MLU) programmes worldwide

Written by D-Mitch

MEKO 200 frigates HMNZS Te Mana, HMAS Parramatta and
HMAS Perth during the International Fleet Review 2013

The MEKO 200 is a frigate (FFG) design by the German shipyard Blohm+Voss as part of the MEKO family of warships. Ten MEKO 200 frigates were built to the Anzac-class design; eight for the Royal Australian Navy (first ship entered service in 1993), and two for the Royal New Zealand Navy (first ship entered service in 1994). Eight MEKO 200TN frigates were acquired by Turkey in three different tracks: four Track I/Yavuz vessels (first ship in 1987), two Track IIA/Barbaros class vessels (first ship in 1997) and two Track IIB/Barbaros (Salihreis subclass) vessels (first ship in 1998). Portugal acquired three MEKO 200PN/Vasco da Gama class (first ship commissioned in 1991) and Greece four MEKO 200HN/Hydra class (first ship commissioned in 1992). Total 25 vessels of seven (7) configurations! This article focuses on the Mild-Life Upgrade (MLU) programmes that are implemented on the MEKO 200 classes worldwide, of which some of them have change completely the appearance of the ships.

PHOTO GALLERY #29: Gokova, upgraded Gabya class frigate of the Turkish Navy and Generał Kazimierz Pułaski, O.H. Perry class frigate of the Polish Navy

Perrys! Turkish Gokova (left) and Polish Generał Kazimierz Pułaski frigates

In this post you will enjoy more than 90 photos of two frigates, Gokova, a Modernized Gabya (O. H. Perry) class frigate of the Turkish Navy and Generał Kazimierz Pułaski, an O.H. Perry class frigate of the Polish Navy. I took the photos during my visit to Kiel, on 21st and 22th of June, the first days of the 137th Kiel Week (see previous post about Kieler Woche). The two ships were some of the many visiting warships that had returned from the NATO BALTOPS (Baltic Operations) Exercise. Both ships are currently participating in the Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1). The Oliver Hazard Perry class is a class of guided missile frigates named after the U.S. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the hero of the naval Battle of Lake Erie. The 136-meter warships were designed in the United States in the mid-1970s as general-purpose escort vessels inexpensive enough to be bought in large quantities to replace World War II-era destroyers and complement 1960s-era Knox-class frigates. Fifty-five (55) ships were built in the United States: 51 for the United States Navy (US Navy) and four (4) for the Royal Australian Navy. In addition, eight (8) were built in Taiwan, six (6) in Spain, and two (2) in Australia for their navies. The last remaining in active service with the US Navy, USS Simpson, was decommissioned on 29 September 2015. Former U.S. Navy warships of this class have been sold or donated to the navies of Bahrain (1), Egypt (4), Poland (2), Pakistan (1), Taiwan (10), and Turkey (8). 

INFOGRAPHICS #39: The major surface combatants of the most powerful European Navies in 2035

Written by D-Mitch

European frigates, ESPS Blas de Lezo (F103), FGS Sachsen (F219)
and TCG Saligreis (F246), in close formation.

In this short article, similar to a complete analysis I did in the past on The major surface combatants of the most powerful European Navies in 2035, I illustrate the six most powerful surface combatant fleets in Europe by 2035 in a single graph, based on the shipbuilding programs that have announced and only. Russian Navy, as a naval superpower, is excluded from the graph. This time, the new graph, does not include only those countries that are located wholly or predominantly in Europe but also countries that exist partially within geographical Europe. Thus Turkish Navy is included as well. In this post, I will mention briefly some additions and changes regarding the previous article but I will not analyze more the developments and the designs, because I believe the before mentioned article covered the topic to a large extent.

FLEETS #19: Royal Netherlands Navy, Turkish Navy, Brazilian Navy and Romanian Navy in WWII

The following images illustrate the most important classes of warships that were in service with the navies of the Netherlands, Turkey, Brazil and Romania during the World War II. All the images are created by www.naval-encyclopedia.com. In that page you can read some excellent naval history articles, to download other graphs or you can purchase the same graphs in high resolution in the online shop! More posts will follow for your collection of current naval fleets but also of fleets from the past.

