Turkey Just Transformed Its Navy With This Frigate Upgrade

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Welcome to the Turkish Barbaros class frigot midlife upgrade ship brief. So this is now the most powerful surface combatant in the Turkish Navy. Turkey is upgrading uh in their midlife. They're giving them a second life. Four Mako 200 TN frig. And uh they divided the upgrade into two batches. They have two shipyards working on this simultaneously.

[00:00:27]uh each shipyard doing only one ship at a time for a total of two at a time. And so they're going to be there's going to be two delivered and then the other two that have not even begun yet will go into the shipyards to replace them. So there's always going to be two available for service while two get upgraded. And today we're going to talk about this incredibly powerful little ship. This is a very significant uh capability upgrade from sensors to weapons and its surfacetosurface punch gets a great upgrade and we're going to go over all of that today. Uh the big thing is that it has a 16 cell VLS that is capable of carrying up to 64 ESSM quadpacked missiles because you can stick multiple missiles in a VLS if it's a specific type of missile like the ESSM is. And they've added uh three quad launchers of anti-hship missiles topside giving this uh a very offensive capability. And on the sensor side, it's been integrated automatically with Turkeykey's uh military internet network that connects all of the sensors and groundbased radars and command structures, command and control data links with the ships.

[00:01:44]That new data link combat management system is one of the major upgrades of this ship. So as it sails out, it becomes part of this network where it can share data, share contacts, fire control solutions with other, you know, air assets or even groundbased assets and vice versa can fire on fire control solutions generated by uh surface and airborne assets. So this is a huge capability jump in these four frig.

[00:02:16]Let's get started. This is the visual comparison of what the top side now looks like of this little frigot. What they've done is they've taken the masts and really shaped them in ways that are greatly reduced the radar cross-section of this ship, giving it uh much more stealth characteristics than it had before. Greatly reducing its appearance on a radar. The radar cross-section measurements are not public, but it has been significantly reduced. Here you can see visually before the modernization on the left and after the modernization on the right how the uh mast is more conical vertical and it is uh covered with more of the u the shaping of the of the frame holding up all the sensors giving it less cross-section or less areas where radars can bounce and be returned as would normally happen on board a ship like this. So by masking many of those uh weight or loadbearing structures in that single you know pyramidical mass is what uh gives it a lower cross-section and it looks a lot better too. It looks much more modern.

[00:03:30]Now these are the systems that got upgraded. It is the entire ship. The only thing original with this ship is the actual hall in the ship itself. But combat systems, weapons and sensors, radios, countermeasures, electronic countermeasures as well, all been upgraded. So the Tacamos combat management system is now uh the BIS. The uh 25mm C Zenith close-in weapon system has been upgraded to use the American failinks and the indigenous uh gawkins, if I'm saying that right. And that is a very interesting weapon system that we're going to go over in detail today cuz I really like that one. Uh the eight harpoons have been replaced by 12 at Makka anti-hship missiles. This is the big offensive punch. Um the atmatica or atmata ship anti-hship missiles have longer range, have uh equivalent uh speed and warhead size, but they carry four more of them now. And I should mention um the original plan and design is to have 16. Uh the first one that was finished has been um put to sea for sea trials or postmodern life, you know, trials with only 12 on board. We think that's because of a footprint uh space issue. There's not enough room for that fourth quad launcher, limiting them to 12. Uh I have been told by somebody very close to the shipyards that develop these that the fourth quad launcher will be installed. It's not there yet. I just haven't included the fourth launcher in this lecture because it hasn't been installed yet. The intention is to make four quad launchers, a total of 16 missiles. As of this recording, it's still only 12. Okay. The uh short-range surveillance radar is was the AW6 Dolphin and that's been uh replaced by the Aselen MRD.

[00:05:21]The fire control system is now the two times acre D. uh navigational radars are the Alper LPI and the whole mounted sonar is now the indigenous fursaw which is a um basically the Turkish version of the SQS56 modernized and compacted and indigenous.

