Turkey building 31 warships to boost regional dominance and global power

Turkey's defence ministry revealed last week that Turkish shipyards are simultaneously building 31 naval ships, which are expected to meet the military’s needs for the coming decades. These include an aircraft carrier and a destroyer.

The ministry said on Thursday that the first welding ceremony of the National Submarine Project (Milden) was held at the Golcuk Shipyard Command.

Additionally, the first sheet metal cutting for the TF-2000 air defence warfare destroyer and the national aircraft carrier (Mugem) projects took place at the Istanbul Shipyard Command, marking the start of their construction processes.

Ankara has been investing in its naval fleet for decades. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s tenure in power since 2002 has accelerated numerous defence industry projects aimed at bypassing official and unofficial military embargoes imposed on Turkey due to its military operations against Kurdish armed groups within Turkish territories and beyond.

However, the simultaneous construction of 31 ships marks a significant milestone not previously recorded. Some experts estimate the price tag for such an ambitious project could exceed $8bn.

Apart from the aircraft carrier, a destroyer, and a new national submarine, Ankara is currently constructing five Reis-class submarines based on the German-designed Type 214, seven I-class frigates, six open-sea patrol vessels (OPV-2100), eight modern landing craft tanks (LCTs), one modern mine-hunting ship, and one 55-class fast attack craft (FAC).

'The ships built in the first stage will rejuvenate the navy and make it largely nationally produced'

- Yusuf Akbaba, defence industry consultant

This construction spree reflects Turkey's aspirations to project power not just within its immediate region but also as far as the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean.

Yusuf Akbaba, an independent defence industry consultant, says the primary objective of this drive is to modernise the Turkish navy by replacing ageing ships with newer ones through its public and private shipyards.

“Rather than increasing tonnage, the ships built in the first stage will rejuvenate the navy and make it largely nationally produced,” Akbaba tells Middle East Eye.

Turkey’s navy has long operated second-hand frigates purchased from the US Navy and Germany decades ago.

“The ships in our inventory are old. The backbone of the fleet consists of eight American frigates from the 1980s, specifically the Oliver Hazard Perry class. The rest are German MEKO class frigates produced from the late 1980s to the late 1990s,” Kubilay Yildirim, a Turkish defence industry expert, tells MEE.

“Half of our frigates are 40 years old, and the other half are between 20 and 30 years old. Some of them were partially modernised at some stage, but structurally and mechanically, they remain quite old ships.”

Comprehensive overhaul

Yildirim says Ankara realised the need for a comprehensive overhaul of its navy during the 2020 eastern Mediterranean crisis, when Turkey and Greece entered a maritime dispute over conflicting exclusive economic zone claims.

“We realised that even all 16 frigates were inadequate,” he says. “They were insufficient to establish a maritime presence. We overworked both the ships and personnel, leading to even personnel attrition. Frigates were even tasked with missions that could have been handled by corvettes."

He added that Turkey’s national warship project, Milgem, initially launched to produce the Ada class anti-submarine warfare corvettes, has enabled the navy to design various ship models, including open-sea patrol vessels and I-class frigates.

The eastern Mediterranean tensions highlighted Ankara’s need for naval assets to safeguard its energy exploration and drilling vessels and, if necessary, face hostile warships without triggering a conflict. This is where open-sea patrol vessels (OPVs) play a critical role.

'The Turkish navy will want to transition to its own local technology and equip its submarines with offensive weapons such as cruise missiles'

- Kubilay Yildirim, defence industry expert

“These OPVs are equipped with light weapons, capable of raising the Turkish flag in areas under Turkey’s jurisdiction, and, if necessary, ramming and harassing hostile ships,” Yildirim says.

“The ships are large, have long ranges, and can remain at sea for weeks.”

Yildirim also explained that OPVs are "fitted for but not with" advanced sensors and sophisticated weapons, meaning the ships have designated space for such systems, which can be added later if required by the navy.

The timeline for completing such an ambitious project, including the new Turkish national submarine, could range from three to five years, while some projects, such as the national aircraft carrier, might take between six and eight years.

The submarine project is particularly significant as Ankara seeks to leverage its experience from the joint production of Reis class submarines with Germany to develop air-independent propulsion (AIP) technology domestically.

“The Turkish navy will want to transition to its own local technology and equip its submarines with offensive weapons such as cruise missiles. This would transform them into a sea-denial platform capable of intelligence gathering and deploying special operations forces,” Yildirim notes.  Sea denial is a military term for preventing an enemy from using the sea.

Lower costs

Akbaba predicts that by 2030, Turkey’s navy would include one aircraft carrier task group and two landing helicopter dock (LHD) task groups. Turkey has already commissioned the drone-carrying amphibious assault ship TCG Anadolu into service, and its twin, TCG Trakya, is in the planning stages.

One advantage Turkey enjoys is its ability to produce ships at significantly lower costs than European counterparts. For example, Akbaba claims that Turkey could produce an LHD ship for $724m, whereas European countries would spend $1.2bn on a similar platform.

“This will position Turkey as the primary power in the eastern Mediterranean, elevating it to a level where it may be on par with France for dominance across the Mediterranean as a whole,” Akbaba says.

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“I believe Turkey will maintain a permanent fleet off the coast of Somalia and use this new power projection capability to support its allies in Southeast Asia.”

It is evident that Ankara’s ambitions extend beyond its traditional neighbourhood, including the Horn of Africa. Last month, Turkey dispatched an energy exploration vessel to the coast of Somalia, guarding it with navy ships. 

Serhat Guvenc, a professor of international relations and an expert on naval history, told MEE that the unprecedented prominence of the navy within the Turkish armed forces reflects a shift in Turkey’s national security strategy. Overseas interests and commitments are now considered as important as territorial and forward defence.

“This demonstrates that the claim of being one of the seven countries in the world capable of building warships is far from baseless,” he says, referencing orders Turkish shipyards have received from countries such as Ukraine and Pakistan.

Guvenc further noted that since the late 1990s, the Turkish navy has aimed to expand its global and regional reach by focusing on blue waters. In recent years, newly built ships and submarines have extended the navy’s operational range to the Horn of Africa and the Mediterranean coasts of Somalia and Libya.

“Turkey’s overseas interests, particularly in Africa, demand that the Turkish navy develop global power projection capabilities,” he says.

“Recent projects suggest that the scope extends far beyond the concept of the ‘Blue Homeland.’ For instance, even patrol ships are designed to be ocean-going.”