Royal Netherlands Navy (Koninklijke Marine) in WWII

Click to enlarge and save the image to view the details - Royal Netherlands Navy in WWII. It should be mentioned that the battlecruiser Holland was never completed and remained a project (Design 1047, also known as Project 1047)

Bayraktar class landing ships of the Turkish Navy

Written by D-Mitch

TCG Bayraktar (L402), lead ship of the Bayraktar class LST

There are very few countries today which develop and built modern tank landing ships (LST). Such countries are South Korea with the Cheon Wang Bong-class, Russia with the Ivan Gren class, China with the Type 072A class and Turkey with the Bayraktar class. Of these three classes, the largest, the most modern and most heavily armed, is certainly the Turkish Bayraktar class, which will be described thoroughly in this article. The first of the ship in the class was launched on October 3, 2015, and was commissioned just recently, in April 2017. The ship, which was designed and built for the Turkish Navy by Anadolu Deniz Insaat Kizaklari Sanayi ve Ticaret (ANADOLU Shipyard), was named Bayraktar (L402) replacing the old TCG Bayraktar, a LST-542 class landing ship/minelayer (and not LST-511 class as it is reported in many sources). The original contract signed in June 2011 for the procurement of two vessels with an option for two more ships and thus to replace the two 30-year old Bey-class ships. It should be mentioned that the Bayraktar was designed, built and commissioned in a period of just 46 months! Moreover, the domestic industry participation in amphibious ship construction is more than 70 percent! The second ship, TCG Sancaktar (L403) was launched on 17 July 2016 and will be commissioned the coming months. The ships of the class are primarily intended for amphibious missions and transportation of troops and equipment, while their secondary missions include humanitarian aid, disaster relief, medical assistance and transportation. The ships of the class will also serve as flagships and logistic support vessels.

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.

The STIDD Diver Propulsion Devices (DPD) of the Turkish Navy

Written by D-Mitch

Two U.S. Marines of the MSPF operating a Diver Propulsion
Device (DPD). Photo: United States Marine Corps

In a recent a article by e-amyna titled The YUNUS Project for the defence of the Turkish  naval bases (in Greek language), the author analyzes the effectiveness of the YUNUS Project to defend the main naval bases and harbors of Turkey against surface and sub-surface threats. In the discussion that followed the article and in regard to the Greek Swimmer Delivery Vehicles (SDVs), a reader (kostaspgn) posted a nice video about the Sualtı Taarruz Grup Komutanlığı, the Turkish Underwater Offence Group Command, known also as SAT, which is the special operation unit of the Turkish Navy, based in the Foça Naval Base near İzmir, on the Aegean coast of Turkey and Istanbul. The missions of the Su Altı Taarruz (SAT) include the acquisition of military intelligence, special reconnaissance, direct action, counter-terrorism and visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) operations. They are trained and organized in a similar way to the U.S. Navy Seals who have close training relationships with them. In that video, for just two seconds, from 2:23 till 2:25, two SF divers use a STIDD Diver Propulsion Device (DPD) (many thanks to my friend, blogger and expert in the field of mini-subs, H.I. Sutton, for the recognition of the vehicle and of course kostaspgn who spotted first the device!). I should mention here that this article does not include any actual photo of the Turkish DPD, but I find useful to publish this article about the capabilities of this device as a follow-up from the Greek SDVs article. Therefore, I may say that the title is not the most accurate one. Some screenshots are following before the complete video.

NAVAL FORCES #6: Naval Power in the Eastern Mediterranean in 2015

The following image was created by me (D-Mitch) in order to illustrate the major naval fleets in the Eastern Mediterranean. This image was included in a long and very detailed article (in Greek) titled ΝΑΥΤΙΚΕΣ ΕΞΕΛΙΞΕΙΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΙΚΗ ΜΕΣΟΓΕΙΟ (English: Naval Developments in the Eastern Mediterranean) that was written by me and fox2 and you can enjoy it in the above mentioned link. This article marks my new cooperation with fox2 at his blog idbam.blogspot.gr; more articles will follow in the future.

