Interesting news comes from Turkey. It seems that this country has slowly begun to revive its former fleet. The Ottoman Empire at one time had a powerful sea fleet and was famous for it throughout the world, but by the end of the 19th century, the country's shipbuilding began to go through hard times. It even got to the point that more or less "serious" ships had to either be built together with foreign partners, or even bought abroad.
In 1996, it was decided to take a number of measures to reduce the dependence of the Turkish fleet on third countries. The project was named MILGEM. In the course of its implementation, it was planned, on the basis of cooperation with foreign shipbuilders and existing developments, to create a project of a warship that meets modern requirements. It was also imperative to take into account the capabilities of Turkish shipyards, in order not only to develop, but also to build ships at home. In addition, all the armament of new ships must also be produced in Turkey.
They decided to start the program with the development and construction of a corvette. Various works on MILGEM - defining the appearance of the required ship, studying the prospects of available technologies, creating a draft design, etc. - started almost immediately after the start of the program. However, the final stage of development of the new corvette began only in 2004.
According to the terms of reference, the new corvette is intended to patrol the territorial waters of Turkey with the ability to attack surface and underwater targets. Of course, the terms of reference also provides for air defense systems. Also, the ships of the new project were supposed to be able to protect coastal facilities from all types of threats. Obeying the "fashion" of recent years, the corvette should have a reduced radar signature.
As a result, by the end of 2006, the final design of the Ada-class corvette was prepared, and on January 22 of the following year, the laying of the first ship of the series took place at the Istanbul Naval Shipyard. The firstborn was named F 511 Heybeliada - after a small island in the Sea of Marmara. In September 2008, Heybeliada was launched, and on the same day the second corvette of the series, F 512 Büyükada (Buyukada is also an island), was laid down. The entire series of ships will be named after the names of the Turkish islands.
Exactly three years after launching the ship Heybeliada officially entered the Turkish Navy. The second corvette was launched on the day of the Heybeliada commissioning ceremony - September 27 this year.
Almost immediately after the end of the ceremony for the transfer of the F511 Heybeliada to the fleet, this ship went on its first voyage. Together with several other ships of the Turkish Navy, "Heybeliada" went to the area of Cyprus, where the connection is to be accompanied by the research vessel K. Piri Reis. The latter's task is to explore for gas deposits at the bottom of the sea in disputed areas.
In total, it is planned to build 8 corvettes of the "Ada" project. Later, a new class of ships, the F-100 frigates, will be created on their basis. However, the “hundredths” will appear no earlier than 2018-19, although the exact dates have not yet been set. In total, Turkey will receive 12 ships built under the MILGEN program. But this is only Turkey. Indonesia has already ordered two Ada corvettes and negotiations are underway with Egypt. It is not yet known whether there will be more customers, but it can be assumed that they will definitely be found. Now there is a certain "fashion" for corvettes, frigates, patrol boats and other small warships. This trend can even be compared with the proliferation of battleships at the beginning of the last century.
When the first drawings and photographs of the Ada corvettes appeared, a number of experts noted that the Turkish creation is very reminiscent of the German ships of the MEKO family, especially their 100 series. Perhaps Turkish engineers decided to use foreign experience in this form.
The displacement of the Ada corvettes is 2000 tons, the draft is 3.7 meters. The length of the ship is 99 meters, the maximum width is 14.5.
Combined propulsion system, CODAG systems. Those. it includes both diesel and gas turbine engines. Working together, the engines deliver up to 40,800 horsepower. and accelerate the ship to 29 knots. With more economical operating modes of the engines, the ship has a cruising range of up to 3,500 nautical miles. The autonomy of the Ada is about three weeks. The crew of the early ships of the MILGEN program is 93 people.
Armament "Heybeliada" and its "sisterships" includes three units of barrel armament: one artillery mount of 76 mm caliber and two large-caliber (12, 7 mm) Alesan machine guns.
The Mk-41VLS air defense system is designed to protect the ship from air targets. Ammunition - 21 missiles.
To attack surface targets, the Ada corvettes have eight Harpoon anti-ship missiles and two triple-caliber 324 mm torpedo tubes.
Also, corvettes can carry one S-70B2 Sea Hawk helicopter, which has a set of equipment for detecting submarines and the ability to suspend torpedoes.
