Physical & Mental Strength Along with Highly Demanding and Qualified Training, are Necessary to Challenge the Depths of the Seas.
Submarining is an exceptional task due to the physical and psychological challenges of the duties and the physical difficulties of the mission. It is a job for those who are strong, determined, self-sacrificing, and confident, who work with a team spirit, share a destiny both in diving and on the surface, and take pride and honor in their work through friendship and camaraderie. Submariners who will carry out this crucial task, where individual mistakes could lead to significant losses, have been trained in our country since April 1, 2017. Given that the training of personnel to serve on submarines is considered as vital as platform procurement in bolstering the submarine force, the Submarine Fleet trains its personnel within its own ranks through a domestic education system and curriculum.
Captain Ender KÖNEZ, Head of Training at Turkish Submarine Training Center
Defence Turkey: Captain, first of all, could you give us information about the history and establishment of the Submarine Training Center Command?
Captain Ender KÖNEZ: In Turkish Submarining History, the training of submarine personnel started with the Core Submarine Course taken from Germany on February 5, 1915, during the Ottoman Empire. The officers who attended this course worked as teachers in the Officer, Petty Officer and Private Submarine Courses opened in Aydınreis Gunboat for the first time in our country on April 1, 1917. The date in question was the establishment date of the Submarine Training Center.
Submarine courses have been given in;
On January 1, 1926, in Divanhane, Kasımpaşa, İstanbul,
Since 1932, at the Submarine Command in Gölcük,
On the TCG Erkin Submarine Mother Ship since 1936,
Since 1949, in Heybeliada, İstanbul,
On the TCG Erkin Submarine Mother Ship since 1955.
Since 1959, it has continued to be given at the Submarine Training Center Command within the Gölcük Naval Main Base Command, where it is currently located.
Defence Turkey: Could you tell us about the mission of the Submarine Training Center Command and the training activities carried out there?
Captain Ender KÖNEZ: The most important task of the Submarine Training Center is to train Officers, Petty Officers, Specialists and Privates, who are distinguished by the Turkish Naval Forces Command (TNFC), as submariners in Submarine Specialization Courses.
Other duties of the Submarine Training Center Command are;
To provide professional development courses and practical training with simulators to the personnel working on submarines,
To analyze the tasks and training performed by submarines and offer corrective and/or remedial suggestions based on the results,
To carry out long-term repair training and operational readiness inspections of submarines,
To provide Submarine Escape Training to submarine personnel and to meet the Submarine Escape Tower training needs of Rescue and Underwater Command personnel.
In addition, the Submarine Training Center Command, which provides training at an international level, also offers 9 separate courses and training for Friendly and Allied country personnel.
Since its establishment in 1917, approximately 1,400 Officers, 4,000 Petty Officers, 10,000 Specialized Sergeants/Private submariners have been trained and approximately 1,000 foreign country personnel have been given courses and training in various contents.
To carefully train submarine personnel, who are important and must have many specialties, to fit the technology of our age into a narrow environment for the Turkish Submarine Fleet, to use weapons effectively in such difficult conditions, to challenge the depths of the seas, to give confidence to friends and fear to enemies, is possible with a very difficult and qualified training as well as physical and spiritual strength.
Today and tomorrow, our institution will continue to raise and train its personnel who are highly knowledgeable, experienced, researchers, who know how to overcome difficulties with high moral motivation, and who will use the modern ships of its contemporary fleet effectively, and will continue to aim to be the best training center, exemplary in our country and the world, will move forward with the same determination and confident steps.
Defence Turkey: Can you inform us about the unknown aspects of the training center we are in, its achievements, the training given to foreign military personnel, etc.?
Captain Ender KÖNEZ: Our most important duty is to train Officers, Petty Officers and Privates who will serve on submarines. In addition, by subjecting submarine personnel to various professional courses and training during each development period, we aim to ensure that they meet the knowledge and skill standards required by their duties.
While the Submarine Training Center Command, which has been constantly developing and improving itself for more than 100 years since its establishment, has trained talented submariners for the Turkish Submarine Fleet Command, it also provides Submarine Specialization, orientation and various tactical level courses, as well as Diving Tower and Damage Control Training to personnel from friendly and allied Navies. For this reason, we are also proud to contribute to the training of submarine personnel of friendly and allied countries.
