The second ship of the RATSHIP program, TCGA-584 “Akın” the contract of which was signed in 2011 between the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries and Istanbul Shipyard in order to cater to the Turkish Naval Forces’ Rescue and Towing Ship requirements, was delivered to Naval Forces Command on 29 December 2017. The first ship of the project, TCGE-583 “Işın”, was included in the inventory of the Turkish Naval Forces Command and commissioned in July 2017.

Vice-Admiral Adnan Özbal - Commander of Naval Forces, Mr. Serdar Demirel - Deputy Undersecretary for Defense Industries and many guests attended the ceremony which was held at the Istanbul Shipyard’s facilities in Tuzla.

Making a speech at the delivery ceremony, Vice-Admiral Özbal, Commander of Naval Forces said: “The greatest multiplier of the Naval Forces Command in its duty of protecting the rights and interests of the country is our national ships and systems developed in line with national strategies. Each of our ships, like TCG “Akın”, which was built by Turkish engineers and workers and which has entered in our inventory, will bring us closer to the target underlined by the great leader Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which is the target of being a navy that is growing from the country’s industry.

With the initiation of the service of the TCG A-583 “Işın” and the TCG A-584 “Akın” Rescue and Towing Ships, which were provided under the program, significant requirements of the Turkish Naval Forces Command in this scope have been met. The ships equipped with systems for detecting, identifying and recovering wreckage of sunken ships, submarines, aircraft and similar debris at sea will be able to perform debris recovery missions up to 3000 meters deep with modern rescue systems deployed on them.

According to the statement made by the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, the capabilities of RATSHIP vessels were listed as follows: Rescue/towing of wounded/grounded/defective vessels, offshore towing, underwater activities such as underwater repair and debris removal to be made through ROV (Remotely Operatized Underwater Vehicle) and ADS (Atmospheric Diving Suit) repairing, operating as a target ship in torpedo firings, taking torpedoes from the sea, providing life support to personnel at maximum depth of 600 meters in the event that submarines cannot reach the surface and supporting personnel rescue activities, intervention to ship fires, rescue personnel, material removal and debris removal from all air platforms which have crash-landed in the sea comprising civil and military air platforms. 

The TCG (A-584) “Akın” will replace the TCG “Akın” (A-585) vessel, which was removed from service with the ceremony held on November 16 by the Istanbul Shipyard Command following 47 years of service in the Turkish Naval Forces.

The TCG (A-585) “Akin” was commissioned by the US Naval Forces on May 29, 1943, in the name of the USS GREENLET, and handed over to the Naval Forces on June 12, 1970 at the Port of Pearl Harbor Hawaii, USA.