One of the interesting naval concepts I have seen during the Naval Systems Seminar was a design from Yonca Onuk shipyard developed with Aselsan, for anti piracy operations.



As I believe this project has some potential I wanted to examine it separately.

Currently most of the warships send by various nation are frigates sizing between 1500 4000 tons approximately. Their enemy is a 5 maybe 6 meter long skiff with two outboard motors. The frigates were not designed to conduct policing operations against such small targets. Besides being small it is very difficult to distinguish between a fisher on a skiff from a pirate on a skiff. Therefore all the naives rely on helicopters for scouting and first layer intervention missions. The next most useful tool is the RHIB that carries the VBSS team.

There has been a lot of discus how to combat piracy effectively. And there is a tendency to use small and fast boats that can carry a light armament outside (enough to deter pirates or provide self defense) and a VBSS them inside. The Dutch Navy used their LPD, HNLMS Johan de Witt as mothership and conducted patrols with their LCVPs and LCU's based in the amphibious ship. This tactic was not without some success.

Thus Yonca Onuk shipyard in cooperation with Aselsan has developed a concept called Kangal. Kangal is an indigenous shepherd dog race.

In the hearth of this concept lies the MRTP 22 fast intervention boat. MRTP 22 is a derivate of the SAT Infiltration Boat build by the shipyard for Turkish naval special forces. The MRTP was designed special for littoral operations and offers high standards of habitability, usability and maintenance.

The boat is armed with one remote controlled stabilized gun and one remote controlled stabilized machine gun. She carries a RHIB for the VBSS team. The design speed is a respectable 60 knots on sea state 3. The high speed and light displacement means that a very wide area close to the shore can be covered with a couple of these boats. And in escort missions these fast boats zipping around the merchant ships can keep the wolfs away from these targets.

The specifications of the boat is as follows:

Length (LOA) 24,08 m
Beam (Max) 5,53 m
Draft 1,30 m
Main Machinery Diesels, 2 x 2500 HP
Propulsion Arneson Surface Drives + Rolla propeller
Speed 61 knots
Sea State 1-2 85 knots (all headings)
Sea State 3 60 knots (all headings)
Sea State 4 33 knots (all headings)

The only question what not answered during the presentation was the mothership issue. I suppose the MRTP 22 will be able to fit into the docks of the most of the moderns amphibious ships. But currently Turkish Navy does not have such a ship yet. This fact is a big hindrance for the realization of the Kangal project unless some kind of an international cooperation (eg a Dutch LPD acting as a motherdhip for Turkish Kangal boats) can be devised.

Then again as it is Kangal is an interesting concept that is based on a existing and working fast patrol boat.

http://turkishnavy.blogspot.com/2010/10 ... iracy.html

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful!

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