The Submarine Rescue Mother Ship TCG Alemdar (A-582) MOSHIP was delivered to the Naval Forces Command by Istanbul Shipyard on January 28th, 2017 at Istanbul Shipyard Tuzla with a ceremony.  The attendees included the National Defense Minister Mr. Fikri Işık, Naval Forces Command Admiral Bülent Bostanoğlu, Fleet Commander Admiral Veysel Kösele, 1st Army Commander Musa Avsever, Undersecretary for Defense Industries Prof. İsmail Demir, Istanbul Shipyard Chairman Mr. Ertan Şener, Istanbul Shipyard Vice Chairman of the Board Mr. Atilla Çiftçigüzeli as well as many other guests.

The National Defense Minister Mr. Fikri Işık made a speech at the ceremony and said: “The Republic of Turkey is a country that learns lessons from history. We are making great efforts in order to not  re-experience the same suffering by taking lessons from our history. In fact, this ceremony today, is a precaution that we took to avoid the submarine accidents like ‘Atılay’ and ‘Dumlupınar’ as well as preventing the same adversity. If we had the Alemdar ship in those days, the caliber of ship that we delivered today, with the technology we currently have achieved, many of the seafarers could have survived. Unfortunately, we cannot regain our losses but we still have a chance to make the related precautions to prevent similar shipwrecks in the future. We are proud of this development.”

Expressing that many projects have been realized in maritime so far, Mr. Işık emphasized the aim of localization and development of critical technologies as well as the fulfillment of the Turkish Armed Forces’ requirements through domestic and national opportunities.

National Defense Minister Mr. Fikri Işık: “Private Sector is the dynamism of our country”

The National Defense Minister Mr. Fikri Işık stated that great efforts are being made in order to make the Turkish defense industry become one of Turkey’s vital export items and said: “Our goal, together with our private sector, is to become one of the countries that have a voice in the world’s defense industry. In order to accomplish this goal, our private sector shipyards will be our crucial dynamic. We are aware that it is not possible to achieve lasting success if we rule out our private sector. We are restructuring our Ministry accordingly. We have established our General Directorate of Shipyards and will maintain to develop and expand our know-how by improving and strengthening it as well as involving the dynamism of our private sector. Our Turkish Defense Industry will continue to exert all efforts to provide the requirements of the Turkish Armed Forces through maximizing domestic and national opportunities.”

Admiral Bostanoğlu: “We are Launching I-Class Frigate Construction soon”

The Commander of Naval Forces Admiral Bülent Bostanoğlu stated that they witnessed the launch and delivery of many vessels in military and commercial shipyards within 2016 and continued: “In today’s conditions it is an inevitable necessity to have the most modern equipment; equipment in underwater rescue, underwater search and rescue and offshore towing. Through the rescue systems of TCG Alemdar, in the event of wreckage and breakdowns that may occur in submarines, the vessel will be able to be rescued within a maximum of 72 hours.   Towing and underwater search and rescue operations will be performed, for aircraft wreckage through its diver, remotely operated unmanned vehicle and atmospheric diving suit capacities.  

In addition, the vessel will be compatible with the NATO submarine recovery system and the United States submarine recovery system. With these features, TCG Alemdar will also be able to serve as a joint submarine rescue ship in international operations. In the past, there were some of the search and rescue operations in maritime territory that we could not salvage from deep-sea and we requested support from allies since such operations were beyond our rescue limits. In order to eliminate this deficiency, with the remote controlled unmanned sea vehicle “ROV” system, to be supplied, our existing deep-water survey and rescue capability will be upgraded to three thousand meters, currently it is one thousand meters.”

Emphasizing that the Turkish Naval Forces are making utmost efforts to improve the military shipbuilding capabilities of private shipyards, Admiral Bostanoğlu said: “Currently, only the corvette, frigate and submarine building activities are being carried out at our military shipyards. With the experience gained from the Ada Class Corvette, we will initiate the construction of “Istanbul” which is the first vessel of “I-Class Frigate Project” at the Istanbul Shipyard Command. It is planned that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th frigates within the scope of this project will be built by the private sector shipyards, thus the frigate-type combat vessel will be realized for the first time in our defense industry at private sector shipyards.”

Following the opening speeches, Minister Mr. Fikri Işık, Commander of the Naval Forces Admiral Bülent Bostanoğlu, Chairman of the Istanbul Shipyard Mr. Ertan Şener, Vice Chairman of the Board Mr. Atilla Çiftçigüzeli and the accompanied guests examined the vessel.

MOSHIP Capable of Critical Duty with Cutting-Edge Equipment

The initial delivery of TCG-Alemdar, the contract of which was awarded in 2011, was made to the Naval Forces Command following the completion of design, construction, outfit and test activities.

The Submarine Rescue Mother Ship will complete critical missions for personnel rescue and salvage activities in cases of accidents and injuries, and for underwater repair and debris removal activities through its diver, remotely operated vehicle and atmospheric diving suit capabilities.  

MOSHIP has the capabilities to complete critical missions, locating wrecked submarines. It will provide medical assistance and ventilation support to the submarine personnel, treat the distressed submarine personnel in constant compression chambers for decompression, treat the injured-sick submarine personnel through the onboard treatment room and transport patients through the helicopter platform on its flight deck.  With the latest technology MOSHIP TCG-Alemdar will be able to simultaneously implement various recovery scenarios requiring precise planning, coordination and technological equipment.

MOSHIP is able to perform deep-water operations up to a depth of 1000 meters. It also has the capabilities of Active Sonar, Acoustic Monitoring Capture System, Underwater Telephony System, Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and Side Scan Sonar System. 

MOSHIP, holding the necessary equipment to execute recovery operations at 5 Level Sea State and towing at 6 Level Sea State, will be able to execute limited recovery operation at 6 Level Sea State. The fully equipped 12-ton General Utility Helicopter, which can be deployed on the flight deck of the vessel, can perform landing and take-off activities 4 Level Sea State.

The vessel is also able to anchor at 652 meters with an anchoring system from four-points. With this feature, it has been documented as a vessel that can anchor at four-points at this depth. 

A total of 125 personnel, 95 of which are vessel personnel and 30 of which are rescue personnel, will perform tasks on the vessel. The personnel capacity of this vessel can be increased to 137 with an addition of 12 personnel.

The majority of the shipbuilding materials and services as well as the systems integrated on the vessel were provided by local contribution. Within the scope of the project, the Turkish Defense Industry participation level achieved is 65%.