Keel Laying of Future Turkish Navy LHD TCG Anadolu.

Spanish shipyard Navantia announced today that the keel of the future Turkish Navy Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) has been laid at the Turkish shipyard of SEDEF (a member of TAIS Shipyards) in Tuzla, Istanbul. The vessel, which will be named TCG Anadolu, is based on Navantia's Juan Carlos I vessel already commissioned with the Spanish and Australian navies.

The keel of the future TCG Anadolu LHD has been laid in Turkey. Navantia picture.

Turkey began the construction of its first LHD / amphibious assault ship in April 2016. President of Turkish Republic Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared during the first steel cut ceremony that "TCG Anadolu will be the first ship in the navy from which F-35B SVTOL planes will operate".

President Erdogan also declared that TCG Anadolu would be delivered in 4 years (compared to the originally planned 5 years and a half).

Turkey's Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) announced in December 2013 that it selected Sedef shipyard as winner of its LPD tender and that final contract negotiations with this shipyard could begin. Sedef shipyard in Turkey offers a design based on Juan Carlos LHD under the collaboration with Spain's Navantia.

Landing Platform Dock Project
According to SSM, the Landing Platform Dock Project (LPD)’s main purpose is the acqusition of one Landing Platform Dock in order to meet the operational requirements of Turkish Naval Forces. The scope of the procurement is for:
- 1 LPD and
- Four Landing Craft Mechanics (LCM)
- Twenty seven Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV),
- Two Landing Craft Personnel Vehicles (LCVP),
- One Commander Boat
- One RHIB (Rubber Hull Inflated Boat) will be acquired

One of the requirement was for a Privately Owned Turkish Shipyard to be main contractor, also responsible for design, construction, integration and tests and final performance.

The other proposals which were rejected were:
RMK Marine Shipyard offering its own indigenous design and Desan shipyard offering a design based on South Korea's Dokdo class. At the early stage of the tender a Chinese company submitted its design proposal but then backed away.

Navy Recognition's video interview on the Turkish Navy LHD with Sedef shipyard at IDEF 2017

Turkish Navy LHD Mission Profiles and Capabilities

The ship is to be designed for four mission profiles:
» Amphibious ops: Capable of transporting a marine infantry force to carry out landing and support operations.
» Force Projection: Transporting forces to a theatre of operations.
» Aircraft Carrier: A platform for carrier-based naval aircrafts, acting as a flight deck for strategic projection airborne vectors (Navy's Air Wing)
» Humanitarian air ops: MOOTW (Military Operations Other Than War), humanitarian assistance, evacuation of crisis area, hospital ship in areas affected by natural disaster, etc.

Turkish Navy LHD Specifications

At IDEF 2015, Sedef shipyard gave the LHD specifications to Navy Recognition:
Length overall: 231 meters
Maximum beam: 32 meters
Draught: 6.8 meters
Height: 58 meters
Maximum speed: 21 knots
Range: 9,000 miles @ economical speed
Electric propulsion with 2x 11 MW Siemens eSIPOD; 5x MAN 16V32/40 Diesel GenSets and 2x bow thrusters
Complete hospital and sick bay

Combat systems:
Genesis Advent CMS with amphibious and joint operations capability
Link 11/16/22/JRE/VMF
1x SMART-S Mk2 3D Search Radar
2x LPI radars
2x Navigation radars
1x Air traffic and control radar
1x PAR radar
4x 25mm Aselsan STOP
3x 12.7mm Aselsan STAMP
2x Raytheon Phalanx CIWS
Aselsan R-ESM
Aselsan jammers
Chaff/IR Decoy launching system
Aseslan TORK torpedo countermeasure system
IRST
HF/VHF/UHF and satellite communication systems

Amphibious capacity and force projection:
Garage for heavy loads: 1410 m² (MBTs, AAVs, TEU containers...)
Dock: 1165 m² (4x LCMs or 2x LCACs)
Light cargo garage: 1880 m² (AAVs, ZPTs, TEU containers...)
Aviation hangar: 900 m² (S-70B, AW-149, CH-47 etc.)
Flight Deck: 5440 m² (6 landing spots)