Turkey to Develop UAV Aircraft Carrier, Negotiations on With Spain

Turkey could become the first country to develop an aircraft carrier specifically designed for drones.

“We see that the concept of an aircraft carrier is starting to change as Turkey also brought about a new concept of an ‘unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) aircraft carrier’– that has attracted global attention,” Ismail Demir, head of the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB),  told government-owned Anadolu Agency (AA) yesterday.

Demir said that this topic was also discussed with his Spanish counterparts who recently showed interest.

“There is an approach that it would be appropriate to consider a larger ship in a format that will accommodate several types of UAVs/UCAVs with jet engines and propellers. We will work further on it. It is an idea at the moment, but we are discussing this matter with various interlocutors,” he said.

The Turkish Navy will soon receive TCG Anadolu – a landing helicopter dock (LHD) vessel. The vessel was previously classified as an aircraft carrier by the press.

“It was planned as a landing ship with a dock,” Demir said. Once it was understood that it is possible to deploy UAVs or UCAVs on the soon to be operational Anadolu ship, “we started work on this concept.”

The ship will be able to carry combat helicopters on its landing deck asTurkey does not currently operate a plane that can take off from the vessel. The Bayraktar TB3 VTOL combat drone, with its folding-wing design, could deploy from the short naval runways.

Turkey will also start the construction of a prototype of a domestic assault boat project, namely the Fast Attack Craft (FAC-55) in 2022. The FAC-55 is a monohull vessel equipped with a gas turbine propulsion system that has been designed to perform sea warfare and patrol duties on the open waters in challenging weather conditions.