On 26 December 2012, in the early morning hours, one Turkish Type 209/1400 class submarine sailed through Bosphorus to Marmara Sea. Since Turkish Navy stopped painting the pennant numbers of the submarines, it is impossible to identify each individual submarine anymore. While this new painting scheme helps the submarines to blend and prevents IR/FLIR/LLTV using... Continue Reading →
It was like a scene from the old cold war comedy "The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming". You don't see an active duty Russian submarine passing through your neighborhood everyday. So it was a big day for me. The Kilo class Russian diesel - electric submarine Alrosa came from the Marmara Sea and passed by... Continue Reading →
Yesterday, after the command handover ceremony in Gölcük Naval Base, the 5 ships participating to this activation of the BlackSeaFor sailed away to their next port of call Trabzon, Istanbul. In order to this they had to pass through Bosphorus, where I was expecting them, as you can see from the photos above.
Their southbound passage through the Turkish Straits, a fortnight ago was with much fanfare and media attention. Their return to their home was as silent as a thief sneaking into a house. I must admit that the Russian have a very good understanding of how to play the PR game and they are good at... Continue Reading →
I had reported about the port visit of the Safeguard class salvage ship of the US Military Sealift Command T-ARS-51 USNS Grasp in Istanbul last week. I had the impression that after leaving Istanbul USNS Grasp would be heading to the Mediterranean as had spent at least 14 days in the Black Sea where she... Continue Reading →
On 30th May 2012, the Russian Kashin class destroyer Smetlivy returned from her deployment in the Eastern Mediterranean. She was send to the region to show Russian support to the Syrian regime and to show flag. As this photo shows there was less smoke on the water this time.
As I have reported earlier, the ships of the BlackSeafor fleet visited Istanbul between 20 and 23 April 2012. They were open to the public and I took the opportunity to visit them all. It was an interesting experience for me as I was able to compare different ships build by very different construction standards... Continue Reading →
The April activation of the BlackSeaFor finished this week and the ships that took part have returned to their home ports. Istanbul was the last stop for the BlackSeafor fleet. The following ships arrived in Istanbul on 20th April 2012 for the port visit. Number Name Nation Participants 158 RFS Tsesar Kunikov (Flagship) Russia Landing Ship F-240 TCG Yavuz Turkey... Continue Reading →
Six of the eight training craft of the Turkish Naval Academy were seen during a navigation and formation training at Bosphorus. I guess this is a good opportunity to try WordPress' new photo gallery tool. Enjoy!
The Kashin class Russian destroyer Smetlivy passed through Bosphorus this morning. According to news on Turkish media she is on her way to Syrian port Tartus. The large anti-submarine ship (I guess this means destroyer in Russian) Smetlivy was laid in 1966 and commissioned in 1969. She is the sole remaining Kashin class destroyer and... Continue Reading →
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