HIZIR COUNTERMEASURES SYSTEM SUCCESS AGAINST DM2A4 TORPEDO
In June, an Aselsan official informed MONCh that the HIZIR Torpedo Countermeasure System (TCMS) had successfully completed a test deployment against a training version of the DM2A4 heavyweight torpedo. The torpedo was launched against the ADA-class corvette BURGAZADA, during her sea acceptance trials, from a range of 10-12km and was successfully seduced away from the target by decoys. HIZIR uses the DULGER expendable self-propelled target emulator and MEZGIT self-propelled jammer, both members of the ZOKA anti-torpedo acoustic decoy family. The system consists of an 800m long towed array passive sonar, a towed decoy located at the 650m mark of the array, shipboard decoy launchers for DULGER and MEZGIT, and supporting electronics and mechanical systems.
BURGAZADA is the third ADA-class vessel for the Turkish Navy and will be commissioned on 28 September, but the first to be fitted with HIZIR – her predecessors carry the SEA SENTOR Surface Ship Torpedo Defence System from Ultra Electronics. Aselsan completed factory acceptance tests of HIZIR in October last year, quickly integrating the system onto BURGAZADA, which set out on her maiden voyage on 18 March this year. Aselsan Deputy General Manager Mustafa Kaval told MONCh in May that the SEA SENTOR systems on the first two corvettes will ultimately be replaced by HISIR, adding: “HIZIR passed all tests successfully. [Turkish Naval Forces Command] has performed five more tests with HIZIR TCMS, it is proved that our system is much more effective than foreign one.”
