Turkey’s Ares Shipyard announced that it has finished designing an autonomous anti-submarine warfare (ASW) vehicle to begin mass production this year.
The ASW craft, jointly produced with Meteksan Defense, is among a clutch of unmanned vehicles the Antalya-based shipbuilder is producing this year, general manager Utku Alanç revealed at the 15th International Defense Industry Fair last month.
“Our design for the unmanned anti-submarine warfare boat is completed. We are doing our best to unveil it in 2021,” Anadolu Agency quoted Alanç as stating.
The Unmanned Craft
Ares has developed two versions of the ASW vehicle, which will join the ULAQ series of unmanned surface vehicles, for a “range of missions such as reconnaissance, surveillance and intelligence, asymmetric warfare, anti-surface warfare (ASuW), anti-submarine warfare, strategic facility security, and armed escort and force protection,” Naval Technology reported.
The outlet revealed that the remote-controlled vessels can carry out operations teamed with other armed and unarmed craft and can be controlled via land and floating platforms such as ships.
The general manager further revealed that the two ASW platforms will be produced using 90 percent indigenous materials and weapon systems.
Production Date
Alanç said the vessel has been developed keeping in mind “smaller submarines or divers entering ports and critical bases for sabotage purposes,” includes night vision, and has a national encrypted communications infrastructure.
Production is set to begin by October with an initial target of 50 vehicles per year. The boats are being produced for the Turkish security forces as well as export.