[00:05:39]A lot of these systems are completely indigenous now and that's why they are having uh their indigenous names. They have the Heiser um toad countermeasure for anti- torpedo protection. The electronic support system is now the Aries 2NC and uh the Aries 2NC ET for uh support and countermeasures. And again, we're going to break all these down for you. All right, so here's what she looks like now. This is the first one that's been finished. And uh we see that she has the new gun on the bow. She's always had the 127mm gun. Right behind that is that new um I'll call it it's not necessarily a close-in weapon system, but it's a short-range 4 kmter rapid firing remote weapon system called the Gork Dens Denise. Uh and it's used for, you know, anti- drone warfare is is primarily its its purpose in modern warfare. But anything small, whether it's on the surface or airborne, if it gets within 4 km of this ship, this gun will open up on it and hit it. Because of the types of rounds that it shoots, it doesn't shoot a slug like a Seaw shoots. It shoots a bursting shot uh like a air defense shot like a flack shot that it begins as a shell traveling to its point of contact and on contact it burst like a shotgun shell would burst u spreading shrapnel everywhere and it can be timed as well. So if it's shooting at an incoming airborne target that's closing quickly like a cruise missile, it doesn't necessarily have to hit it. It can get to the end of its millisecond time length and detonate in the air. uh shredding the target with those ball bearings. So, a very effective self-defense update on the bow there in the uh in the second turret.

[00:07:26]Now, just behind the mast, you can see one of the three and eventually to be four quad launchers, and that's the new Atka anti-hship missiles. Those things go 220 km, very long range, but it's still subsonic sea skimming. It's harpoon in all of its operational characteristics except range, very long range. and they have more of them now.

[00:07:46]Behind them is the torpedo tube launchers top side. Uh not very well hidden for stealth reasons. So this is one of the major problems that you see is that they still have the captain's boat and a lot of these uh um you know things topside that's going to reflect a radar like it's a like it's a you know lighthouse. Uh but they've done their best with the mast masking that. And I bring that up because the torpedo launchers when they're in that uh triple stack there, one over two, uh that lights up a radar really well whenever it's in its stowed position, which it is now. Uh the 16 cell VLS is the flat area behind the stacks there. Uh aft just forward of what is the helicopter deck, we have the failins block one bravo close-in weapon system and another 25mm remote weapon system for sensors. So we have the MARD radar which is specific to the C whiz on the bow that uh new remote control weapon system. They have the ARK correction the AKRD fire control radar on the bow above the bridge that is a directional radar. The Alper LPI radar is a navigation radar above that. I'm moving my way up the stack as I list these off to you. The P piri cats IRST that is an optical tracker. it's infrared, you know, um can track thermal imaging, you know, shapes. Once it locks on to the shape of something, it can track on its own if it needs to, and that will help uh guide weapon systems and stuff onto target. At the very top of the stack here, we have the Smart S2, which is a very good uh 3D radar. So, probably the best, honestly, uh radar you can fit on a ship that's this light.

[00:09:28]Uh the Americans use it. Uh the Swedish is a very similar version, but they have their own called the giraffe, but it's very similar. Um the Aries 2, NC, ESM, and ECM are along the mast. The ESM is always at the very top because that's the one that's listening for radars and data link communications and radio traffic. Along the sides are the counter measures that take that ESM information and turn it into um obscuring the ship as a target or jamming that data link, jamming those communications uh if it's in a position to do that. Behind that is another MARD radar on top of the second mast just forward of the smoke stacks.

[00:10:09]And very close to the Seaw Wiz back aft, we have the AKRD fire control radar back there. And uh the torpedo countermeasure decoy launchers uh port and starboard are right below that. And those will launch uh more than just torpedo countermeasures, but that's uh they can launch the torpedo countermeasures into the water. Uh, this is a really good sub hunter with the first hallmounted sonar that it has and it has the toad decoy which is an upgraded Nixie essentially.

[00:10:38]So it can defend itself uh from you know even modern torpedoes to an extent. Uh I don't want to get into that too much because it is a sensitive topic with countermeasures and torpedo countermeasures but older torpedoes um are more easily fooled by these decoys than the modern ones are. And I'll just leave it there. So it does have some effect.

[00:11:00]All right. So where are these uh being upgraded at? Well, there's two shipyards that Turkeyy's using. Uh one is the Bum Voss shipyard and the other one is the Gulu uh naval shipyard. Uh forgive me for saying those wrong. That's my best pronunciation for both of them. Uh these ships were commissioned all the way back in the late 1990s. And they began uh this design process for this midlife upgrade began at the end of the 2010s.

[00:11:28]So I think 2018 2019 was when it was uh put to paper and they were coming up with the systems. Then of course 2020 hits with the uh COVID that delayed everything until the end of 2021 when uh the first ship uh F245 came in for its upgrade and it spent the last four years either in a dry dock or pierside uh doing these installs and tests and she just now this year at time of this recording finally came out for her uh sea trials for these midlife upgrades and uh looks like it's uh it's working pretty Well, they're going to continue on. They're pushing all three other ships through this uh this this process.

