After more than a year of negotiations, Turkey has signed a contract for the construction of a Landing Platform Dock/Light Aircraft Carrier. The contract was signed between the Undersecretary of Defense Industries (SSM) and the Turkish shipbuilding company Sedef.
The new vessel is going to be a version of the Landing Helicopter Dock Juan Carlos I class, with a sky jump ramp and a front lift so that the Turkish ship can accommodate and operate F-35B Lighting II aircrafts.
The selection of the Spanish design was announced on 27 December 2013, while the main contractor is the Turkish shipyard Sedef. Although the Turkish Navy initially wanted a stripped down version of the Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) Juan Carlos I class, second thoughts led to a change of plans and the new version of the LHD will be able to carry 8-10 F-35B and 12 helicopters.
The Turkish ship will be equipped with a sky jump ramp and a front lift in order to accommodate the operation of the short take-off and vertical landing aircrafts.
Furthermore the Turkish light aircraft carrier is going to be equipped with several Turkish-made subsystems that will increase the national defense industry value.
The technical specifications of the Turkish landing platform dock/light aircraft carrier according to Sedef shipyards are:
- Length overall: 231 meters
- Maximum beam: 32 meters
- Draught: 6.8 meters
- Height: 58 meters
- Displacement: 24,660 tons (Light Aircraft Carrier) and 27,079 tons (as a LPD/LHD)
- Maximum speed: 21.5 knots (Light Aircraft Carrier) and 29 knots (as a LPD/LHD)
- Range: 9,000 miles @ economical speed
- Electric propulsion with two x 11 MW Siemens eSIPOD; five MAN 16V32/40 Diesel GenSets and two bow thrusters
- Complete hospital and sick bay.
The combat systems of the Turkish landing platform dock/light aircraft carrier are:
- Genesis ADVEnt CMS made by Turkish company Havelsan with 20 consoles made by Turkish company Milsoft-Ayesas with amphibious and joint operations capability
- Link 11/16/22/JRE/VMF
- One x SMART-S Mk2 3D Search Radar
- Two x LPI radars (Alper radar made by Turkish company Aselsan)
- Two x Navigation radars
- One x Air traffic and control radar
- One x PAR radar
- Four x 25mm STOP stabilized gun system made by Aselsan
- Three x 12.7mm STAMP stabilized gun system made by Aselsan
- Two Raytheon Phalanx 20mm CIWS
- One ARES-2N R-ESM system made by Aselsan
- Jammers made by Aselsan
- Kalkan Chaff/IR Decoy launching system made by Aselsan
- TORK torpedo countermeasure system made by Aselsan
- One AselFlir-300D IRST system made by Aselsan
- HF/VHF/UHF and satellite communication systems made by Aselsan
The Turkish landing platform dock/light aircraft carrier has:
- 5,440m² flight deck;
- 990m² aviation hanger and can accommodate either 12 medium size helicopters or 8 CH-47F Chinook. When the aviation hanger and the light cargo garage are unified the ship can carry up to 25 medium size helicopters. Alternatively the ship can carry 8-10 F-35B and 12 helicopters. Six more helicopters can be hosted on the flying deck of the ship;
- 1,880m² light cargo garage for TEU containers and 27 Amphibious Armed Vehicles (AAV);
- 1,165m² dock which can host four Landing Craft Mechanics (LCM) or two Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC), or two Landing Craft Personnel Vehicles (LCVP) and finally;
- 1,410m² garage for heavy loads, which can host 29 Main Battle Tanks Amphibious Armed Vehicles and TEU containers.
Turkish Navy LHD/Light Aircraft Carrier is to be designed for four mission profiles:
- Amphibious ship transporting a Marine Corps Force for landings and land support operations
- Force projection ship transporting Army forces to any theatre of operations
- Aircraft-carrier
- Non-combatant operations: humanitarian aid, evacuation from crisis zones and hospital-ship in catastrophe areas.
