ANKARA (Xinhua) — The national warship “”Heybeliada”” and mine-sweeper “”Akcay”” were put to sea in a ceremony held at a dockyard in Pendik, Istanbul, according to the report.
Heybeliada and Akcay are the first part of Turkey’s national corvette program of “”Milgem,”” the purpose of which is to build a modern littoral combat warship with indigenous capabilities, extensively using the principles of stealth technology in its design.
“”We have set minimizing independence of our Turkish Armed Forces on foreign countries and meeting the needs of the Naval Forces Command through national industry our prior target,”” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying in the ceremony.
The construction of Heybeliada began on July 26, 2005, and is scheduled to be completed by Oct. 25, 2010, when it will start undergoing full sea trials before being officially commissioned. It is expected to enter service in 2011.
A total of twelve Milgem class warships (eight corvettes and four frigates) will be built for the Turkish Navy, with possible exports to other countries.
Ilker Basbug, chief of the General Staff, was quoted as saying that it was an indispensable obligation to ensure security of the seas surrounding Turkey and have a strong naval force to cope with threats.
Basbug said, “”With the national ship project, we aim to have a more qualified and deterring naval force that is capable of countering symmetric and asymmetric threats and that can continue its mission without any interruption in the most challenging conditions.””