According to Turkish resources, on May 29, 2024, the lead corvette F 211 "Hetman Ivan Mazepa" of the Turkish Ada (MILGEM) type built at the RMK Marine Turkish shipyard in Tuzla (southern outskirts of the Asian part of Istanbul) for the Ukrainian Navy was first launched at sea for factory sea trials.
The first entry into factory sea trials of the head corvette F 211 "Hetman Ivan Mazepa" of the Turkish Ada (MILGEM) type built at the Turkish shipyard RMK Marine in Tuzla (Istanbul) for the Ukrainian Navy, 29.05.2024 (c) Enes Balcı / x.com/en_balci
Recall that on December 14, 2020 in Kiev, the 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 general contractor for the construction of Ada-type corvettes for Ukraine is the Turkish state design and consulting company Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik ve Ticaret A.Ş. (STM), and both corvettes are being built in Turkey under contract at Istanbul shipyards. 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 (Nikolaev), 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 decree of the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, 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. Now the lead corvette for the Ukrainian Navy has been put to the test.
Simultaneously with the descent of the lead ship "Hetman Ivan Mazepa" on October 2, 2022, the ceremony of the first steel cutting for the second ship was performed. However, the second corvette is being built at another shipyard - at the private enterprise Istanbul Shipyard also in Tuzla in the Asian part of Istanbul. The second corvette for the Ukrainian Navy was officially laid down there on August 18, 2023. On March 8, 2024, the President of Ukraine announced the assignment of the name "Hetman Ivan Vigovsky" to the second corvette.
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 Nikolaev, 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.
The beginning of factory sea trials of the corvette "Hetman Ivan Mazepa" made it possible to accurately determine the composition of the armament and electronic equipment of the lead ship. At the same time, the ship does not yet have an anti-ship missile system, which, according to earlier reports, should be the Boeing Harpoon Block 2 (eight missiles). Currently, the Getman Ivan Mazepa corvette has 16 vertical launchers of the MBDA VL MICA short-range anti-aircraft missile system, a 76 mm Leonardo Oto Super Rapid universal artillery system, a 35 mm Turkish double-barreled anti-aircraft artillery system Aselsan Gokdeniz, two 12.7mm remotely controlled machine gun Aselsan STAMP-2 and, presumably, two 324-mm three-tube torpedo tubes for anti-submarine torpedoes (MU90). The ship should carry a medium helicopter permanently based.
The electronic armament installed on the lead Ukrainian corvette includes the Thales SMART-S Mk 2 general detection radar, the Thales STING-EO Mk 2 combined fire control system, two Aselsan ALPER navigation radars, the Aselsan ARES-2N electronic reconnaissance complex, two Aselsan AREAS-2NC electronic warfare stations, satellite communication stations manufactured by Aselsan, as well as a complex VAE Systems Mk 36 SRBOC and the Aselsan Hizir anti-torpedo trap system. According to publications, the ship is equipped with the GENESIS Turkish automated control system and the Aselsan FERSAH mobile active-passive gas, as well as the towed Hizir torpedo detection gas.
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 armament of the second ship for the Ukrainian Navy 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 F 511 Heybeliada lead corvette has been carried out at the Turkish State 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 delivered 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 the 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 first ship for Pakistan, F 280 Babur, was officially laid down in Istanbul on June 4, 2020 (the first steel cutting ceremony took place there on September 29, 2019), launched on August 15, 2021 and officially handed over to the Pakistani Navy on September 23, 2023. The ship is scheduled to make the transition to Pakistan in the summer of 2024. The second F 282 Khaibar corvette for Pakistan was launched in Istanbul on November 25, 2022. The first steel cutting ceremony for the start of construction of the first F 281 Badr corvette of the MILGEM project in Pakistan at the KSEW shipyard in Karachi took place on June 9, 2020, and the launch on May 20, 2022. The second F 283 Tariq corvette under construction in Pakistan was launched in Karachi on August 2, 2023.
The first entry into factory sea trials of the head corvette F 211 "Hetman Ivan Mazepa" of the Turkish Ada (MILGEM) type built at the Turkish RMK Marine shipyard in Tuzla (Istanbul) for the Ukrainian Navy, 29.05.2024 (c) Enes Balcı / x.com/en_balci
The lead corvette F 280 Babur of the Turkish Ada type (MILGEM) built for the Pakistani Navy in Turkey, 05/29/2024. The differences between the Pakistani and Ukrainian ships are visible (c) @OguzEroguz1 / x.com/OguzEroguz1