The will crew consists of 261 personnel: 30 officers, 49 NCOs, 59 leading seamen and 123 ratings. The cost of the construction of the vessel is 1 billion dollars, and the ship is to be be completed by 2021.
Turkey signs contract with Navantia-Sedef for the construction of a Light Aircraft Carrier - Plymouth University
Introducing the Ottoman (Naval) EmpireI won't keep you in suspense: It's Turkey. As reported earlier this month on DefenseNews.com, the Turkish government has just signed a near $1 billion deal to cooperate with Spanish shipbuilder Navantia to build a Juan Carlos I-class light aircraft carrier. Here's what we know about it.
Stretching 758 feet in length, and weighing 26,000 tons, the Juan Carlos is the largest naval warship ever built in Spain. Once Turkey gets its copy, it will outweigh the next-largest Turkish warship by a whopping seven times. Described in the press as an "LPD" -- a landing platform dock similar to the U.S. San Antonio-class warships...
USS San Antonio (LPD 17). Photo source: U.S. Navy.
...the Juan Carlos actually more closely resembles a landing helicopter dock (LHD -- its official designation within the Spanish Navy), or a landing helicopter assault, or LHA, warship like our own America class:
America's mini-aircraft carrier, the USS America (LHA-6). Photo source: U.S. Navy.
Put more simply, it's an aircraft carrier.
What Turkey will getAccording to published reports, upon delivery in 2021,Turkey's new aircraft carrier will be capable of carrying:
- a dozen attack helicopters, such as the United Technologies (NYSE:UTX) Black Hawk helicopters and Textron (NYSE:TXT) Cobras currently in Turkey's arsenal
- another dozen F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) stealth fighter jets (such as Turkey is building in cooperation with Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT))
- 46 of Turkey's German-built Leopard 2 main battle tanks
- a handful of beach landing craft
- as many as 1,200 combat infantry or marines -- one full battalion.
That's a lot of firepower.
Why Turkey wants it
Over the years, Turkey has had trouble with a variety of nearby nations -- Cyprus, Greece, Israel, and Syria, to name just a few. More recently, NATO-member Turkey may have been spooked by Russia's invasion of Crimea, just across the sea to the north.
What it means to investorsIn recent years, there's been a fierce debate raging in and around the U.S. Pentagon about the future of the aircraft carrier -- how many we can afford to build, and whether we should be building them at all. One thing is clear, though: As the U.S. carries on its debate, the rest of the world is going ahead and buying aircraft carriers. So what does this mean for investors?
Ideally, it would mean that these other countries would buy their aircraft carriers from Huntington Ingalls (NYSE:HII) -- which is the defense contractor that builds America's carriers. Unfortunately, most of the carrier construction contracts we've seen awarded in recent years have gone from foreign countries to foreign builders. No joy there for U.S. defense contractors.
One angle that investors should keep in mind, though, is that the majority of the new carriers that have been announced are of the "light" variety. These small carriers are limited in the aircraft that they can carry, and in particular, are usually limited to carrying only helicopters, or STOVL fighter jets such as the New Lockheed Martin F-35B. It's here, I would submit, that we find opportunity.
Because Lockheed makes the world's only fifth-generation stealth fighter jet that can also take off and land from the flight deck of a mini-aircraft carrier, it basically has a lock on this market -- a market that, as I've described above, is growing rapidly. According to Lockheed Martin, a single F-35B currently costs $104 million. That means that aboard Turkey's new aircraft carrier, for example, a full load of 12 F-35Bs would probably cost $1.25 billion -- 25% more than the aircraft carrier itself!
What's more, as the market for small aircraft carriers grows the market for F-35Bs, it will permit Lockheed to sell more fighter jets, spread out R&D costs among the greater number of units sold, lower prices, and sell more fighter jets to buyers attracted by the lower prices. For this reason alone, U.S. defense investors should applaud the building of more aircraft carriers by U.S. allies like Turkey.