[00:12:10]Here are those uh shipyard locations for you there on the map. I should mention that originally uh this ship was uh made in Germany and then modernized in Turkey. So, these are original German ships uh commissioned in the Turkish Navy in 1997. Uh but they're being upgraded here in in Turkey now.

[00:12:30]Barbaro's class by the numbers. This is after the upgrade. So, she has two of the LM2500 gas turbines, two MTU 16 valve diesel engines. So, it's a code dog uh operation. So, it can run diesel or gas. Whenever it shifts into that high-speed mode, it has to take the clutch off of the diesels entirely. The diesels can still run, but they aren't turning the propellers anymore, and they go strictly to the gas turbine. So, it's co- dog. She is 118 m long, 3,350 tons with a full load, can make 32 knots, uh, which is very easy to do with two LM2500s. I wouldn't be surprised if it's pushing a little bit higher than that in my opinion. Her total endurance, if she does 18 knots, and that's just with the diesels running. She's not running the uh, GLM at this point, she can go 4,100 nautical miles, which is more than enough for what Turkey wants this ship to do. She can do overseas deployments if asked by NATO. that's meeting the NATO commitment. But the purpose of this ship is to patrol the very long sea border of Turkey and integrate with Turkish uh data links and land and airbased uh systems.

[00:13:40]So she has uh three of the medicica uh anti-ship launchers, quad launchers topside right now. She has a 16 cell VLS that can carry up to 64 ESSM. um a lot of short range surfaceto-air missiles uh but high high speed and highly accurate you know and the fact that she has so many of them uh she has good survivability from an air attack. Uh the 127mm SR gun on the bow is complemented by a 35mm close-in weapon system and then on the aft she has a fail with another stop 25mm gun back there. She has two sets of triple launch torpedo tubes topside that can shoot the Mark 54 and Mark 45 Mod 5. Those are fantastic anti-ubmarine uh torpedoes. She can service um the S70B Seahawk helicopter or the AB212 helicopter. She doesn't have a hanger, but she can land uh you know, replenish, you know, and basically service those helicopters, even strap it down and carry it if it needs to, but there's no just understand there's no hanger for that. Now, on the sensor side, we're going to begin with the Smart S uh Mark 2 air surveillance system.

[00:14:57]She also has the MARD air and surface search radar system. Remember, there's two of those. One is on the bow above the bridge and one is back there by the aft and uh sea whiz. Uh the sand AKRD fire control radars. They have two of them, one forward, one aft. She has the Aries 2NC ESM and ECM for electronic warfare.

[00:15:23]She has the Alper LPI navigation radar for navigation. The PICAT's electrical optical system is used for searching, scanning, detecting, and tracking objects optically.

[00:15:36]The Harris torpedo count countermeasure system is really a combination of things including that toad array, the toad decoy, and uh waterborne uh decoys as well. The whole mounted sonar is called the Fersawa and that is a very good modern version of what I believe is the SQS56 still just a smaller and updated indigenous to Turkey system. Uh she has the diver detection sonar which is becoming more and more common on uh Turkish ships. Uh this is a Turkishled and designed uh Aries 23 2023 system and uh it's very good you know.

[00:16:15]So, in port, you can hear an attack, you know, or a diver, whether they're using the small subs or just swimming to you.

[00:16:21]Even on a recirculation system, uh they can detect those divers out to one kilometer. If they're using any kind of equipment, it can go out to the two or even 3 km. It's a pretty good uh safety system for imports. And I've had questions in the past, what would you do if you knew that there were hostile diver divers in the water with intent to damage your ship with mines or bombs or whatever? And the answer for the US Navy, and I believe this is NATO wide, light off that sonar system at max power and you will fry those divers. That's that's how you if this system detects that uh diver, that's how you counter it. You don't go after you don't go in the water after him. You just light up your sonar.

[00:17:01]And then they have the advent uh combat management system. That is the system that connects to the data link that is already installed all over Turkey and uh connects all of the Turkish military together in one homogeneous body of sensors and missiles and command.

