Turkey Launches Submarine with Air-independent Propulsion

Turkey’s first home-made Type 214-class submarine ‘TCG Piri Reis’ entered water on Sunday in the northwestern province of Kocaeli district.

TCG Piri Reis, the first vessel of Turkey’s New Type Submarine Project, is planned to start operating in 2020 followed by 5 more vessels delivered to the Turkish Navy, local media reported.

“As of 2020, a submarine will go into service each year. By 2027, all six of our submarines will be at our seas for service,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the ceremony. “Our aim is to promptly actualize our national submarine project.”

The Type 214 class vessels are regarded as a first for the Turkish Navy due to its air-independent propulsion technology made possible  by fuel cell technology. The vessels also can deploy heavyweight torpedoes and anti-ship missiles and lay mines against targets, both at sea and on the ground, Turkish media reported.

Apart from Piri Reis, five more vessels of the project are expected to hit the seas by 2027. As Piri Reis was deployed to the sea, the project’s second submarine Hızırreis’ outfitting and two vessels’ hull production phases are ongoing.

“With the policies our country follows, we seek establishment of rights, which have been delayed. The works we carry out in the eastern Mediterranean, Syria and Libya are in this context,” Erdogan said adding, “If we give up on the process we started with Turkish Cyprus and Libya, they will not let a seashore to even cast a fishing line,” the president said as quoted by Hurriet Daily News.

In 2015, Golcuk Naval Shipyard commenced a 10 year programme to build 6 Type 214, locally know as, Reis class submarines with technology from Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems of Germany.

The type 214-class submarines feature single-hull, one-compartment design and driven  by air-independent propulsion based on the proven HDW fuel cell. Increased diving depths and a modular weapon and sensor mix equip them to undertake missions such as littoral water operations to ocean-going patrols including anti-surface ship and anti-submarine operations, ISR tasks, and special forces operations.

Turkey has started talks with Indonesia to export the submarines which is evaluating a similar offer from Daewoo of South Korea which is offering an earlier version of the Type 214, the Type 212A to the Indonesian Navy.

The type 214-class submarines feature single-hull, one-compartment design and driven  by air-independent propulsion based on the proven HDW fuel cell. Increased diving depths and a modular weapon and sensor mix equip them to undertake missions such as littoral water operations to ocean-going patrols including anti-surface ship and anti-submarine operations, ISR tasks, and special forces operations.

Turkey has started talks with Indonesia to export the submarines which is evaluating a similar offer from Daewoo of South Korea which is offering an earlier version of the Type 214, the Type 212A to the Indonesian Navy.