Turkish Stealth Ship Kinaliada Arrives in Japan on Path to Join Ukrainian Navy

There are U.S. Navy bases in Japan, and U.S. Navy vessels can be seen at any time in Yokosuka and Sasebo, which are home ports of the U.S. Navy. Other navies from countries with which we have exchanges may also visit Japanese ports. Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers also travel around the world for missions and training, and mutual visits by such vessels are considered very important for military exchanges in peacetime.

This June was a rare month in which ships of the Turkish Navy, Indian Navy, and Dutch Navy visited Japan in succession. The focus of attention was the Turkish Navy.

The Turkish Navy visited the port of Kushimoto in Wakayama Prefecture from June 8 to 11, the port of Tokyo from June 12 to 16, and the port of Kure from June 18 to 21. The purpose of his visit to Japan was twofold: First was a goodwill visit to “commemorate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Turkey. The first was a goodwill visit to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Turkey, and the second was a memorial service for the “Ertugrul.

In 1890, the “Ertugrul,” carrying the Ottoman Empire’s first goodwill delegation to Japan, made a port call at Yokohama on June 7 after 11 months of travel. The ship successfully completed its mission, but cholera broke out on board and the ship remained in Japan for three months.

The cholera was somehow brought under control, and the ship departed on September 15. The next day, while sailing off Kii Oshima Island in Wakayama Prefecture, the ship ran aground under the influence of a typhoon. The ship sank with about 600 crew members. The residents of Kushimoto Town (Oshima Village at that time) and others rescued the 69 people on board. The Turkish Navy has not forgotten the kindness of that time and always makes a port call in Kushimoto Town when it visits Japan.

Thus, we have been in contact with the Turkish Navy since before the war, but this visit was special. The extremely rare stealth ship “Kınalıada” visited Japan. It is the fourth ship of the “Ada” class, of which four were deployed in 2011, and is the newest ship, having been commissioned on September 29, 2007.

The distinctive feature of the ship is its hull, which is designed for ultimate stealth. The bridge structure is considerably sloped to diffuse enemy radar reflections. The onboard weapon is the Atmaka, an anti-ship missile of Turkish domestic production. While the U.S. Navy’s Harpoon anti-ship missile has a range of about 140 km, the Atomaka boasts a range of about 220 km.

Stealth warships are now the norm in navies around the world. The birth of the Ada class attracted much attention, and the Turkish government decided to export the Ada class. The first export destination was Ukraine.

Since the annexation of Crimea in 2002, the Ukrainian Navy has lost a large number of vessels. With tensions between Ukraine and Russia across the Black Sea, there was an urgent need to deploy modern naval vessels in order to maintain the military balance. The decision was made to purchase the Ada class, and construction began at the Istanbul Naval Shipyard in 1921.

The following year, the Russian military invasion began and Ukraine became a battlefield, but in the meantime, construction continued in Turkey. The launching ceremony was held in 22 years, and the name given to the ship was “Hechtman Ivan Mazepa. The work seems to have been delayed, but the ship is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2012. In addition, construction of the second ship, “Hetman Ivan Vyhoushsky,” will begin in ’23. When these two ships are completed, they will be the first to be sent to the front lines against Russia.

Each time the “KUNARUADA” arrived in port, it was open to the public in order to deepen the friendship between the Japanese people and the ship. Long lines of people lined up in the morning at the port of Tokyo. Because it is a state-of-the-art ship, photography was prohibited on board, but even so, the line of visitors never stopped. Many of the visitors probably had no idea that the same type of ship as the “Kunal-Adha” would be fighting the Russians.