This Monday "the world's first aircraft carrier specifically designed for drones" entered service. This was stated by the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the delivery ceremony of the TCG Anadolu, on a dock in Istanbul. The new flagship of the Turkish navy is based on the aircraft carrier Juan Carlos I, from Navantia. The Spanish construction company was selected in December 2013 and the ship, built in the Turkish Sefer shipyards, was launched in 2019 and had been undergoing tests ever since.
The TCG Anadolu will also carry helicopters and battleships. The initial goal was to equip it with F-35 vertical takeoff fighter-bombers from Lockeed Martin. However, the Turkish acquisition of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft batteries led to the cancellation of Ankara's participation in the US program. However, the Turkish advance has not yet been repaid.
Turkey revised its plans and, indeed, when the Anadolu starts sailing it will be the first ship in the world with a majority crew of drones. Turkey produces the relatively famous Bayraktar TB2 drones, which boosted Ukraine's morale early in the war and had enabled Azerbaijan to recapture much of Nagorno-Karabakh shortly before. Businessman Selçuk Bayraktar, on the other hand, is Erdogan's son-in-law.
In the future, the aircraft carrier will add to its arsenal the armed Bayraktar Kizilelma ('Red Apple') drone, with the ability to drop bombs, one of whose prototypes was on the deck on Monday. Finally, the ship could also include domestically manufactured Hürjet light attack and training fighters, still in the testing phase.
The Anadolu should have a twin aircraft, the Trakya, but the budget for its construction has not yet been approved, at a time of enormous pressure against the Turkish currency, with inflation above 50%.
The 232-meter amphibious ship can carry 1,400 infantry soldiers, along with combat vehicles. "This ship will allow us to carry out military and humanitarian operations in any corner of the world," Erdogan stressed. Before adding: "We are happy and proud, but this is not enough. God willing, we will manage to build a real aircraft carrier. We are in contact with several countries."
The Turkish president also announced that the Anadolu will dock at the central Sirkeci pier, where it will be open to visitors, a few weeks before the elections. After the delivery ceremony of the ship, the president presided over the sheet metal cutting ceremony for three Milgem-type frigates, a Turkish-designed and manufactured warship, at the same shipyards.
The Turkish government has thrown itself into its defense industry, with an effort to indigenize its arsenal that reaches even fifth-generation fighter-bombers, a princely expense at a time when the price of the shopping basket has doubled in one year. The first prototype of his TF-X rolled down a military track last month, although his conclusion is still far off, if not chimerical. Turkey is also working on an unmanned warplane and an armed navigable drone.
More than one observer speaks of megalomania in Turkey's program to modernize its armed forces, even though its percentage of GDP is much lower than that of many of its neighbors.
The effort is especially visible in the navy. In recent years, friction with Greece and Cyprus has increased in the Mediterranean over gas prospecting in disputed waters. On the other side, in the Black Sea, the war between Russia and Ukraine is palpable. Syria, Iraq and Iran are other of its neighbors.
Erdogan does not stop cutting ribbons, given the proximity of presidential and legislative elections that promise to be very close. The presence in the fray, with his own party, of Muharram Ince, the man who challenged Erdogan for the presidency five years ago in the ranks of the CHP, adds a new unknown and will surely make a second round inevitable, two weeks later, between the two favourites, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Muharram Ince.
