It is reported that on March 8, 2024, during a visit to Turkey, President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky visited the RMK Marine shipyard in Tuzla (the southern outskirts of the Asian part of Istanbul), where he got acquainted with the construction of two Turkish Ada (MILGEM) corvettes for the Ukrainian Navy. Photo and video materials from this visit provide an opportunity to assess the degree of readiness of both ships under construction.
The lead corvette F 211 "Hetman Ivan Mazepa" of the Turkish Ada type (MILGEM), under construction at the Turkish shipyard RMK Marine in Tuzla (Istanbul) for the Ukrainian Navy, 08.03.2024 (c) the press service of the President of Ukraine
Zelensky visited the shipyard of the F 211 Hetman Ivan Mazepa corvette, which is being completed for Ukraine, which is in a high degree of readiness and is planned to be put into factory sea trials in 2024. Also, the President of Ukraine officially announced the assignment by his decree of the name "Hetman Ivan Vigovsky" to the second corvette under construction there - in honor of the hetman of the Zaporozhye army in 1657-1659, who tried to change the pro-Moscow orientation of the Cossacks to the pro-Polish, and defeated the Russian army in the Battle of Konotop in 1659.
Recall that on December 14, 2020 in Kiev, the then head of the Turkish Defense Industry Department (SSB) Ismail Demir signed an agreement with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on the construction of two corvettes of the Turkish MILGEM project (type Ada) for the Ukrainian Navy. The main contractor for their construction is the Turkish state design and consulting company Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik ve Ticaret A.Ş. STM, and both corvettes are to be built in Turkey under contract at the RMK Marine shipyard in Tuzla. The cost of the lead ship for Ukraine in 2020 was estimated at about 8 billion hryvnia (about 265 million euros at the then exchange rate) - apparently without taking into account the cost of weapons.
According to the agreement, two more corvettes were to be built under license and with the assistance of STM in Ukraine at the Okean plant, which also signed a corresponding agreement with SSB in December 2020. According to Turkish sources, the total framework value of the contract with Ukraine was more than $1 billion.
The actual construction of the Ada-type head corvette for Ukraine was started at the RMK Marine shipyard on April 28, 2021, the official laying ceremony of the head corvette took place there on September 7, 2021. By Zelensky's decree on August 18, 2022, the lead corvette was given the name "Hetman Ivan Mazepa". The launch of the lead ship was carried out on October 2, 2022, and at the same time the ceremony of the first steel cutting for the second ship was performed. The ceremony of the official laying of the second corvette for the Ukrainian Navy took place on August 18, 2023, now it has received the name "Hetman Ivan Vigovsky". Earlier, representatives of the Ukrainian Navy announced the possibility of naming the second corvette "Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky" in honor of Hetman Pavel Skoropadsky, the head of the Ukrainian State in 1918.
According to the terms of the contract, the lead corvette was to be transferred to Ukraine for completion and completion at the end of 2022, these works were to be carried out at the Okean plant in Nikolev, while it was planned to begin factory sea trials by the end of 2023 and hand over the ship to the Ukrainian Navy in 2024. Similarly, the second corvette was to be completed and completed in Ukraine. However, due to the current circumstances of wartime, the implementation of these conditions has become impossible and both ships will be fully completed and handed over to the Ukrainian fleet in Turkey.
According to previously published data, it was planned that the MILGEM project corvettes (Ada type) ordered in Turkey for the Ukrainian Navy would be equipped with the Boeing Harpoon Block 2 anti-ship missile system (eight missiles), the MBDA VL MICA short-range anti-aircraft missile system with 16 vertical launchers, the 76 mm Leonardo Super Rapid universal artillery system, 35-mm anti-aircraft artillery system (originally it was assumed that Rheinmetall Oerlikon Millennium, but the Turkish Aselsan Gokdeniz was shown on the ship model demonstrated at the launch ceremony of the lead corvette), two 12.7mm remotely controlled Aselsan STAMP machine gun launchers and 324 mm torpedo tubes with MU90 anti-submarine torpedoes. The ship must carry a permanent helicopter.Apparently, the lead corvette "Hetman Ivan Mazepa" received part of the weapons and equipment ordered at one time in the West for the ill-fated first corvette of national Ukrainian construction "Volodimir the Great" project 58250, laid down in 2011 in Nikolaev, but remained unfinished . According to known data, Ukraine managed to get a 76-mm Leonardo Super Rapid artillery system and a 35-mm Rheinmetall Oerlikon Millennium anti-aircraft artillery system for him back in 2013-2014. Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar said in an interview with Naval News at the IDEF-2023 exhibition in Istanbul in July 2023 that the composition of the armament of the second ship could be changed.
The MILGEM corvette became the first large warship (total displacement 2,400 tons, length 99.6 meters) of the Turkish project. In fact, the project was developed for the Turkish Navy at one time with the participation of the Nikolaev State Research and Design Center for Shipbuilding (CPCC, Ukraine). In total, the Turkish Navy planned to have 12 corvettes of this type, but in the end, only four ships were authorized and built. The construction of the lead corvette F 511 Heybeliada has been carried out at the Turkish naval shipyard Istanbul Naval Shipyard in Istanbul since January 2007 and the ship was commissioned into the Turkish navy in September 2011. The second corvette F 512 Büyükada was handed over to the Turkish Navy in September 2013, the third corvette F 513 Burgazada - in November 2018, and the fourth corvette F 514 Kınalıada - in September 2019. In July 2018, the Pakistani Navy signed a contract worth more than $2 billion with STM for the supply of four MILGEM corvettes to the Pakistani navy. According to the agreement, the first two corvettes for Pakistan are being built in Istanbul at Istanbul Naval Shipyard, and the other two are being built with Turkish assistance at the Pakistani state shipyard Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works Ltd. (KSEW) in Karachi with delivery in 2024-2025. The Turkish-built lead corvette under this contract, F 280 Babur, was transferred to the Pakistani Navy on September 23, 2023.
The lead corvette F 211 "Hetman Ivan Mazepa" of the Turkish Ada type (MILGEM), under construction at the Turkish shipyard RMK Marine in Tuzla (Istanbul) for the Ukrainian Navy, 08.03.2024 (c) the press service of the President of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Navy and forums.airbase.ru
The second corvette "Hetman Ivan Vigovsky" of the Turkish Ada type (MILGEM), under construction at the Turkish shipyard RMK Marine in Tuzla (Istanbul) for the Ukrainian Navy, 08.03.2024 (c) the press service of the President of Ukraine
Video: