Fourth Indigenously-Manufactured Section Ready for Integration

STM and Gürdesan Gemi Makinaları Sanayii Ticaret A.Ş. have delivered the final ‘Section 50’ bow section for the Turkish Navy’s Reis-class submarines to Gölcük Naval Shipyard, the companies announced on 4 February.

This is the fourth such section to be delivered for the programme. Housing the torpedo main armament for the submarine, the complexity and advanced engineering aspects of the design and build process make Turkey one of the few nations capable of this level of development and manufacture. The project has been coordinated by STM, using entirely national resources. The first section was delivered in September 2021, with the second and third reaching the shipyard in July last year.

Prof Dr İsmail Demir, President of the SSB (Turkey’s defence industry agency), commented “With the participation of STM engineers and representatives from the domestic industry, we completed the final delivery of the bow sections, including the torpedo tubes, which we produce by local means for the Reis-class submarines. It is my hope that this last delivery that we make for Reis-class submarines, the most modern submarine platform in our country, will be beneficial to our country, our Navy and the Blue Homeland. We will continue to take steps to localize critical systems.”

Özgür Güleryüz, General Manager of STM, added that local production of the torpedo section could be considered a historical success. “Despite this being the first time we have carried out production at this level, we made all deliveries on time without any delay in the project, thanks to the knowledge, experience and spectacular effort of STM’s engineers. We take pride in having exceeded the targeted indigenous rate for Reis-class submarines, that were set to enhance the capabilities of our Navy in defence of the Blue Homeland”.

In total, six Reis-class boats are to be built, each feqaturing eight 533mm torpedo tubes. The torpedo sections for the first two boats were manufactured by the project’s main contractor, thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, with STM acting as main subcontractor and Gürdesan fabricating the sections for the remaining vessels.

Aside from the torpedo section, STM conducts design, engineering and system integration activities for the New Type Submarine Project (NTSP). Contributing to indigenisation efforts related to construction materials and installed devices/systems, STM is also ensuring domestic production of non pressure-tight hull blocks and various composite superstructure components.

For a video covering delivery of the final ‘Section 50,’ click here.