SSB President Prof. DEMİR: `We Encourage the Shipyard to the Delivery of LHD Anadolu Before the End of 2021.`

President of Defense Industries Prof. İsmail DEMİR participated in the live broadcast made from the LHD Anadolu Multipurpose Amphibious Assault Ship, the construction and outfitting activities of which are still in progress and provided information about the recent developments by participating in the online broadcasting program "Söz Yetenekte".

Before the Q&A session of the program, Sedef Shipyard Defense Industry Projects Manager Selim BUĞDANOĞLU shared detailed information about the LHD Anadolu and the latest status of the construction process.

BUDANOĞLU said, “The length of our ship is 230.8 meters, the beam is 32 meters and its height from the keel to the Tactical Air Navigation System antenna is 58 meters. It has three main decks. One is the heavy vehicle deck the other is the deck where Amphibious Naval Infantry Battalion Vehicles are deployed and the third one is the light vehicle deck and the helicopter hangar right above it. Depending on the requirements of the task group, aircraft or other vehicles of the amphibious task group can be carried. There is also a flight deck on the top.”

BUĞDANOĞLU: “Landing Craft Mechanized (LCMs) will be capable of carrying ALTAY MBTs and reach a total weight of 150 tons, and will be able to land tanks at a speed of approximately 20 km.” 

Relaying information also about two Landing Craft Mechanized which are under construction at the shipyard, BUĞDANOĞLU said, “No2 and No3 Landing Craft Mechanized right behind us, which are currently under construction, will be located at the dock area. These Landing Craft Mechanized are 26 meters in length with a width of about 6.90 meters. They will carry our ALTAY Main Battle Tanks and reach maximum total weight of 150 tons. Together with this weight, they will be able to disembark our MBTs at a speed of approximately 20 km.”

BUĞDANOĞLU added that these Landing Craft Mechanized were indigenously designed and produced according to the requirements of the ALTAY Main Battle Tank.

 

Stating that 13 thousand tons of high-quality steel was used during the ship construction process, BUĞDANOĞLU noted that 114 different blocks were built and assembled for this gigantic structure and that there were also 1,100 sections and compartments in the ship.

Sharing details on the diesel engine and propulsion systems of LHD Anadolu (with a total displacement of 27,436 tons) to enable the ship to achieve a cruising speed of 21 knots, BUĞDANOĞLU said, "To enable our ship to achieve a cruising speed of 21 knots, there are all-electric driven design main diesel generator groups generating nearly 40,000 KWs and pod systems with 11,000 KW propellers on the vessel. In this way, the ship can sail at around 20.5 knots when fully-loaded." 

BUĞDANOĞLU shared technical information on the well-deck of the LHD Anadolu and said, "The length of the well-deck is around 70 meters, its width is around 17 meters with a height of approximately 10 meters."

BUĞDANOĞLU conveyed technical information on the flight deck of the ship as well and said, "The flight deck enabling the landing and take-off of the air platforms contains an area of nearly 6,000 square meters and features six landing and take-off points. It is capable of safely conducting landings and take-offs under all weather conditions, night and day."

President of Defense Industries Prof. DEMİR: "Our engineers are carrying out activities necessary to operate HürJet aircraft on this platform." 

President of Defense Industries Prof. İsmail DEMİR joined the program online from Ankara and conveyed the latest developments. 

DEMİR: "This ship was planned as a Multi-Purpose Landing Helicopter Dock at the outset. It will carry various armored vehicles, landing vehicles, and military units as a power transfer platform. We thought that this ship might join the league of the F-35B STOVL aircraft as part of the JSF project which we were a partner of previously, and helicopters when a ski-jump was added. Thus, it was introduced to the public as an aircraft carrier. As we recently have witnessed how game-changing our Armed UAVs and UAVs have become in the field, we also launched activities to modify the ship in this way. Surely the original plan was to manufacture a multi-purpose amphibious assault ship, but the aircraft carriers are more diverse and gigantic systems. The LHD Anadolu is an aircraft carrier on its own scale, though not in a classical sense; it has been a platform that can launch a certain amount of airpower as a power transfer platform. We cannot classify it as an aircraft carrier, yet we can say that it can display specific capabilities offered by aircraft carriers to the operation field. Hopefully, our country will make its mark on greater platforms with more visionary projects in the future." 

DEMİR added that around 70% of the systems, sub-systems and software on the LHD Anadolu are unique and said, "These components are either integrated or about to be integrated to our ship with the contribution of over 200 Turkish companies." 

Pointing out that activities for the deployment of Armed UAVs and UAVs on board are being conducted and significant progress has been made, Prof. DEMİR added that engineers are working on the process required to operate the HürJet aircraft on this platform. 

The Multipurpose Amphibious Assault Ship (LHD) Project 

Under the Multipurpose Amphibious Assault Ship (LHD) Project Contract signed on 1 June 2015 between the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) and Sedef Shipbuilding Inc. (Sedef Shipyard), the "Keel Laying Ceremony" for the TCG Anadolu (L-400) was conducted and the vessel is planned to be constructed with a 68% domestic contribution rate. According to the official program schedule, the project activities (To) were started as of 18 September 2015. The construction and outfitting activities are expected to be completed in the To+45th Month. The Harbor Acceptance Trials (HAT) are expected to be completed in the To+47th between To+55th month, Sea Acceptance Trials are expected to be completed in the To+55th between To+59th month and eventually the temporarily delivered to the Turkish Naval Forces Command (TNFC) in the To+67th month (April 2021). Following the 12-month warranty period, the final acceptance of the TCG Anadolu LHD is scheduled to be completed in the To+79th month (April 2022).

In a statement given to an Anadolu Agency reporter April 13th, President of Defense Industries Prof. İsmail DEMİR shared information on the ship's delivery date and said, "At first, LHD Anadolu's delivery date was projected for mid-2022. However, during the steel-cutting ceremony, the main activities were conducted to schedule the delivery to 2021 as President ERDOĞAN encouraged the shipyard. We expected to deliver the ship before the end of this year, in the third quarter. This date has been extended due to several issues such as the pandemic and accordingly the shipyard's failure to operate at full capacity. In any case, we are closely monitoring the project and encouraging the shipyard to accomplish the delivery before 2022. A series of our companies that manufacture sub-systems are executing their activities in an extremely determined manner."  

The main Contract for the Multipurpose Amphibious Assault Ship (LHD) Project includes the procurement of one LHD, four Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM, the Navantia design, four LCM-1E will be constructed at Sedef Shipyard), two Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVPs), two Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs), and one Commander Boat for guidance purposes. The total cost of the project is expected to be €1,250 Billion