Cem Devrim Yaylalı says: “Turkish naval shipbuilding industry strengthens its presence in the global markets, winning a contract to provide the Pakistani Navy with four locally-designed MİLGEM type corvette vessels”
Turkish naval shipbuilding industry gained a big contract from Pakistan in early July 2018. Pakistan accepted to be the first foreign customer of MİLGEM type corvette warships.
The first batch of two ships will be built in Istanbul Naval Shipyard and the second batch in Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works. Though both Pakistan and Turkey refrained to announce any financial information regarding the deal, the cost of the project is estimated to be USD 1 Billion, about USD 250 million per ship.
The contract also includes the sharing of engineering information and training engineers. The last ship will be designed jointly by Pakistan’s Maritime Technologies Complex (MTC) and will be the first indigenously designed and constructed Pakistani warship.
The exact weapon and sensor system of the future Pakistani MİLGEM corvettes is yet to be determined, but their configuration will be surely different from the Turkish ones. It is possible with the above-mentioned know-how transfer that Pakistani indigenous weapon systems may be installed on board and integrated into the combat management system.
The signing of the contract was an important milestone for Turkish naval shipbuilding, as it was the first significant order on Turkish warships.
The long and winding road that reached an important milestone in Pakistan started in early 2000s with Turkish Navy deciding to construct its own warships designed to its own needs. Until that time, Turkey had constructed several frigates and submarines, but all of them were German designs. All critical components were delivered from German shipyards either as kits or pre-assembled.
When we look at major warships construction, Turkey constructed three Type 209/1200 and 8 Type 209/1400 submarines designed by HDW shipyard since 1975. Furthermore, four MEKO 200 type frigates designed by Blohm and Voss were constructed in Turkey between 1985 and 2000.
While these submarines and frigates of proven design are still in service, the Turkish Navy has little or very limited influence in their designs and in the selection of subsystems and key components.
Turkish Navy wanted more control in the design of its warships and in the selection of sensors, weapons, combat management software and other important sub-systems. Turkish Navy wanted to use as local products as possible. This was imperative in order to lower the operational costs and shorten the time needed for repairs.
In order to fulfill its desire to construct its own warships, Turkey had to create a healthy eco-system with local companies supplying important weapon, sensor, and other subsystems. Turkish Navy took the lead in creating a design office for the Mİlgem class warships. Turkish defense acquisition agency SSM (Now SSB) managed the procurement of the systems for the ships. In the end, around 60 percent of the Ada class corvettes are indigenously made.
With the success of the formula of Mİlgem, other local ship construction projects followed. Sixteen Tuzla class patrol boats, two large landing ships, one highly sophisticated submarine search and rescue ship and two complex rescue ships have already been commissioned. Two logistic support ships are under construction. All these vessels have been produced by private shipyards.
The Istanbul Naval Shipyard is currently building TCG Istanbul, a longer and heavier Mİlgem class frigate with VLS system for ESSM missiles, while Gölcük Naval Shipyard is building Type 214 class submarines.
Turkish local market is not big enough for the burgeoning naval shipbuilding industry to survive. Now that the industry has reached enough maturity, it is actively looking for projects in foreign markets.
Here are a few examples of recent projects:
The private shipyard Dearsan has constructed 16 Tuzla class patrol vessels for Turkish Naval Forces. Upon completing the project the company offered its gained expertise in foreign markets. Dearsan has supplied Turkmenistan with 10 such boats. They are based on Tuzla class but are heavily armed with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. Turkmen boats have a better sensor suit, too.
The remote-controlled stabilized naval gun system from Aselsan, the leading Turkish defense systems provider, was selected for Philippine Navy. Each frigate that South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries is constructing for Philippine Navy will have one Aselsan system on board. Aselsan has also sold nine of this gun system for offshore patrol vessels the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency will acquire from a local shipyard, Destini Shipbuilding & Engineering.
And the stabilized naval gun system is not the only product Aselsan is exporting for maritime markets.
The ARES-2SC Electronic Support Measure System was selected for the modernization project of Pakistani Agosta 90B /Khalid class submarines. The ESM system developed for Pakistan is named as ARES-2SC/P. The first system is delivered to Pakistan where it will be fitted to the submarine for more tests before acceptance.
On the other hand, it is interesting to note that engineering and project management company STM has beaten the original manufacturer of the Agosta 90B /Khalid class submarines for the mid-life modernization project.
Turkish naval shipbuilding industry is newly establishing itself in the international markets. There is much to cover. As mentioned before the local market is not large enough for all the shipyards, defense systems manufacturers and other sub-system and components producers to survive. They have started to move to the foreign markets and will stay there.
