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The Turkish Navy announced that the Rhein class multi-purpose ship TCG Sokullu Mehmet Paşa was decommissioned on 25 February 2024.
The ship was a patrol boat tender for the German Navy. She was built in Schlichting Shipyard in Traveminde as FGS Donau and commissioned to the German Navy in 1964. She was recommissioned into the Turkish Navy in 1997 and replaced her sister ship FGS Isar taking the same name and pennan number.
TCG Sokullu Mehmet Paşa and her sister TCG Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Paşa have fulfilled a lot of different missions while in the Turkish Navy. Both have been used as training ships for the cruises of naval cadets for many years. They were used as flagships when the Turkish Navy was in command of NATO SNMCMG-2.
Furthermore, TCG Sokullu Mehmet Paşa was also used as a test platform for various weapon systems. One of them was the Gökdeniz close-in weapon system. The tests on board of the ship were widely reported. A lesser-known testing was performed for a kind of underwater sensor. The details of these tests were not shared with the public.
With the decommissioning of TCG Sokullu Mehmet Paşa chapter in the Turkish Navy’s history comes to a close. This vessel, with its rich heritage from its days in the German Navy to its extensive service in Turkish waters, leaves behind a legacy of steadfastness and adaptability. Thank you for your services.
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Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO) has assumed command of the multinational U.K. carrier strike group (CSG) headed by carrier HMS Prince of Wales (R09) for its participation in NATO exercise Steadfast Defender 2024, according to a social media post by the command on Tuesday.
“This transfer of authority to STRIKFORNATO/Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO demonstrates the Alliance’s ability to integrate the high-end capabilities of a British Carrier, its strike group escorts, and embarked air wing during a series of meticulously planned maritime security activities and training perfectly aligned with the Deterrence and Defence family of Allied collective plans,” read the post.
Prince of Wales is making its first operational deployment leading the U.K. CSG. Originally, HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08) was scheduled to head the deployment before problems with its propeller forced a change of plans.
The Steadfast Defender 2024 deployment marks the first time Prince of Wales is operating with a complete embarked air group consisting of F-35B Lightning fighters from No. 617 “Dambusters” Squadron, submarine hunting and airborne early warning Merlin Mk2 helicopters from RNAS Culdrose and battlefield Wildcat helicopters of 847 Naval Air Squadron. The carrier’s prior deployments consisted of fewer aircraft and helicopters, which were embarked for trials. The U.K. has not released the number of F-35Bs embarked, though it is expected to be fewer than the 18 embarked on Queen Elizabeth during the CSG 21 deployment..
Along with carrier Prince of Wales, the U.K. CSG home contingent consists of Royal Navy frigate HMS Portland (F79), along with Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) fleet oilers RFA Tidespring (A136) and RFA Tidesurge (A138). Its multinational contingent consists of U.S. Navy destroyer USS Paul Ignatius (DDG-117), Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Charlottetown (FFH339), Spanish Navy frigate SNS Cristobal Colon (F105) and Royal Danish Navy frigate HDMS Niels Juel (F363) and patrol vessel HDMS Hvidbjørnen (F360).
A Royal Navy release on Tuesday stated that most of the CSG had now linked up and were conducting integration drills as part of the Joint Warrior exercise, which runs from Feb.24 – Mar. 3, before moving on to participate in Exercise Nordic Response, the maritime portion of Steadfast Defender, which begins on Mar. 5. Approximately 40 ships from more than two dozen countries will be involved in Nordic Response.
Steadfast Defender 2024 is the largest NATO exercise since the Cold War, with approximately 90,000 troops from all 31 NATO member states, as well as partner Sweden, participating. The exercise began at the end of January and set to end on May 31. The first phase of the exercise focuses on transatlantic reinforcement with the strategic deployment of North American forces across the Atlantic to continental Europe. This phase includes live maritime exercises and amphibious assault training in the North Atlantic and Arctic seas. The second phase focuses on multidomain exercises across Europe and is also testing rapid deployment of troops and equipment across borders within the NATO alliance.
