Turkey commissions new logistics support ship

MERSIN, Turkey — The Turkish Navy on Dec. 8 commissioned the logistic support ship “TCG Yzb Güngör Durmus” in Istanbul.

“TCG Yzb Güngör Durmus (A-574), the first ship of our Logistics Support Ship Project, which was begun to address the logistics demands of our combat ships, was completed at Ada Shipyard and began service with our Naval Forces Command,” tweeted Turkey’s top procurement official, Ismail Demir.

The project, begun in 2014, planned for two ships to enter service within 26 months. The initial contract for Güngör Durmus, the project’s first ship, was signed in 2014 with Istanbul’s Selah Shipyard. Güngör Durmus was launched in October 2016, and the second ship, Arif Ekmekci, was launched in July 2017. However, the ships were unable to be delivered after Selah Shipyard suffered financial difficulties.

In early 2021, Turkish defense company STM inked a new agreement with Turkish Defence Industries Presidency (SSB) to resume the project using Ada Shipyard as the principal contractor. Three weeks before commissioning, STM’s combat systems manager said TCG Yzb Güngör Durmus was ready for duty.

The project’s second ship is scheduled to join the Turkish Navy in February 2024. The projected service life of each ship is roughly 30 years.

TCG Yzb Güngör Durmus measures nearly 107 m, or about 350 feet, with a beam of 16.8 m. The ship was designed to handle a wide variety of responsibilities, from addressing battle ship fuel requirements, making fuel transfers between shore facilities, assisting helicopter day and night operations up to 15 tons, hauling containers for humanitarian and rescue help to disaster zones and serving as a hospital for small-scale surgical operations.

The ship includes an 18-ton lifting capacity hydraulic crane and an Astern Fueling System capable of transferring fuel to a vessel sailing behind the replenishment vessel. During its sea trials earlier this year, Güngör Durmus performed the first real replenishment via AFS with Turkish frigate TCG Kemalreis.

The cargo capacity of Güngör Durmus is just over 4 tons of oil, 336 tons of helicopter fuel and 594 tons of fresh water. The ship will have an unrestricted operational capability up to sea state 5 and will be operable with some constraints at sea states 6 and higher.

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