Turkey's Unmanned Boat Enters Mass Production

Turkey has started mass producing the country’s first armored unmanned surface vessel (AUSV) built under the ULAQ project.

Upon requests from some countries, a capacity to produce 50 units per year has been created, Onur Yıldırım, Ares Shipyard Unmanned Systems Project Manager, told Demirören News Agency (DHA).

The unmanned boat was developed by Ares Shipyard and Meteksan Defense. The project started with research and development (R&D) and design studies in the second half of 2018, Yıldırım said, before sea and field testing began in 2020.

During Sea Wolf (Denizkurdu) 2021 military exercise conducted by the Turkish Naval Forces in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea, the AUSV fired Roketsan-produced Cirit missiles to hit its target accurately.

The craft used to bear a pod with four laser-guided Cirit missiles and two laser-guided long-range anti-tank missile launchers, Yıldırım noted, explaining that this weapon system was dismantled and the Koralp 12.7 mm stabilized weapon system was integrated into the platform afterward.

The AUSV has a cruising range of 400km, a speed of 65kmph, day and night vision capabilities and a national encrypted communications infrastructure.

Yıldırım says the AUSV is “more than just a remotely controllable boat, it is an autonomous vehicle.”

The AUSV also has three different modes of operation, he said, remote controlling, operating over satellite and autonomous operation.

“It can perform autonomous missions and operations at sea within the framework of the rules of maritime conflict prevention regulations by analyzing within its own algorithm and software, completely independent of the operator. In doing so, all systems, except for weapon engagement, are activated autonomously and allow the boat to cruise safely,” he explained.

The current prototype variant is designed to perform the tasks of surface warfare and port defense. Yıldırım says the company will develop different configurations of the boat in future.

Listing the superior features of the new ULAQ, Yıldırım said the new boat is larger in size than the current prototype. “In fact, this means that it has the capacity to perform many different tasks at the same time by deploying more than one weapon load with different characteristics on a platform.”

"Unmanned naval platforms have the ability to perform all kinds of tasks in surface, air defense and submarine defense wars, provided that they are equipped with appropriate payloads as an asymmetric threat or as electronic warfare,” Yıldırım went on to say, adding that the success of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in domestic and international operations helped inspire them to produce the AUSVs.