[00:17:22]All right, there we go. There's the LM2500 gas turbine uh on most NATO ships at this point. Um weighs less than five tons and produces an enormous amount of horsepower. Uh that's what pushes these ships in excess of 30 knots. The MTU 16 valve diesel is uh manufactured by Rolls-Royce. Highly reliable uh 16cylinder four- stroke engine. And u between these two, these ships will last a very long time. The intent is to have this ship with this midlife upgrade last well uh past the 2030s, which would imply sometime in the 2040s uh they'll be retired.

[00:18:01]The power plant will not be the thing that fails this ship. Smart S2K or Mark II rather is the uh topside radar. This is a 3D volume uh air and surface search radar. Can track hundreds of targets.

[00:18:14]Operates in the 2 to 4 GHz band. Uh has a range of 135 nautical miles for air targets and 43 nautical miles for surface targets. Full 360 coverage. Uh the elevation is up to 70 degrees vertical and can track out of the hundreds of targets that it can detect track 750 simultaneously which is just huge.

[00:18:38]Here's the MRD 3D surveillance radar.

[00:18:40]They have two of these. Uh this is a multi-beam 3D naval search radar.

[00:18:44]Operate operates in the Xband.

[00:18:47]Has a 100 kilometer instrumental range.

[00:18:51]It's been in service since 2023. uh highly accurate uh very good radars.

[00:18:58]Here's the AKRD fire control radar. This obviously has multiple sensors on it.

[00:19:03]You can see the electrical optical sensors on the side of the radar dish itself. Operates in the Xband. Um you know that's 8 to 10 GHz and then 20 to 40 GHz. Uh the instrumental range is up to 1200 km. Uh can track one target at a time. And the idea here is to get very specific fire control information onto a weapon or you know on from a target onto a weapon that will then engage it. It is ECM resistant as all modern fire control radars are these days.

[00:19:35]This is the Alper LPI navigational radar. Uh very good radar. Operates in the Xband and uh even with it turned on there's a chance that it's not detected by some older ESM systems because of the way that it operates. It's very clever.

[00:19:49]Um, yeah, it's good out to 36 nautical miles. This thing will light up a coastline and shallow water jetties and peers just like you're taking a photo of it. It's uh it's very high resolution and that's the point of a navigation radar is to operate. When you're near land and you have a lot of small boats running around at high speeds, this thing will pick it up.

[00:20:12]Aries 2N ESM suite. This is the first part of the total e electronic countermeasure package.

[00:20:21]This operates uh 360 degrees surveillance. It looks at 2 to 18 gigahertz. It can look at pulse rates down to uh you know two picos seconds which is extremely short, ridiculously short and uh and detect it and then it classifies it gives it um you know a power level. uh can determine its operational mode that it's in depending on how often it's operating, uh how often it goes off or skips a transmission, all the little tricks that are done in electronic warfare. This thing detects, classifies, and provides that information to the operator.

[00:20:57]I like the uh list of variants that our author has listed for us here. Uh the Aries 2N is for the corvettes and the smaller vessels. The Aries 2N CL is for the IClass, which we already have a lecture on. This is the Aries 2NC for the Baros class frig. And then Aries 2NS is for submarines. So whenever you see the Aries, you can see what platform it's on by the how the name ends.

[00:21:26]Here's the ECM suite. These are the domes that are going up and down the mast on the port and starboard side.

[00:21:32]These things will directionally transmit radiation in the RF bands to disrupt communications. And it operates between 7.5 and 18 gigahertz and has a ridiculous 18 dibels amount of uh power.

[00:21:48]So it's very precise um in those bands. So you wouldn't want to be hit by this or try to communicate through that. You would have to have a hell of a transmission and receiver to get past that.

[00:22:02]or just be very far away from it. That would be the other answer. But either way, uh yeah, the ECM, this is a very good ECM system.

[00:22:10]Here's the Mark 45 Mod 2. Uh 127mm gun.

[00:22:15]It's uh man, this is a standard gun.

[00:22:17]This has been on uh all sorts of American ships. It's on the Arley Burks.

[00:22:21]To give you an idea, this this is a good gun. Uh goes out to 23 kilometers to hit surface ships. does have an air defense mode with even an air defense round, but that only goes out 15 kilometers and uh has a rate of fire of up to 20 rounds per minute. Highly reliable and accurate.

[00:22:38]Yeah. Matka anti-ship missile. This is Turkeykey's Harpoon. Um they would argue it's much more capable than the Harpoon, of course, and it is. It has a much longer range, 220 km. Uh has the same speed. Uh it does run off a saffron microurbine TR40 uh fan that is going to be replaced by the Kale Arrow KTG J rather uh 3200 turbo jet engine. Uh we'll see if that changes the speed at all. I don't expect it to uh whenever they do test with that. So, just know that this weapon system will be getting some upgrades and because of um the people we work with in the uh Turkish uh industry, uh we should get some good data on that when that happens in the future.