Naval Power in the Eastern Mediterranean in 2015. Image in high resolution here.

HISTORY #4: Age of Sail largest warships

Compiled information from Wikipedia articles by D-Mitch

In the previous post I included a number of infographics of various types of warships from the Age of Sail, the period lasting from the 16th to the mid-19th century where naval warfare was dominated by sailing ships armed with cannons. In this post I will describe briefly some of the the largest, most powerful and advanced warships of that era.

HMS Victoria the largest wooden warship which ever entered service

HMS Victoria was the last British wooden first-rate three-decked ship of the line commissioned for sea service. With a displacement of 6,959 tons, she was the largest wooden battleship which ever entered service. She was also the world's largest warship until the completion of HMS Warrior, Britain's first ironclad battleship, in 1861. Victoria´s hull was 79.2 metres (260 ft) long and 18.3 metres (60 ft) wide. She had a medium draught of 8.4 metres (27.5 ft). Her hull was heavily strapped with diagonal iron riders for extra stability. Victoria was the first British battleship with two funnels. She was armed with a total of 121 guns (32 8-inch smooth-bore muzzle-loading guns on the lower gun deck, 30 8-inch (200 mm) guns on the central gun deck, 32 32-pounders on the upper gun deck, 26 32-pounders and one 68-pounder on the upper deck). Victoria was ordered on 6 January 1855, laid down on 1 April 1856 at Portsmouth, and launched on 12 November 1859. She cost a total of £150,578 (2010: £11,764,000) and had a complement of 1,000. During trials in Stokes Bay on 5 July 1860 Victoria reached a top speed of 11.797 knots (21.848 km/h), making her the fastest three decker worldwide, along with the French Bretagne. 

Ada class corvettes of the Turkish Navy

Written by D-Mitch

TCG Heybeliada, lead ship of the Ada class corvettes

The MILGEM project, from the Turkish words Milli Gemi (National Ship), is a Turkish national warship program with the aim to design and build locally a fleet of hi-tech stealth multipurpose corvettes and frigates that will replace older ships which are currently in service. Through this ambitious program, Turkey seeks to improve national military shipbuilding capacity and skills and ultimately to achieve independence from foreign weapon producers, designers and manufacturers. More than 50 local companies, including the largest Turkish defense firms such as Aselsan, Havelsan and RMK Marine, play a significant role in the MILGEM project, gaining invaluable experience in warship design and construction. The MILGEM Project Office of the Istanbul Naval Shipyard Command executes and coordinates the design, development and construction works of the MILGEM project since March 12, 2004. The programme initially included the construction of 12 ships in two batches (blocks, due to important differences among the batches). The first batch would have included eight (8) multipurpose corvettes the so-called MILGEM Block I (Ada; island in Turkish) class while the last four (4) would be of the TF-100 frigates equipped with vertical-launching system (VLS) for surface-to-air (SAM) missiles. This plan changed recently as the first batch will include only four corvettes of the Ada class, while all the rest ships will be designated as MILGEM Block II.

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.

Osman Gazi class landing ship / minelayer of the Turkish Navy

Written by D-Mitch


Osman Gazi landing/minelayer ship. Photo: trmilitary.com

The Osman Gazi class landing ships consists of only one vessel in service, the Osman Gazi, which is the newest and largest active landing ship of the Turkish Navy (Turkish: Türk Donanması) at the moment (2014). It is worth mentioning that the design is completely indigenous. The second ship in the class, thee NL126 Orhan Gazi, was cancelled. The pennant number is NL-125; NL due to the two roles that the ships has, N stands for minelayer while L for landing ship. The Osman Gazi was launched in 1990 at the Taşkızak Naval Shipyard and it was commissioned in 1994. The ship followed an extensive modernization in the period 2010-2011 in Alaybey Shipyard, İzmir. The general characteristics of the ship, is a full displacement of about 3,775tons, a length of 105m, speed of 17 knots while the range is 4,000n.m. with the cruising speed of 15 knots.

