According to our assessment, the catastrophic earthquakes in Turkey will result in a period of recession in Greek-Turkish relations, but not in the abandonment by the Turks of their aggressive views at the expense of our islands in the Aegean and of serving the ideology of the "Blue Homeland".
The reason is that the "neighbors" have proven over time that the objectives regarding their foreign policy issues, regardless of governments, remain stable and unchanged, as far as Greece is concerned.
Therefore, we expect that the period of calm in the Aegean will prevail until the Turkish elections, after which we will have a resumption of the known situation by the Turks, violations of the EEC, arrogance and questioning of our sovereign rights in the Archipelago.
The only difference that will result from the election of Kilinjaroglu versus that of Erdogan in relation to the Greek-Turkish, is that the former will be more controlled and "predictable" by the US-EU, compared to the latter, who is unelected and therefore reason, more dangerous for Greece.
However, both will continue to put forward their claims against our country.
To serve the goals of the "Blue Homeland", the most important role will be played by the Turkish Navy, with its frigates being a very important force.
Signing of contracts for the construction of new ISTIF Frigates
This is why the Erdogan government is accelerating the new frigate construction program, since according to the official website of the Turkish War Industry, "contracts for three more frigates under the İSTİF class frigates, for the 6th, 7th and 8th ships, have been signed. which are the continuation of the MİLGEM Project for Naval Forces carried out by the Presidency of Defense Industries.
The frigates will be built simultaneously in 36 months at three different private shipyards and will be put into service with the Navy.
In addition to the signing ceremony held at SSB, SSB President İsmail Demir; STM General Manager Özgür Güleryüz, Sedef Shipyard Executive Board Chairman and TAİS Board Chairman Metin Kalkavan, Anadolu Shipyard Chairman Süalp Ömer ÜRKMEZ, Sefine Shipyard Chairman Demir Koloğlu and defense sector representatives attended.
Speaking at the ceremony, SSB President Ismail Demir said:
"Thanks to our country's development of critical advanced technology systems for our ships, which have many nationally developed platforms and warfare systems, our local percentage in this area has reached 75%.
We will now equip our ISTIF-class frigates, for which we have developed all the sensor and weapon systems at the national level, with national air defense capabilities.
Our efforts will not be limited to this.
Under the leadership of our President, we are committed to our goal of a fully independent defense industry. I would like to express my absolute belief that any kind of restriction imposed on our country and our Presidency, whether covert or overt, will strengthen us and our native rates will reach higher levels."
Three (3) frigates in 36 months
In the project, which will be carried out in cooperation with STM - TAİS, each of the Anadolu, Sedef and Sefine shipyards is planned to simultaneously build an I-class frigate in 36 months.
The İSTİF-class frigates, all of whose sensor and weapons systems are nationally developed, will also be equipped with national air defense capabilities.
National systems such as the Gökdeniz closed air defense system, the Cenk-S 3D search radar, the Scorpion fire control radar, the torpedo tube, the National Vertical Launch System MIDLAS and Hisar-D will be installed on all three ships.
Thus, the rate of locality in the systems and subsystems that will be included in the ships will increase.
General information about the frigates
The MİLGEM İ-Class Frigate Project, which has different characteristics from the ADA-class corvettes in terms of its structure, is of critical importance to the Turkish defense industry, as the weapon electronic systems it will carry are mainly domestically produced.
The I-Class Frigates are distinguished by their anti-submarine, surface and air defense capabilities, performing reconnaissance, surveillance, target detection, and early warning activities.
The first national frigates, extended by 10 meters due to equipment changes and additions made to the weapon systems according to the ADA class, have a displacement of 3100 tons, a length of 113 meters and a width of 14.4 meters.
The MİLGEM İ-class frigate differs from the ADA-class corvettes in its ability to carry air defense guided missiles.
The threat in the Aegean is increasing
Turkey, in addition to the MILGEM program that provides for the replacement of old YAVUZ frigates, with the new İSTİF-class ones we mentioned above, has simultaneously launched the "BARBAROS-class frigate half-life modernization project".
With this modernization, the use of these frigates is planned for many years.
Turkey's Barbaros-class frigates (MEKO-200TN-IIA/B), are known to be the following:
(F-244) TCG BARBAROS (ordered 23 May 1997)
(F-245) ORUÇREİS (ordered on 23 May 1997)
(F-246) SALİHREİS (ordered on 22 July 1998)
(F-247) KEMALREİS (ordered on 08 June 2000)
From the above we realize that the threat in the Aegean for our country is constantly increasing, with Turkey seeking to create a fleet of modern new Frigates.
