Turkish submarine completes record dive
Özgür Ekşi ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News
Turkish submarine Preveze is seen docked at a port in the Black Sea province of Sinop. AA photo
Preveze, a Turkish Preveze Class submarine completed a 32 day diving mission in Libya last year, the Defense Ministry declared over the weekend.In a report outlining its 2011 activities the ministry claimed Preveze stayed submerged underwater for 32 straight days, the longest time a Turkish submarine has spent underwater according to the ministry. “TGC Preveze realized its longest diving time in Turkish naval history,” the report said.
The craft was on duty in Libya at the time as part of NATO activities.
Preveze class submarines were first produced in 1994 under the license of German Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft shipyard and they are originally U-Boot-Class 209 submarines. These submarines can normally stay underwater for up to 21 days in theory and usually do not exceed that duration in practice.
The submarines are used as a strategic asset with their capacity to disappear from satellite surveillance and appear at sea surface unexpectedly. The extension of duration increases a submarine’s threat rate.
Turkey is currently building six U-214 submarines from the same German shipyard. New submarines will have air independent propulsion (AIP) systems that allow them to remain underwater for almost 50 days.
