Turkish Navy’s new landing ship ready for delivery

The lead ship of a new class of Turkish Navy landing ships, TCG Bayraktar, is undergoing last touch-ups and is ready for the delivery to the navy, Turkey’s Anadolu Shipyard said.

Anadolu Shipyard also said the second ship in the class, TCG Sancaktar, is planned for delivery in October this year.

The ships are being built under a contract signed between the company and the Turkish Ministry of Defense in May 2011.

First steel for TCG Bayraktar was cut in May 2014 and the ship was launched on October 3, 2015. TCG Sancaktar was launched on July 16, 2016.

TCG Bayraktar and her sister ship displace over 7200 tonnes at 139 meters. They are capable of transporting up to 1.200 tonnes of cargo (18 tanks).

Additionally, the ships are equipped with two command and control centers (one for ship’s CIC and the other for joint amphibious command and control purposes) and four landing craft, vehicle, personnel boats (each can carry 40 Marines or 8 t cargo).

They feature three onload/offload gates (fore, aft, and port side) and have an 18 m trifold bow ramp. A fore draft of less than 2 meters makes the ships suitable for beach landing operations.