Turkish Navy installs new CIWS on Rhein-class ship

TCG Sokullu Mehmet Paşa is pictured in late February with a new gun system installed in the place of its usual aft gun turret. While the whole gun turret and the associated radar and other sensor systems are under wraps, the outline is compatible with the Gökdeniz close-in weapon system. (Cem Devrim Yaylali)

The Turkish Navy's Rhein-class auxiliary ship TCG Sokullu Mehmet Paşa has been spotted with a new gun system installed in the place of its usual aft gun turret.

The whole gun turret and associated radar and other sensor systems were under wraps as Sokullu Mehmet Paşa was spotted sailing from its home port in Tuzla, Istanbul, in late February. However, Janes assesses the outlines to be compatible with the Gökdeniz naval close-in weapon system (CIWS).

While the Rhein-class warships are normally equipped with two 100 mm gun turrets in A and X positions, the aft gun of Sokullu Mehmet Paşa was removed in 2018, in order to test Aselsan's prototype Gökdeniz CIWS, which is based on the land-based Korkut self-propelled anti-aircraft gun system. After the tests onboard in 2018, the gun system was removed and the ship sailed for three years without a gun at X position.

A redesigned version of the Gökdeniz CIWS was unveiled during Turkey's International Defence Industry Fair 2019 (IDEF 2019) in Istanbul. It consists of one unmanned gun turret armed with two 35 mm guns, a 3-D X-band tracking radar, and one fire-control radar with electro/optical sensors. The main differences between the prototype and the new version are the reposition of the guns inside the turret to reduce its overlength, and the elimination of the independent pedestal of the tracking system.