Türkiye to produce 3 national frigates simultaneously

By Goksel Yildirim

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye is planning to build three new Istanbul-class frigate warships, designed by Turkish engineers, at the same time.

As work continues to build the TCG Istanbul, the first ship of the country's MILGEM I-class Frigate Project, Türkiye has begun work on its sixth, seventh, and eighth domestically built naval vessels, the head of the country's Defense Industries' Presidency told Anadolu on Monday.

Ismail Demir said business partnerships had been signed with the Anadolu, Sedef, and Sefine shipyards, along with the Joint Venture Commercial Enterprise of TAIS, which is a consortium of Türkiye's top five leading shipyards, and state-run defense firm STM, for the three I-class frigate projects.

He said these enterprises had developed their financial structures together with their project management expertise and qualified workforce, and that they gained the knowledge and experience to successfully manage projects and risk in naval shipbuilding projects.

- 3 ships in 36 months

Demir said the delivery of the three ships was scheduled for within 36 months.

The project will help shorten the delivery time of the three ships and build the knowledge and experience of private sector shipyards in military shipbuilding, he explained.

While most of the weapons and sensors on earlier Turkish-made ships were supplied from abroad, almost all were designed and produced domestically for the TCG Istanbul, added the Defense Industries' Presidency chief.

Indigenous solutions, such as the close-air defense system Gokdeniz, three-dimensional search radar Cenk, fire control radar Scorpion, illumination radar, torpedo tube, national vertical launch system MIDLAS, and Hisar-D were included in the configuration, Demir said.

"The work to be carried out under the project and the introduction of new indigenous solutions, the rate of domesticity in the systems and subsystems on the national ships will further increase."

*Writing by Gokhan Ergocun from Istanbul