Turkey Begins Work On Construction of 3 New İstif (İ) Class Frigates
On Thursday, 6 April, a contract was signed for the construction of three new MİLGEM İstif (İ) Class Frigates within the scope of the MİLGEM İstif (İ) Class Frigate Project, which is being carried out by the Defense Industry Agency of Turkey (SSB), in collaboration with STM and TAİS. SSB President İsmail Demir, STM General Manager Özgür Güleryüz, Sedef Shipyard Chairman of the Executive Board and TAİS Chairman Metin Kalkavan, Anadolu Shipyard Chairman Süalp Ömer Ürkmez, Sefine Shipyard Chairman Demir Koloğlu, and defense sector representatives attended the signing ceremony, which took place at the Turkish Defense Industry Agency building in Ankara.
In his speech at the signing ceremony, SSB President İsmail Demir said, “thanks to the development of technologically advanced critical systems of our ships, which have many nationally developed platforms and combat systems, our country’s rate of locality in this field has reached 75%. We will now equip the MİLGEM İstif (İ) Class Frigate Project, for which we have developed all of the sensor and weapon systems on a national scale, with national air defense capabilities. Our localization efforts will not be limited to this. For example, we will continue our efforts in many areas such as the Main Gun, Helicopter Capture System (Beartrap), and various components of the Main Propulsion System,” concluding by saying, “I would like to express my unequivocal belief that any kind of restriction imposed on our country and our presidency, whether secretly or openly, will strengthen us and raise our locality rates.”
STM General Manager Özgür Güleryüz stated that STM has been providing high-tech naval projects in the fields of military ship design, construction, and modernization for years and added, “With this contract we signed, our İZMİR, İÇEL, and İZMİT Frigates, which will be siblings to the TCG İSTANBUL Frigate, will be built in partnership with STM-TAS OG. In addition to the MLGEM Ada Class Corvette Project and the first ship of the MİLGEM İstif Class Frigate, we will transfer our military shipbuilding experience and technology from the Ukraine Corvette Project and our projects in Pakistan to the MİLGEM 6th, 7th, and 8th ships. We will equip our ships with the most modern and national systems simultaneously in three different shipyards (Anadolu, Sedef, Sefine) within the determined schedule, and we will deliver them to the Turkish Navy.”
The three frigates will enter Turkish Navy service within the next 36 months. The MİLGEM İ-class frigate project is a continuation of the MİLGEM Project, which began in 2004. ADA class corvettes built within the scope of MİLGEM Project, such as the TCG Heybeliada (F-511) entered service with the Turkish Navy on September 27, 2011, while the TCG Büyükada (F-512) entered service on September 27, 2013, the TCG Burgazada (F-513) on November 4, 2018 and the TCG Kınalıada (F-514) on September 29, 2019. Turkey also succeeded in exporting MİLGEM ADA Class Corvettes to Pakistan and Ukraine during this process. The four Ada class corvettes built as part of the Pakistan PN MİLGEM Project, which is Turkey’s largest defense industry export item at one time, are scheduled to be delivered in August 2023, February 2024, August 2024, and February 2025, respectively. Ukraine’s first Ada-class corvette (F-211), Hetman Ivan Mazepa, was laid down in September 2021 and launched in October 2022. The second Ukraine Ada class corvette’s construction began in March 2023 at Istanbul Shipyard. The first ship, built under the main contractorship of STM, is scheduled to arrive in Ukraine in 2024, followed by the second in 2025. How these deliveries will be handled given the ongoing conflict is currently unclear.
On 12 April 2019, the Turkish Defense Industries Agency (SSB) and STM signed a contract for the procurement of the 5th MLGEM ship (TCG İSTANBUL) for the construction of the TCG ISTANBUL (F-515), the first ship of the MİLGEM İ-class frigate project, which is the continuation of the 2nd phase of the MİLGEM ADA CLASS corvette project. On January 23, 2021, the TCG ISTANBUL (F-515) Frigate was launched, and port acceptance tests and sea trials began in May 2022. TCG ISTANBUL will be delivered to the Turkish Naval Forces Command this year, according to STM.
According to STM, MİLGEM Class I frigates, which differ structurally from ADA class corvettes, draw attention with their anti-submarine, surface, and air defense warfare capabilities, outpost operations, reconnaissance, surveillance, target detection, identification, recognition, and early warning capabilities. The frigates have a displacement of 3100 tons, a length of 113 meters, and a width of 14.4 meters, and their length has been extended by 10 meters due to equipment changes and additions made to the weapon systems compared to the ADA class. Powered by two MTU 20V 4000 M93L diesel engines and an LM2500 gas turbine, Class I Frigates will also have a longer endurance and longer range compared to ADA Class Corvettes. The I-Class Frigates will have a large flight deck at the stern to accommodate the 10t class SH-70 SeaHawk multi-purpose helicopter, as well as space and for 123 personnel. Domestic solutions such as the close air defense system Gökdeniz, the three-dimensional search radar Cenk-S, the fire control radar Akrep, the target illumination radar, the torpedo tube, the National Vertical Launch System MIDLAS, and Hisar-D will also be included on the ship.