NATO has not released a full list of ships participating in the exercise but several ships are known, including amphibious dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall (LSD-44), which arrived in Harstad, Norway, on Feb. 21, according to a Pentagon release. Gunston Hall is embarking Finnish and Swedish forces in Harstad to conduct amphibious training exercises in Norway, according to the release. It also will join with Italian Navy aircraft carrier ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi (551), amphibious transport dock San Giorgio (L9892) and several escort ships to form an amphibious task force. Several ships from Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG-1) also will take part in the exercise, namely Spanish Navy frigate SNS Almirante Juan de Borbón (F102) and fleet oiler SNS Cantabria (A15), German Navy Fleet oiler FGS Bonn (A1413) and Italian Navy frigate ITS Luigi Rizzo (F595). A French attack submarine is also participating in the exercise.
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FS Tonnerre departing Toulon on Feb. 19, 2024. French Navy Photo
The French Navy began its Jeanne d’Arc 2024 deployment last week with the departure of amphibious assault ship FS Tonnerre (L9014) and frigate FS Guépratte (F714) from Toulon Naval Base, with this year’s mission involving a near circumnavigation of South America.
The Jeanne d’Arc mission is an annual deployment for the French Navy – named for former helicopter cruiser Jeanne d’Arc (R97), which primarily served as a training ship for the French naval academy. Following the ship’s decommissioning in 2010, the French Navy continued the mission name, with one of its three Mistral-class amphibious assault ships and a surface escort carrying out the deployment. The mission combines the end stage of the training course for French naval academy cadets with an operational presence and engagement deployment. Last year’s deployment saw the mission circling the globe. The Jeanne d’Arc task group also will serve as a ready response force for any nearby crises that occur during its deployment.
A total of around 800 service members are taking part in the deployment, comprising 640 sailors (including 162 naval cadets) and 150 soldiers of an embarked French Army battlegroup. The battlegroup comprises two light cavalry platoons, an infantry platoon, a command element and medical team, a section of combat engineers, an artillery forward-observer team and an aviation detachment with two Gazelle helicopters. A French Navy Dauphin helicopter also is embarked for the deployment. A total of 40 ground vehicles operated by the battlegroup – a mix of combat, transport and engineering vehicles – are also included.
A French Ministry of Armed Forces release stated the deployment will last 149 days with three major amphibious exercises planned – in Brazil, Chile and the United States – along with 11 port visits. The release did not give dates for each stop or activity execution. The Jeanne d’Arc mission is heading toward the port city of Mindelo, Cape Verde, for its first stop and then crossing the Atlantic Ocean to arrive at Cayenne, French Guiana. The mission also will conduct activities supporting maritime enforcement operations in French territorial waters before conducting amphibious drills with Brazil off the coast of Belum, Brazil.
The mission then heads to Rio de Janeiro to carry out a port visit and the Rio 24 amphibious exercise with the Brazilian Navy, and then heads to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for a port visit. It then sails around Cape Horn to make a port visit to Valparaiso, Chile, and to conduct an amphibious exercise there. Following that, a port visit to Lima, Peru, will be carried out, with a maritime enforcement exercise to take place there. The Jeanne d’Arc mission will then transit the Panama Canal and subsequently call in to Cartagena, Colombia.
A port visit to Fort-de-France, in the French territory of Martinique, follows, where maritime enforcement operations will be carried out, along with the multinational Caraibes 24 exercise. “This major exercise will reinforce the integration of the French Armed Forces in the Antilles-Caribbean zone,” stated the release.
From the Caribbean, the Jeanne d’Arc task group will make its way to Norfolk, Va., for a port visit and also to carry out Chesapeake 24 with the U.S. Navy, which will “highlight the joint ability to plan complex amphibious operations and commemorate the anniversary of the historic alliance between France and the United States,” according to the release.
The mission will then cross the Atlantic to the French port city of Brest and then both ships will head to the Mediterranean, with Guépratte also visiting Lisbon, Portugal. Both ships will then link up to transit the Strait of Gibraltar to enter the Mediterranean before heading back to their home port of Toulon.
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According to information published on February 24, 2024, by “Pravda” a Ukrainian newspaper, the Ukrainian armed forces shot down on February 23, 2024, one A-50U Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, crucial for the Russian forces deployed in Ukraine. It was intercepted by an old S-200 air defense missile system, NATO code-named SA-5 Gammon, developed by the Soviet Union in the 1960s The primary role of the A-50U is to provide all-weather surveillance, command, control, and communications (C3) for the Russian Air Force and Navy.
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The Chinese Luyang II-class guided missile destroyer Jinan (DDG 152), top, the Jiangkai-class frigate Yiyang (FFG 548), the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG 87), center, the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG 61) and the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Stout (DDG 55), bottom, steam in formation during a passing exercise on Nov. 7, 2015, in the Atlantic Ocean. US Navy photo.
