An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Carriers have evolved since their inception in the early twentieth century from wooden vessels used to deploy balloons to nuclear-powered warships that carry numerous fighters, strike aircraft, helicopters, and other types of aircraft. While heavier aircraft such as fixed-wing gunships and bombers have been launched from aircraft carriers, these aircraft have not landed on a carrier. By its diplomatic and tactical power, its mobility, its autonomy and the variety of its means, the aircraft carrier is often the centerpiece of modern combat fleets. Tactically or even strategically, it replaced the battleship in the role of flagship of a fleet. One of its great advantages is that, by sailing in international waters, it does not interfere with any territorial sovereignty and thus obviates the need for overflight authorizations from third-party countries, reduces the times and transit distances of aircraft and therefore significantly increases the time of availability on the combat zone.
The Turkish Naval Forces, or Turkish Navy, is the naval warfare service branch of the Turkish Armed Forces.
MILGEM project (Turkish:Milli Gemi Projesi, English: National Ship Project) is a national warship program of the Republic of Turkey. Managed by the Turkish Navy, the project aims at developing multipurpose corvettes, frigates and destroyers that can be deployed in a range of missions, including reconnaissance, surveillance, early warning, anti-submarine warfare, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air warfare, and amphibious operations.
HMAS Gawler (J188/B241/A115), named for the town of Gawler, was one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II and one of 20 built for the Admiralty but manned by personnel of and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The ship was laid down by BHP at its Whyalla shipyard in early 1941, launched later that year, and commissioned in 1942.
Gölcük Naval Shipyard is a naval shipyard of the Turkish Navy within the Gölcük Naval Base on the east coast of the Sea of Marmara in Gölcük, Kocaeli. Established in 1926, the shipyard serves for the building and the maintenance of military vessels. A total of 3,221 personnel are employed at the shipyard stretching over an area of 255,526 m2 (2,750,460 sq ft) with covered structures of 121,466 m2 (1,307,450 sq ft).
TCG Heybeliada is the lead ship of the Ada-class ASW corvettes of the Turkish Navy. Heybeliada was named after Heybeliada Island, where the Turkish Naval High School is located. Heybeliada Island is part of the Prince Islands archipelago in the Sea of Marmara, to the southeast of Istanbul.
Istanbul Naval Shipyard, also known as Pendik Naval Shipyard, is a naval shipyard of the Turkish Navy on the northeastern coast of the Sea of Marmara in Tuzla, Istanbul, Turkey. It is the largest shipbuilding facility in Turkey.
SMART-S Mk2(Signaal Multibeam Acquisition Radar for Tracking, S band Mk2) is a naval medium to long-range air and surface surveillance multibeam passive electronically scanned array 3D radar designed by Thales Nederland, formerly Hollandse Signaalapparaten (Signaal). While the original SMART-S radar was only produced in small numbers, SMART-S Mk2 is very successful. Only six years after its introduction, 30 systems were sold to navies all over the world. SMART-S Mk2 radar is equipped with transmitter/receiver (T/R) modules manufactured by Turkish defence company Aselsan. The radar transmitter/receiver (T/R) modules for the radar are purchased by Thales from Aselsan.
INS Kadmatt (P29) is the second of four anti-submarine warfare corvettes built for the Indian Navy by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers of Kolkata under Project 28. She was inducted into the Eastern Naval Command of the Indian Navy.
The Ada class is a class of anti-submarine corvettes developed primarily for the Turkish Navy during the first stage of the MILGEM project. The Turkish Navy has commissioned all four Ada-class corvettes.
TCG Büyükada (F-512) is the second ship of the Ada-class ASW corvettes of the Turkish Navy. TCG Büyükada was named after Büyükada Island. Büyükada Island is part of the Prince Islands archipelago in the Sea of Marmara, to the southeast of Istanbul. Its sister ship is TCG Heybeliada.
TCG Anadolu (L-400) is an amphibious assault ship of the Turkish Navy. It is named after the peninsula of Anatolia which forms the majority of the land mass of Turkey. The construction works began on 30 April 2016 at the shipyard of Sedef Shipbuilding Inc. in Istanbul, with the keel being laid on 7 February 2018. TCG Anadolu was commissioned with a ceremony on 10 April 2023.
The Istanbul-class frigates are a group of eight multirole frigates currently being constructed for the Turkish Naval Forces. Developed under the MILGEM national warship program as the I-class frigate, the Istanbul class is an enlarged version of the Ada-class anti-submarine corvette, with enhanced endurance and MDAS Vertical Launching System (VLS) for multi-role capability. On 19 January 2017, Turkish Navy held a ceremonial steel cut for the lead ship TCG Istanbul. Istanbul was laid down on 3 July 2017 and launched on 23 January 2021.
TCG Oruçreis, is a Barbaros-class frigate of the Turkish Navy, the second ship of that class. She was named for Oruç Reis, the Ottoman Beylerbeyi of the West Mediterranean. The submarine TCG Oruç Reis was the first ship of that name in the Turkish Navy.
TCG Kınalıada (F-514) is the fourth ship of the Ada-class ASW corvettes of the Turkish Navy. Kınalıada was named after Kınalıada Island, a part of the Princes' Islands archipelago in the Sea of Marmara, to the southeast of Istanbul, Turkey.
Istanbul(F 515) is an Istanbul-class frigate of the Turkish Navy.
TCG Barbaros is the lead ship of Barbaros-class frigate of the Turkish Navy.
The Babur-class corvette, also known as the PN MILGEM class, is a class of four heavy corvettes under construction for the Pakistan Navy. This class is a subclass of the Turkish MILGEM project. The corvette class is heavier and larger than the Turkish Ada-class corvette and are also equipped with VLS.
Hetman Ivan Mazepa (F211) is an Ada-class anti-submarine corvette of the Ukrainian Navy currently in the process of fitting out. The ship is named after Ivan Mazepa, a Ukrainian Cossack leader who turned against the Tsardom of Russia of Peter the Great and joined the side of Charles XII of Sweden during the Swedish Invasion of Russia.
Turkey