Daily Sabah: Turkish Navy strongest in east med, Greece's old and outdated

February 12, 2020
Written by E.Tsiliopoulos

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Daily Sabah: Turkish Navy strongest in east med, Greece's old and outdated

In an interview with Daily Sabah, naval architect and marine engineer Semih Zorlu from Istanbul-based SEFT ship design & engineering said that among the other three regional countries with strong navies, namely Egypt, Greece and Israel, in the eastern Mediterranean where Turkey has been conducting drilling activities with two seismic vessels under the scope of its territorial rights, Turkey has the strongest navy, though there are several different aspects of such a comparison.

Not only it has the largest navy, quantitatively, next to Egypt, whose navy is large but mostly out serviced thus still can't outnumber that of Turkey's, Turkish navy is also one of the most modern navies in the region.

"With 16 frigates, 10 corvettes, 19 armed fast patrol boats, 12 submarines and other auxiliary elements, we have a considerable fleet in the region," Kırıkkanat evaluated. Four İ-class frigates are also under construction to be added to the fleet, among others.

Another "expert" noted that the numbers are not always the indicators of power all alone, however, the Turkish navy with its current fleet "can successfully carry out national and alliance missions in several different seas at the same time," adding the logistics support infrastructure is very strong with experienced shipyard and maintenance units.

Commenting on the navies of Eastern Mediterranean coastal states, Kırıkkanat stressed: "The Greek and Egyptian navies are different from each other at first glance but one common thing is that they have many foreign warfare weapons, vehicles and equipment. This is a major disadvantage in terms of logistics integrity, repair capability and possible modernization plans," adding that the Greek navy is old and the economic crisis and foreign debts that must be paid by 2060 pose a significant obstacle to the implementation of many defense projects in the neighboring country, along with creating an obstacle for the modernization of already existing vessels.

Kırıkkanat said that similar to Greece's, the Egyptian navy also needs modernization while the new purchases do attract quite an attention.

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