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RFA Nucula, a tanker was built as the s.s. Hermione and completed in Newcastle by Armstrong, Whitworth & Co in September 1906 for C T Bowring & Co Ltd of London. She was completed as coal burning but converted in October 1907 to oil-fired. By April 1908 she was sold to the Japanese company Toyo Kisen Kaisha and her name was changed to Soyo Maru when Bowring had a new tanker named Hermione completed. She carried oil from California to Japan.
RFA Nucula, a tanker was built as the s.s. Hermione and completed in Newcastle by Armstrong, Whitworth & Co in September 1906 for C T Bowring & Co Ltd of London. She was completed as coal burning but converted in October 1907 to oil-fired. By April 1908 she was sold to the Japanese company Toyo Kisen Kaisha and her name was changed to Soyo Maru when Bowring had a new tanker named Hermione completed. She carried oil from California to Japan.
In 1915, she was passed back to British service and the Admiralty gave her the name RN Oiler No.73 and she served as a fleet tanker in European waters. In 1917 she was bought by the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum (now known as Shell Oil) who changed her name to Nucula as it was their practice to name their ships after seashells. She remained in commercial service until 1922 when she became a Royal Fleet Auxiliary and the civilian crew were replaced by RFA personnel. RFA Nucula was posted to the China Station as a Fleet Attendant Oiler based at Hong Kong. From September to November 1923 she was based at Nagasaki to act as a base oiler during the earthquake relief operations.
With the change from coal powered to oil-fired warships the New Zealand Division (hereafter NZDiv) of the Royal Navy required replenishment support for its new cruisers HMS Diomede and Dunedin. With the imminent arrival of HMS Dunedin on station in 1924 the New Zealand Government negotiated for an oiler to enable navy controlled supplies of fuel oil. On 27 May 1924 RFA Nucula was transferred to NZDiv control as a Fleet Attendant oiler and hired by the New Zealand government. The formal handover took place at Suva where she had stopped on a voyage from Singapore to Auckland. RFA Nucula arrived at Auckland on 5 June 1924. Due to her design, she could not undertake replenishments at sea or underway oiling. She would act as a supply ship for the sloops HMS Wellington and Leith along with the two cruisers. When they would depart on the island cruises, a feature of the interwar period in the South Pacific, Nucula would refuel the vessels in sheltered ports and anchorages.
Her designated task was to maintain supplies of fuel oil at the naval base at Devonport, Auckland. To do so, she undertook two to three seven-week voyages to California a year to load supplies of fuel. In 1934 three voyages were made to Abadan in the Persian Gulf. Some oil was also supplied to the Royal Australian Navy base at Sydney. In June 1934 during one of the voyages back to New Zealand she nearly sank in huge seas off the south-eastern coast of Australia during a cyclone. She suffered damage to the superstructure that needed extensive repairs upon reaching Auckland.
The second task the Nucula was hired to complete was to extend the range of the cruisers operation from New Zealand into the South Pacific and so there were refuelling rendezvous with Diomede and Dunedin at such ports as Suva, Bora Bora and Apia. During the Depression of 1930 it became necessary to man the Nucula with a Royal New Zealand Navy crew to collect another supply of fuel oil.
When Diomede and Dunedin left New Zealand service it brought about the redundancy of RFA Nucula. Her last voyage from America with a cargo of oil was completed on 10 June 1937 and so she was laid up as a storage hulk with effect from 5 July 1937 in Shoal Bay, Waitemata Harbour. Nucula remained in this role through out World War 2. She was sold for disposal in March 1947 and was partially dismantled. On 24 October 1947 she was towed to a position eleven nautical miles ENE of Cuvier Island in the Hauraki Gulf where she was scuttled in a depth of 183m where she remains to this day.
(With thanks from the Royal New Zealand Navy Museum staff).
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Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division launched the future US Navy attack submarine USS Massachusetts at its facilities in Virginia on Friday, February 23.
The future Massachusetts is the 25th Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarine and will be the 12th delivered by NNS, which is one of only two shipyards capable of designing and building nuclear-powered submarines for the US Navy.
As with its Virginia-class sisters, the submarine will be capable of operating in littoral and deep waters. Missions will include anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface ship warfare, strike warfare, special operations forces support, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), irregular warfare, and mine warfare.
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