Turkish Submarine Spotted with New Capability

09 Februari 2020

Turkish Navy submarine with what appears to be the Aselsan Zargana Torpedo Countermeasure System spotted in Istanbul.(photo : Yoruk Isik)

Photo Reveals Turkish Submarine Is First With New Capability

Turkey is emerging as a new player in the international submarine business. A Turkish Navy submarine was spotted passing through Istanbul on January 30 with new equipment. Trained eyes spotted an array of twelve white circles just above the waterline. This appears to be the business end of the locally developed Zargana anti-torpedo defense system.

Ship spotters often report interesting vessels transiting between the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The Bosporus Strait goes through Istanbul where the photographers have easy access to the waterfront. A lot of Russian military hardware destined for Syria goes that way for example. Thanks to an international law known as the Montreux Convention, foreign submarines are forbidden to transit there under most circumstances. So the submarines which pass the waiting cameras are invariably Turkish.

This submarine is believed to be TCG Anafartalar (S356), a German designed Type 209/1400 Preveze Class submarine. It is one of four of the class which was built locally at the Gölcük Naval Shipyard. They are going to be given a Turkish developed mid-life upgrade (MLU) over the next few years so this new defensive system may be part of that.

The Zargana Countermeasure System has been developed by Aselsan to protect submarines from incoming torpedoes. It does this by launching salvos of acoustic 'deceptors' and 'jammers.' These are small torpedo-like objects which are launched from tubes under the submarine’s casing. The deceptors imitate the acoustic and movement characteristics of the targeted submarine. This misleads the torpedo into homing in on the wrong target. Meanwhile the jammers emit a broadband high-level noise that drowns out the operating frequencies of most acoustic (sonar) homing torpedoes. This sort of decoy system is known as ‘soft kill’ in defense circles.

Indonesia and Pakistan

Other countries also load torpedo countermeasures aboard submarines, although information is hard to come by about this secretive aspect of underwater warfare. The Russian Navy has fielded the much larger ‘Barrier’ system since the Cold War. This has decoys similar to the Zargana, and may now also include actual mini-torpedoes which try to hit the incoming torpedo.

Turkey is actively marketing the Zargana system. It is known to have been exported to Indonesia for their own Type-209 submarines. And Turkey is upgrading some of Pakistan's Agosta class submarines with the system. These French designed boats will carry part of Pakistan's nuclear deterrent in the form of the Babur cruise missile.

Turkey is also developing an indigenous submarine which may use the system.

(Forbes)