Deutsche Marine has just sent to Aliaga for demolition, 7 missile patrol boats commissioned between 1982 and 1984 and decommissioned in 2015 and 2016. The Puma, Hermelin, Zobel, Frettchen, Ozelot, Wiesel and Hyaene (58 metres long, 350 tonnes) were loaded on August 11 in Kiel onto the Happy Sky, a Dutch flag vessel specialising in the transport of heavy goods, and unloaded on September 1 in the cargo port of Aliaga. They are now being towed to the demolition yards.
The Happy Sky and the 7 German missile patrol boats on their way to Aliaga © BigLift
The German Navy is being very tight-lipped on this subject. The press kit from BigLift based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, specifies that experts from the Deutsche Marine will ensure the irreversible demolition of the 7 ex-missile patrol boats and that the MTU (Motoren und Turbinen Union) diesel engines [there are 4 per patrol boat, note from Robin des Bois] can be reused on other ships, locomotives or thermal power stations. So much for air pollution!
On the Baltic and North Sea fronts, Germany has no EU-approved yard for demolishing civil or military ships. The option of demolition in Turkey by a country that precisely claims leadership of the EU is outrageous.
Between 2002 and 2023, the German Navy has already sent to Aliaga for scrapping the 128-metre frigates Niedersachsen, Bremen and Rheinland-Pfalz, built in Bremen and Hamburg between 1979 and 1981. It also sent to Turkey the Uckermark, the Vogtland and then the Wische, ex-Harz, built in Rostock for the Volksmarine of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). These 3 ships were used to house and supply the crews of the missile speedboats. They were equipped with 2 air defence guns (1).
Germany is not the only country taking advantage of the good Turkish deal. Spain sent 4 warships, including the aircraft carrier Principe de Asturias, between 2015 and 2017, Italy 15 surface ships and 5 submarines between 2018 and 2024, the United Kingdom 25 ships between 2008 and 2025, including 3 aircraft carriers, the frigate HMS Monmouth, which arrived in May, and the missile cruiser HMS Bristol, which arrived in July 2025.
Given the years of construction and fire safety requirements, all the warships that Germany and other European countries are sending to Turkey contain copious quantities of free and bound asbestos and PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyl) in the insulation, bulkheads, joints and mastics, electrical cable sheathing and floor coverings. Anti-fouling and anti-corrosion paints contain lead, zinc, tin, copper, cadmium, arsenic and asbestos again. The engine rooms are soiled with hydrocarbon residues from 33 years of operation.
In 5 years, at least 5 workers have died at Aliaga in explosions, fatal falls from a great height or under heavy loads. The number of injured is unknown. The compensation paid to the victims or their families is derisory compared with the compensation awarded in the countries of the European Union. The number of victims of lead poisoning, asbestos-related cancers and other pathologies is unknown. At any one time, there are at least 2,000 workers and other employees on the breaking yards.
The beaching technique is rudimentary. The hulls land on an embankment of fill and concrete. The demolition work begins at the bow. The rest of the ship is then cut up with a blowtorch and hoisted slice by slice by winches onto the scrapping and waste and metal sorting platform. Until the end of the demolition process, which lasts several weeks or months depending on the length of the ship at the end of her life, the stern and engine rooms are soaking in the Mediterranean. The 25 demolition yards are squeezed into a 1.5 km stretch of coastline, with the wrecks rubbing up against each other. On July 3, 2025, a major fire broke out on board the Sloug (2), a former floating oil storage vessel awaiting demolition at the Simsekler yard. Plumes of black smoke forced the evacuation of most of the demolition yards and settled at sea and in olive groves 5-6 km from the yards. The bay of Aliaga (population 105,000) is polluted nearly for eternity, and Izmir (population 4.4 million) to the south is worried about its health.
(1) Un déchet toxique allemand en transit à Cherbourg [A toxic German waste in transit at Cherbourg], January 13, 2023 (only in French)
https://robindesbois.org/un-dechet-toxique-allemand-en-transit-a-cherbourg/
(2) “Wanted, the Sloug“, “Shipbreaking” n°65 page 6
https://robindesbois.org/wp-content/uploads/shipbreaking65.pdf
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