Kilic I/II class fast attack craft of the Turkish Navy

Written by D-Mitch

Meltem, boat of Kilic II class. Photo: Turkish Navy

The Kilic (Kılıç) class is the latest class of fast attack craft in service of the Turkish Navy. The class comprises a total of 9 ships. The first batch of three boats are designated Kılıc I (or else Kilic class) and the second batch of six boats are designated Kılıc II (or else Tufan class). The boats are designed by Lurssen; the first batch of ships entered in service the period 1998-2000 while the second batch commissioned the period 2005-2010. The main differences between the two classes are the electronic equipment (specifically the EO fire control tracking system) and the cupola of the main gun. The first two boats were built in Germany and the rest in Turkey (Golcuk shipyards). The full displacement of these boats with the stealth characteristics is 552tons, the length is 62m, the speed is about 40knots and the range is 3,300n.m. with a cruise speed of 16knots. On the bow deck it is an OTO Melara 76mm/62cal gun; it is not clear though if it belongs to the latest Super Rapido version or the older Compatto. The guns onboard the boats of Kilic II class are mounted in a stealth cupola to reduce radar cross-section. The gun is capable to intercept air and surface targets at a distance of 4 km (at 85 degrees) and 16 km (effective 8 km) respectively unleashing 85rnds/min (Compatto) or 120 rnds/min (Super Rapido), weighting greater than 6 kg each.

WARSHIPS OF THE PAST: Kartal class fast attack craft of the Turkish Navy

Written by D-Mitch



Kartal class fast attack missile craft. Photo: Frank Behrends

Kartal class, was till 2016 the oldest class of Fast Attack Craft (FAC) of Turkish Navy (Turk Deniz Kuvvetleri), when the last active boat in the class, Pelikan (P-326), was retired. The design originates from the Zobel class (Type 142) torpedo boats which were designed and built by Lürssen for the German Navy in the early '60s. Nine Kartal class Fast Attack Missile Craft (FACM) were built in Germany by Lürssen and they were commissioned  during the period 1968-1970. The Kartal class boats were of 200tons full displacement approximately, length and beam of 42.5m and 7.1m respectively and they had a maximum speed of 42knots achieving a range of around 900km with this high speed. Their keel was made from light metal and they had a wooden planking and aluminum superstructure. These craft had an impressive armament for their size but in the 21st century they were considered old, light and without sophisticated electronic equipment. Of the nine vessels, one (P-325 Meltem) was lost  in a collision with the Russian Smolnyy class training ship Khasan on 25th September 1985, while the older four (P-321 Denizkusu, P-322 Atmaka, P-323 Sahin and P-324 Kartal) were retired earlier in 2013-2014.

Dogan, Ruzgar and Yildiz class fast attack craft of the Turkish Navy

Written by D-Mitch

P340 Dogan, Dogan class

The Turkish Navy nowadays (2015) has a fleet of 19  Fast Attack Craft (FAC), separated into four classes, the Kilic, Dogan, Ruzgar and Yildiz class. The last three and older classes are of same design and they are sharing similar technical characteristics and equipment among them. The boats were all manufactured in Turkey with the exception of the Dogan. The newest Kilic class will be analyzed in another article. The Dogan class is the oldest of the three classes as the boats have been built in the period 1976 to 1980. The vessels have a full displacement of 440 tons, a length of 58 meters and a very high speed of 38 knots. The vessels of Ruzgar class were built in the period 1984-1988 and they have a slightly shorter length (57 meters) and a displacement of 410tons. Sometimes the boats of Ruzgar class are considered as a sub-class of Dogan class or even belonging in the Dogan class. The reduced weight of Ruzgar class gives them also a greater speed of 41 (!) knots. The vessels of Yildiz class were built in the period 1994-1995 and they have similar features as those of Dogan class. The crew in the classes consists of around 40-45 people including 6 officers.