Turkey on Monday unveiled its first aircraft carrier, the TCG Anadolu, designed to take off and land Turkish combat drones.
"
The Turkish Bayraktar TB3 and Kizilelma drones and the Hürjet light combat aircraft will be able to take off and land on the ship
", welcomed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, campaigning for his re-election in May.
The TCG Anadolu, 231 meters long and 32 meters wide, is the largest Turkish warship.
The building will be able to accommodate on its flight deck ten helicopters or eleven combat drones and 19 additional helicopters (or thirty combat drones) in its hangar.
The ship, whose construction started in 2016, can also carry up to 94 vehicles, including thirteen tanks.
China already has its drone carrier
Turkey, a member of NATO, has seen its defense industry develop considerably in recent years, driven in particular by the success of its drones, which have become the pride of Ankara.
The TB2 drone model from the private company Baykar - co-directed by one of President Erdogan's sons-in-law - has proven itself in Libya and Azerbaijan and then in Ukraine, where TB2s have been used since the early hours of the war. Russian invasion last year.
Ankara, which has since multiplied mediation efforts between Kiev and Moscow, and which has in the past carried out several demonstrations of force in the eastern Mediterranean, will be able, thanks to its drone carrier, “to carry out military and humanitarian operations in the four corners of the world if
necessary
said President Erdogan at his inauguration.
China also unveiled its first drone carrier last year, a testament to the growing importance of unmanned craft in modern warfare.