Our institution, which has a deep-rooted history, is a very important strategic force in the protection of our country's maritime rights and interests with its highly qualified personnel and visionary approaches within the Turkish Naval Forces Command (TNFC), and is an important institution that shapes the future of the Turkish Submarine Fleet equipped with local and national systems, provides young and dynamic members with the core values it has determined, and contributes to the development of bilateral relations by exporting training to friendly, brotherly and allied countries.
Defence Turkey: Can you share information about the simulators at the Submarine Training Center Command?
Captain Ender KÖNEZ: Simulator training activities are carried out at the Submarine Training Center Command for the purposes of raising the submariner manpower that constitutes the main striking power of our submarines, who are self-sacrificing, brave, have a character that will not give up on the difficulties and dangers they face, and having psychological strength, who will carry their badge with pride and honor throughout their career, and who will use the modern technical techniques needed to increase the effective, deterrent and respected qualities of the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF), and who will use strategies and serve with the understanding of “if I die, I will be a martyr, if I survive, I will be a veteran", to maximize their duty efficiencies.
In our command, training is carried out in 3 simulators: Submarine Diving Simulator (DEDAS), Submarine Tactical Simulator (DATAS) and AY Class Diving Simulator (AYDALSİM) as well as in the Passive Acoustic Analysis Training Laboratory.
In addition, we have a Diving Tower (Submarine Escape Training Tower) which is the only one in the Middle East and serves friendly and allied countries.
When we consider simulators;
DEDAS was brought to our Command by high fidelity modeling of the bridge of the Gür Class Submarine with the domestic resources of our defense industry. In order to simulate the movements of the submarine and the diving environment in DEDAS, and by creating a mathematical model of the values to be read from the displays of the devices/systems inside and the diving cabin movements that will be encountered under real conditions, many scenarios, including real sea conditions and malfunction situations, have been simulated. Horizontal navigation training of ship personnel is provided at DEDAS.
DATAS is a simulator designed by TÜBİTAK to model the GÜR Class submarine's power plant and simulate the Combat Management System (CMS) and other main devices. In DATAS, which enables submarine personnel to detect, diagnose, classify and engage the target with a torpedo on a submarine, individual and branch trainings as well as team trainings such as Fire Control Party trainings are carried out. The fire control software used in DATAS constitutes the basis of the national fire control system that we have installed on our ships within the scope of modernization today.
AYDALSİM is a simulator where the diving environment for AY Class Submarines can be simulated and horizonal navigation training can be carried out with different scenarios.
At PANES, training is given on the analysis of noise from targets detected by submarines. In this way, it is aimed to maintain and develop the target detection, identification and classification skills of Sonar Petty Officers.
Diving Tower is a training facility where we teach the personnel trapped in the submarine who have lost the ability to go to the surface, the techniques of getting out of the submarine and coming to the surface with special clothes produced for this purpose. Our submarine personnel first receive “Initial Training” regarding Submarine Escape in the Submarine Specialization Course. After joining their units following their graduation, they attend refresher training every 5 years to ensure the continuity of their submarine Submarine Escape training.
Defence Turkey: Could you briefly introduce the “Dumlupınar Submarine History Hall” to our readers?
Captain Ender KÖNEZ: Our hall takes its name from the TCG Dumlupınar Submarine, which sank in a tragic accident in the Çanakkale Strait on April 4, 1953, becoming the grave of 81 of our submariners.
Our hall exhibits submarine badges used in world navies, types, general features and models of submarines that have entered our inventory since the beginning of Turkish submarine history, our submariner seniors who served as the former President of Republic of Türkiye and Commander of the Naval Forces, memorial corner with the names of our martyrs of the “Refah” ship disaster, which was set out to receive our submarines built in England on 23 June 1941, with a total of 199 personnel, including a crew of 28, submariners, 19 officers, 63 petty officers and 68 privates, and 1 air officer and 20 air cadets who would receive aviation training in England , and which was sunk by an unidentified submarine near Cyprus where 167 personnel were martyred, and TCG Atılay accidents, where 39 submariners were martyred as a result of hitting a mine while diving near Çanakkale Morto Bay on July 14, 1942, and various commemorative objects belonging to our decommissioned submarines,
Defence Turkey: Captain, on behalf of our readers, we thank you for your time and wish you success