[00:23:22]All right, here's the RIM 1262 ESM rather. This is that short range evolved uh C sparrow missile. Can go out to 50 km max range. I guess that would put it in the medium range at that point. Uh it's beyond point defense. Uh, and they can carry up to 64 of these things. So, it's a very small, light, fast, but highly accurate. And that's so important. Uh, you got you're going to have a hard time hitting the ship with a cruise missile. You better shoot a lot of them uh at this ship if you're going to try and overwhelm its point defense because it it can rapid fire these one right after the other in a very quick fashion. Um, it's a Mach 4 speed uh can get out to its target in just a matter of seconds and do so repeatedly. Here's the G dens uh sea whiz system. That's the one on the bow. Notice how it has two barrels. Uh each barrel can shoot uh 550 rounds per minute times two. So it's just 1100 rounds per minute. And it fires the Atom air burst ammunition or air burst round. And that is a round that shreds like a shotgun shell or burst like a flax shell would in uh say World War II or anti-aircraft artillery.

[00:24:32]to absolutely shred drones. Anything that's not armored is going to get shredded by this thing. Uh and it's radar directed. Uh goes out to 4,000 meters.

[00:24:42]It's a it's a very good weapon system.

[00:24:43]If you're going to launch drones at this ship, which is the trend in warfare these days, uh this gun is going to have a field day. It's going to chew up a hell of a lot of drones before you get to it.

[00:24:56]Here's the Mark 15 Failins Block One Bravo. Uh, this is an old school 1980s technology that's proven to be very reliable, lowcost, lowmaintenance, and is on most NATO warships at this point, including the one we're talking about today. This is the classic, you know, white domed with the Vulcan rotary cannon that shoots the discarding Sabo round out to um, you know, about what, one and a half km roughly and just absolutely shreds anything that it points points that gun at with a high volume of fire. So, if the first round doesn't get you, the next 1500 rounds probably will. Uh, it is one target at a time. Uh, it does have some some limitations. It is old and there are modern cruise missiles that are designed the ones that China develops exactly are designed to get past this or run past this cannon uh as fast as possible. So there are some limitations which this is why uh the Mark1 15 failins by the way is not the only point defense or close-in weapon system on this ship. Um but like I said it's it's it's inexpensive.

[00:26:02]It's lightweight. It's reliable. They stick it on the aft end of the ship for self-defense. It complements the close-end weapon system on the bow.

[00:26:11]Here's the uh Alsan stop SP uh 25 millimeter uh cannon. This is a remote weapon system. It's also uh radar guided, optically guided. Has multiple sensors on it. Uh can shoot 600 rounds per minute again for close-in airborne contacts, even cruise missiles. But Turkeykey's always thinking of drones.

[00:26:35]They are the leading developer in NATO uh manufacturing new drone technology.

[00:26:40]They are by far leading the way as far as NATO countries go and they're a major supplier to Ukraine during the Ukraine uh Russia war. A lot of those drones come come out of Turkey. So of course their defensive guns like the stop 25mm are geared towards destroying surface drones and airborne drones that get you know anywhere near this gun. Uh they're also exporting this gun to Bahrain, Pakistan, and Turk Manistan. So this is a good money maker for the country. Very reliable, lightweight, high rate of fire. If you go to a weapon show, you'll probably see one of these on display.

[00:27:20]Mark 46 Mod 5 torpedo. These are the um anti-ubmarine torpedoes that are launched from topside from those triple launchers. They have one of these launchers on each side of the ship, by the way.

[00:27:32]uh very reliable anti-ubmarine torpedo.

[00:27:34]Uh high speed, highly accurate with the mod 5 upgrade. It's pretty good in shallow water, which is the point of the mod 5 upgrade. There's also a mod or a Mark 54, which is even better. Um but a little bit more expensive. So, but they can shoot both. They're both uh the the fire control system, the the combat management system uh can still communicate with this torpedo. Uh give it, you know, instructions and then shoot it. Once this torpedo is in the water though, it it's on its own. Um, it won't hit a surface ship. There's like limitations on that. But if there's a submarine out there, that submarine had better uh, you know, get the hell away from this thing cuz it's probably going to find you if you're close to the ship when it shoots it.

