USS Taylor returns to Black Sea

US frigate FFG-50 USS Taylor passed through the Turkish Straits on 23 December 2008 and entered into Black Sea.

This is her second deployment since August. She can stay until 13 January 2008. The winter storms in Black Sea can be very furious. It will not be a smooth Christmas for her crew.


Here is a photo of USS Taylor from her deployment back in September.

This is a list of all US warships passed through the Turkish Straits since Russo - Georgian war in August 2008:

Turkey to join Operation Atalanta?

On 16th December 2008 F-496 TCG Gökova returned to her homeport Gölcük. She has spent 7 weeks south of Suez as part of SNMG-2 and took part in the Operation Allied Provider. She has escorted ships of WFP through pirate infested waters and helped other ships by deterring possible pirate attacks.

When I have started this blog I was aware about the piracy problem but I did not imagined that I would write about it that much. Apparently I was wrong. Interestingly this problem will remain on the focus in the foreseeable future and not just because of three hijacked merchant ships.

On 8th December EU Council adopted a decision on the launch of a European Union military operation in order to contribute to the deterrence, prevention and repression of acts of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast. For the next 12 months nations of EU will provide military personal and hardware so that, up to 6 frigates and 3 maritime patrol aircrafts will be present at any time.

Turkey is a NATO member country. Thus it was logical and natural for a Turkish warship to sail to Somalia as part of NATO taskforce. But Turkey in a not a member of EU and thus a Turkish warship is not a natural part of an EU naval force.

But this may change. According to Turkish daily Akşam, Turkish General Staff is making advanced preparations and plans to participate at the Operation Atalanta but it wishes to take active role in the command and control mechanism. And according to daily Zaman, Turkish Foreign Ministry officials have been in constant contact with the EU concerning Turkey's participation in Operation Atalanta.

Integration of Turkish military assets into an EU military operation is certainly not a easy act and there must be lots of mainly political and diplomatic hurdles to be overcome. Military integration would be the easier part as most of the EU countries are also members of NATO. It would not a problem for Turkish naval assets to adopt to command, communication and operational standards of EU is these should differ from NATO standards.

First flight of CN235 ASW for Meltem programme

Ankara, 2 December 2008 – Thales announced on 2 December 2008 that the Turkish Navy’s future CN235 maritime patrol aircraft made its first flight.

Modified by Thales and industrial partners TAI, Havelsan, Aselsan and Milsoft, the aircraft features the AMASCOS system (Airborne MAritime Situation and COntrol System) to provide Turkish naval forces with advanced anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare capabilities.

Meltem is one the most ambitious maritime surveillance and patrol programme and consist of 3 parts.

Meltem (I) is the purchase of three CN235s for Exclusive Economic Zone surveillance missions by the Turkish Coast Guard and six CN235s in AsuW and ASW missions.

Meltem (II) is the integration of AMASOC and its sub components on the above mentioned planes.

Meltem (III) is purchase of ten ATR-72 ASW planes and integration of AMASCOS on to them. For Meltem (III) Aleina is the prime contractor.

Turkish Airforce operates 50 CN-235 planes for troop and VIP transport, SIGINT/ELINT and CSAR missions. When this plane was chosen for the Meltem (I) project this decision was criticised.

The critics stated that CN-235 was not able to fulfill the operational demands of Turkish Navy as her performance was not up to this demands. When ATR-72 ASW plane was chosen from Meltem (III) the claims of the opponents seemed to be right.

Turkish Navy needs patrol planes for maritime surveillance, monitoring territorial Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) waters, for detecting all forms of illicit trade and trafficking, accidental pollution and oil dumping, and for search-and-rescue operations.

I hope we start to see these planes to enter into the service soon.

TCG Gökova deters pirate attacks

Turkish frigate F-496 TCG Gökova was in the media again. This time her fame was limited with the local Turkish media.

She was last heard of when she left with MV As Salaam the port of Mombassa on 20 November with a load of 11,000 tons of humanitarian aids. According to NATO TCG Gökova escorted the merchantmen for 7 days. On 27 November the escort duty was assumed by the Italian destroyer Durand de la Penne, until arrival at Berbera.

The distance between Mombasa and Berbera is at least 1.700 nautical miles. If the trip lasted 7 days, this means that the merchantman was making approximately 10 knots speed. Well it is not surprising why WFP asked for NATO’s help in securing the food deliveries. MV As Sallam carrying 11,000 tons of food (which can be sold for a good profit on land) and making a mere 10 knots must be very mouth-watering target.

Yesterday (5th December 2008) Gen. Metin Gürak, Head of Turkish General Staff Press Department informed the reporters that on 4th December TCG Gökova and her helicopter prevented several possible pirate attacks.

First call for help come from merchantman MV Sattar at 07:45 Turkish local time. The ship informed that she was harassed by 15 high speed boats. TCG Gökova dispatched her AB-212 ASW helicopter to the ship in need. When the helicopter arrived at the scene at 08:13 the speed boats left without hesitation.



According to Gen Gürak on the same day calls for help came at 13:07 from passenger ship Costa Europe, at 13:13 from MV Kostak; at 13:50 from MV Pedulas and at 14:17 MV Brilliant. Thus the frigate speeded to the location of these ships. Gen Gürak informed that a dhow probably used as a mother ship for pirates was deterred.


I know that the word “deterred” does not mean much in this context. I can make only an educated guess. As TCG Gökova is part of SNMG-2 and is under NATO’s mandate and ROE she does not have a permission to open fire yet. Thus the best she can do is to arrive at the scene, show flag and force and “deter” the pirates.

TCSG-307 and her sales drive

On 26 January 2007, Turkish Coast Guard commissioned the fast response boat TCSG-307. The boat, locally know as MRTP-33 class, was designed and build by Turkish Yonca-Onuk shipyard. Although there are 7 similar boats in service, the TCSG-307 is unique. She is the only vessel that has STAMP remote controlled stabilized gun platform installed.

In April 2007, TCSG-307 was stationed in Hopa the most eastern harbor of Turkey on Black Sea coast. This town is approximately 15km away from Georgian border.

In May 2007 in accordance with Black Sea Littoral States Border/Coast Guard Agencies Forum Turkish Coast Guard visited Georgia. TCSG-307 the nearest boat to the Georgian border was selected for this visit. During the 4 day visit search and rescue exercises were conducted.

Commander of Gerogian Border Guard Lieutenant General David Gulua visited the vessel on 30 May and watched the exercise on board with The Commander of Turkish Coast Guard Admiral Can Erenoğlu. TCSG-307 was shown to the guest. And according to Turkish Coast Guard Magazine’s August 2007 issue, Lieutenant General David Gulua was very impressed with the STAMP Gun platform, used the systems remote control and tracked the targets by himself.

So far so good. For me the interesting part of the whole story is what happened afterwards. Apparently Georgian high ranking officials were very much impressed with the Turkish boat and gun platform so that they have ordered two similar boats with and upgraded gun platform after two months. The vessels were delivered to Georgia in 2008 and miraculously they survived the Russo- Georgian war in August 2008.

I believe that the whole story is a very good example of the soft power use of military and how it can help to the sales drive of the nation’s armed industry.