Turkey has begun construction of the second Ada-class corvette for the Ukrainian Navy.
Turkey’s RMK Marine is building the warship as part of an agreement signed between the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence and the Turkish Defence Industry Agency in December 2020.
The initial agreement was to procure two ships. However, the Ukrainian ambassador to Turkey, Vasyl Bodnar, told Naval News that the number could rise to four.
War Scuppered Initial Plans
The first vessel has been under construction since October 2022.
The ship was originally planned to be built and partially equipped with weapons in Turkey. It was then going to be towed to Ukraine for completion, including tests.
However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has left the plans in doubt, according to Naval News.
Harpoon-Armed Vessels
The warships’ weapons and sensor suites have not been officially disclosed.
However, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty wrote in 2021 that the vessels would be armed with eight Harpoon anti-ship missiles as their primary weapon.
The vessels could also be armed with Ukraine’s Neptune anti-ship missile, currently only operational in a truck-launched variant.
The missile sank Russia’s Slava-class cruiser Moskva in April 2022.
Additional Weapons
Citing Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Naval News wrote that Kyiv was also considering arming the ship with the Turkish Atmaca and Norwegian Naval Strike Missile anti-ship missiles.
Additional armaments include “two torpedo tubes, a 76-millimeter artillery installation, two combat modules with large-caliber machine guns, and an anti-aircraft missile system,” according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Operational in the Turkish Navy since 2011, the 100-meter (328 feet) Ada-class vessel has a displacement of 2,400 tons and features a flight deck and hangar for rotary-wing aircraft.