French aviso Second-Maître Le Bihan

Second-Maître Le Bihan (F788) is a D'Estienne d'Orves-class aviso in the French Navy. She was transferred to the Turkish Navy as TCG Bafra (F-505).

Design
Armed by a crew of 90 sailors, these vessels have the reputation of being among the most difficult in bad weather. Their high windage makes them particularly sensitive to pitch and roll as soon as the sea is formed.

Their armament, consequent for a vessel of this tonnage, allows them to manage a large spectrum of missions. During the Cold War, they were primarily used to patrol the continental shelf of the Atlantic Ocean in search of Soviet Navy submarines. Due to the poor performance of the hull sonar, as soon as an echo appeared, the reinforcement of an ASM frigate was necessary to chase it using its towed variable depth sonar.

Their role as patrollers now consists mainly of patrols and assistance missions, as well as participation in UN missions (blockades, flag checks) or similar marine policing tasks (fight against drugs, extraction of nationals, fisheries control, etc.). The mer-mer 38 or mer-mer 40 missiles have been landed, but they carry several machine guns and machine guns, more suited to their new missions.

Its construction cost was estimated at 270,000,000 French francs.

Service in the French Navy
Second-Maître Le Bihan was laid down on 1 November 1976 at Arsenal de Lorient, Lorient. Launched on 13 August 1977 and commissioned on 7 July 1979.

Service in the Turkish Naval Forces
The ship was purchased from France in 2002 and acquired after arriving in Turkey on 26 June 2002 after salvage work was carried out at DCN. She was later commissioned on the 24 July of the same year.