[00:28:14]Here's the S70 Bravo Seahawk uh, made by Sakorski. This has been a standard in NATO around the world for decades. This is a highly reliable uh helicopter that's used by uh most nations outside of China and Russia. Like there's a version of this exported to all NATO countries and then many non-NATO countries also use a version of this. Uh our nearest competitor would be the French uh helicopters are very popular as well.

[00:28:46]Uh, of course the French Navy use French helicopters, but this this uh helicopter, the S70 Bravo is uh is just amazing. The S60 U the the UH60 is u I guess a predecessor to it. But it's a very reliable airframe is my point. And it can do all the missions. It can do anti-ubmarine warfare, which it's is the primary mission. It can also do anti-surface ship warfare. It can also do uh no weapons, just sensor, get get up there with its surface search radar and provide contact information to the advert combat management system that's back on board the ship. It does all that as well. She can carry uh two torpedoes at a time or penguin anti-hship missiles. Um she is Hellfire rated or up to four UMTAS uh missiles.

[00:29:35]She has the AQS18 dipping sonar. So, whenever she's doing the dipping sonar thing, that greatly reduces her um amount of other loadouts, like whether they reduce fuel or they reduce weapons.

[00:29:47]Uh something has to take uh precedence there whenever they're doing the dipping sonar operation. And she has the very reliable and long range uh APS 124 radar, which is a surface search radar that can get out there and detect anything, including a periscope. a submarine sticks its periscope or its radar antenna, radio antenna above the waves, that that radar is going to see it. That's the point of that radar is to see small detections like that. If you threw an empty Coke can into the water of the ocean in Sea States, say two or less, three or less, it will still pick up that Coke can. It's It's that accurate. It's very good. All right, final thoughts. I am personally very impressed with what Turkey has done to this frigot. This frigot is going on 25 years old now. Very clearly in need of either being retired or being upgraded.

[00:30:38]And this upgrade gives it everything it needs to operate for another 25 years.

[00:30:42]Folks, it has the sensor upgrade. It has the weapons upgrade. And more importantly, it now has more punch. It is capable to defend itself in a drone warfare environment. Not many navies around the world can say that.

[00:31:00]The US Navy can, even though we don't say that, we don't announce all the technologies we put on board our ships anymore. And I think that's very smart.

[00:31:07]And I'm not going to say anything now to change that. But of the navies that brag about how capable they are, not too many can back it up with anti- drone warfare.

[00:31:16]This has anti- drone guns forward and aft and has a very good surfacetoair missile system that can shoot over 60 missiles.

[00:31:24]This thing is not just a porcupine. It's a porcupine with a sledgehammer because of this 12 and eventually 16 anti-hship missiles it has on board. This thing can punch. So, it punches well above its weight for sure. It's a very impressive piece of kit. Now, they've just finished the midlife upgrade of one of four.

[00:31:45]Still three to go. And they're continuing to refine and make improvements. Uh the biggest one that I need to reiterate again to you is that they will eventually have 16 anti-hship missiles on board as the time of this recording it's only 12. When that changes and whenever they get the new uh turbo jet power plant on the on the Turkish cruise missile we'll bring that to you as well as its own update or part of another ship brief update. Uh just those things are in the works and haven't happened yet. So, I cannot in good conscience add them to this lecture now until they actually finish that project. Okay. But one of the uh great improvements here is the uh the ship stealth. You know, it no longer lights up the radar like the coastline of of of Turkey would. It can actually, if it sticks near the coastline, uh blend in with it very well. It would take a very good uh high energy precise radar to kind of depict this uh target apart, this ship apart from say the the background of any of the choke points that are in and around Turkey, whether it's the Darnell's or uh the CMRAR. Uh anytime it's operating near coast, you're it's going to have hard time picking out some ships that have these stealth-like characteristics. So, that was a really good decision that they made to change the main mast, which is the primary offender of any radar cross-section with all those different uh radars and, you know, mounts that are up there, and enshroud them as much as possible with a radar, you know, obscuring um not it's not just materials, but it's also the shape of the materials that both add to that. So, uh there are three more frigots remaining to be modernized, and those are on the way. So, we expect those to be modernized between now and the end of the decade. They will serve through the 2030s and we'll see how far they make it into the 2040s.

[00:33:34]And that, my friends, is the Barbarel's class Mako 200TN midlife upgrade ship brief. Thanks for listening.