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Progress in Turkey's Long-Delayed Frigate Program
By UMIT ENGINSOY And BURAK EGE BEKDIL
Published: 22 Mar 2010 16:49
ANKARA - Turkey has received responses to its January request for information from several foreign and domestic companies seeking to help build six anti-air frigates to a local design.
Turkey's defense procurement agency, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), obtained information on directed infrared countermeasures, electric generation and distribution systems, heating-ventilating-air conditioning, integrated platform management systems, laser directed/kinetic energy weapons, main propulsion systems and the naval gun system.
Officials declined to identify the companies that responded to the SSM's request.
The program is dubbed the TF-2000, or Turkish Frigate for the 21st Century. Officials expect the program to cost Ankara about $3 billion in today's prices; it will be completed in 10 to 12 years. The first ship is to enter service in 2018, one defense analyst said.
The program, originally planned in the late 1990s and shelved during the 2001 economic crisis, was resuscitated in 2006 by Turkey's top procurement body, the Defense Industry Executive Committee. The program was trimmed to six frigates from the proposed eight.
Officials now say the program has solid financing available.
The Navy's Turkish Naval Institute is working on the design, the country's first homegrown plan for a frigate. The program aims to bolster the Navy's air defense and operational capabilities using mostly domestic assets.
Turkey's Tuzla military shipyard in the country's northwest will build the six vessels, which will be equipped with state-of-the-art anti-missile and anti-aircraft air defense missile systems as well as other weapons.
Heavy foreign involvement and a large amount of technology transfer is expected in the program.
Naval warfare helicopters and UAVs also are planned to be deployed on the TF-2000s, which will displace more than 6,000 tons.
The Turkish Navy now operates 19 frigates, including U.S. Oliver Hazard Perry- and Knox-class and German Meko-class warships. Some of the older Knox-class frigates will be retired soon.
Turkey - expected to spend slightly more than $4 billion for defense procurement in 2010 - in recent years has focused on Navy programs, particularly their local design and development wherever possible.
Other top Navy projects include joint manufacture with Germany of six modern submarines and mostly local development and production of up to 12 corvettes.
The first ship in the Milgem-type corvette program, the TCG Heybeliada, was put to sea in late 2008 and is planned to be commissioned in 2011. Milgem, as a national naval development program, is seen as a precursor of the TF-2000.
Progress in Turkey's Long-Delayed Frigate Program - Defense News
By UMIT ENGINSOY And BURAK EGE BEKDIL
Published: 22 Mar 2010 16:49
ANKARA - Turkey has received responses to its January request for information from several foreign and domestic companies seeking to help build six anti-air frigates to a local design.
Turkey's defense procurement agency, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), obtained information on directed infrared countermeasures, electric generation and distribution systems, heating-ventilating-air conditioning, integrated platform management systems, laser directed/kinetic energy weapons, main propulsion systems and the naval gun system.
Officials declined to identify the companies that responded to the SSM's request.
The program is dubbed the TF-2000, or Turkish Frigate for the 21st Century. Officials expect the program to cost Ankara about $3 billion in today's prices; it will be completed in 10 to 12 years. The first ship is to enter service in 2018, one defense analyst said.
The program, originally planned in the late 1990s and shelved during the 2001 economic crisis, was resuscitated in 2006 by Turkey's top procurement body, the Defense Industry Executive Committee. The program was trimmed to six frigates from the proposed eight.
Officials now say the program has solid financing available.
The Navy's Turkish Naval Institute is working on the design, the country's first homegrown plan for a frigate. The program aims to bolster the Navy's air defense and operational capabilities using mostly domestic assets.
Turkey's Tuzla military shipyard in the country's northwest will build the six vessels, which will be equipped with state-of-the-art anti-missile and anti-aircraft air defense missile systems as well as other weapons.
Heavy foreign involvement and a large amount of technology transfer is expected in the program.
Naval warfare helicopters and UAVs also are planned to be deployed on the TF-2000s, which will displace more than 6,000 tons.
The Turkish Navy now operates 19 frigates, including U.S. Oliver Hazard Perry- and Knox-class and German Meko-class warships. Some of the older Knox-class frigates will be retired soon.
Turkey - expected to spend slightly more than $4 billion for defense procurement in 2010 - in recent years has focused on Navy programs, particularly their local design and development wherever possible.
Other top Navy projects include joint manufacture with Germany of six modern submarines and mostly local development and production of up to 12 corvettes.
The first ship in the Milgem-type corvette program, the TCG Heybeliada, was put to sea in late 2008 and is planned to be commissioned in 2011. Milgem, as a national naval development program, is seen as a precursor of the TF-2000.
Progress in Turkey's Long-Delayed Frigate Program - Defense News
