- The Turkish Naval Forces held a ceremony last week commissioning its largest ship ever, the TCG Anadolu.
- Anadolu is an amphibious assault ship, however it’s also able to carrying drones and helicopters.
- The ship is the primary of its kind to frequently operate fixed-wing drones with combat roles.
A brand new chapter in aviation history began last week in what some might consider an unlikely place: Turkey.
The TCG Anadolu—the Turkish navy’s latest flagship, and its largest warship ever—was commissioned under cloudy skies. Aboard the ship were each helicopters and drones, including drones designed for direct combat missions.
A Multi-Purpose Ship
Anadolu relies on Spain’s Juan Carlos I-class amphibious assault ships. The 27,000-ton, 761-foot-long ship is provided with a full-length flight deck for air operations, a well deck for floating out landing craft to sea, and may transport several hundred marines drawn from Turkey’s Amphibious Marine Infantry Brigade. It’s roughly just like the U.S. Navy’s America-class amphibious assault ships.
One thing that Anadolu has that the America class doesn’t is a ski ramp, a holdover from Juan Carlos and the necessity to support Spain’s fleet of Harrier jump jets. Ski ramps are an alternative choice to the catapults on U.S. and French carriers, helping them construct up lift to get airborne. Turkey doesn’t have Harriers or the opposite aircraft qualified to make use of jump jets, just like the F-35 Lightning II, so it built its own.
A Familiar Name
On the commissioning ceremony on April 10, Turkey had 4 varieties of aircraft on its flight deck. Two of the aircraft were manned: a pair of AH-1W Cobra attack helicopters and two S-70 Seahawk helicopters. Two weren’t: a Bakyar TB-3 drone, also referred to as the Bayraktar, and a brand new stealthy drone, the Kizilelma (“Red Apple”).
Turkey’s TB-2 Bayraktar drone is a preferred Turkish export, and has been sold to just about two-dozen countries world wide, including Ukraine. Ukraine used the drones to dramatic effect early within the Russian invasion within the winter of 2022, locating targets for artillery and dropping small precision-guided bombs on Russian targets. TB-3 is basically the identical because the TB-2, but optimized for carrier operation.
Chocolate and Peanut Butter
In accordance with Overt Defense, Anadolu should have the opportunity to operate a mixed complement of helicopters or drones, plus marines and landing craft. In an all-drone configuration, nevertheless, it could carry as much as 30 TB-2 or TB-3 Bayraktars. That can make it the world’s first all-drone aircraft carrier, a capability the Turkish navy believes ought to be operational by the mid-2020s.
Drones are dramatically cheaper and easier to keep up than crewed aircraft, making it much easier to field and operate air forces. On this case, Turkey had a ship with a ski ramp and small, combat-proven drones. The thought of mixing the 2 to create a drone aircraft carrier was obvious. While the ship is nowhere near as capable because the U.S. Navy’s 11 nuclear-powered carriers, it still provides the flexibility to conduct reconnaissance and precision-strike missions anywhere Anadolu can sail.
The Takeaway
Turkey’s navy has shown other middle-sized naval forces worldwide that naval air power is now available on a shoestring budget. While Anadolu’s carrier capability won’t be online until 2025, the vision is here, and other regional navies like Japan, Brazil, Australia, India, and others will likely follow suit.
The world of 2050 will likely have dramatically more aircraft carriers than the world of 2023, however it may not have any more pilots.