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| Science & Technology |
| Project GENESIS: How Turkey Resurrected Its Secondhand Oliver Hazard Perry Class Frigates |
| 2024-08-25 |
| Project GENESIS not only breathed new life into the aging Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates, but it also set the country up to build its own advanced warships. by Tayfun Ozberk [TWZ] The U.S. Oliver Hazard Perry (OHP) class frigates, dozens of which once served the U.S. Navy, are still actively used by a number countries. While they may all appear similar from the outside, upon a closer look, the OHP frigates of the Turkish Navy, known as the “Gabya” class, are significantly different. This transformation is due to the GENESIS project, a major initiative of the Turkish defense industry that has not only rejuvenated the combat capability of these second-hand warships, but has set Turkey on a path to independently developing its own more advanced warships. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OHP FRIGATES IN THE TURKISH FLEET The Turkish Navy started to use Gabya class frigates in the late 1990s when TCG Gaziantep (ex-USS Clifton Sprague) was commissioned in 1997. Between 1997 and 2003, eight Gabya class frigates were commissioned, and the ex-USS Duncan was purchased as the ninth ship and used as a spare parts source for the other eight vessels. The Gabya class frigates, which were reactivated and put into service after the U.S. Navy decommissioned them, were used by the Turkish Navy for anti-air warfare (AAW) as their main mission function due to the medium-range SM-1 missiles they carried. Since the late 1990s, these ships have been used in critical missions such as the non-combatant evacuation operation from Beirut in 2006 and Operation Unified Protector in Libya in 2011. They have also participated in numerous NATO and United Nations missions. These ships, which have formed the backbone of the Turkish Navy by sailing thousands of hours every year since they entered service, have been subjected to a number of modernizations by the Turkish defense industry. These upgrades focused on countering modern threats more effectively, increasing compatibility in joint operations, enhancing detection and identification abilities by replacing outdated sensors with modern sensors, and increasing their firepower Read the rest at the link |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #1 A simple idea: They were good boats, with a lot of life left in them, but obsolete. So howzabout we replace the obsolete part, and get more mileage out of them. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2024-08-25 09:19 |