Turkish company ASELSAN has announced that it has begun implementing additional investments worth €60 million to expand its capabilities in developing, testing, and producing naval systems, according to statements made by the company’s General Manager, Ahmet Akyol, during the TEKNOFEST Mavi Vatan event at the Gölcük Naval Shipyard Command in Turkey on August 22, 2026. The plan includes three facilities and two testing centers, with a large number of them scheduled to enter service within a year.
Investments Aimed at Reducing Development Time
Akyol said the new investments would support the testing of sonars, radars, torpedoes, underwater systems, and electronic warfare systems before their delivery to the naval forces. The company has also begun constructing a submarine systems integration facility in Gölcük, along with an artificial intelligence, sensors, and data-processing center on the opposite side near Istanbul.
According to the statements, the center will collect data from systems used above and below the surface, while artificial intelligence will be employed within this framework. The company says that having dedicated testing facilities for ships and unmanned naval vehicles will enable faster development and testing cycles and the deployment of a larger number of products.
Unmanned Platforms and Underwater Capabilities
Akyol explained that naval activities account for approximately one-quarter of ASELSAN’s business, and that the company’s systems are used on 69 ships in Turkey and on more than 60 ships abroad. According to the source, the unmanned systems portfolio includes DERİNGÖZ, KILIÇ, MARLIN, and ALBATROS.
Akyol described KILIÇ as an underwater suicide vehicle that, according to his presentation, is distinguished by its long range, ability to operate in swarms, and potential for mass production at an affordable cost. He said its design allows it to be launched from ships, unmanned surface vehicles, or directly from the shore. TUFAN, meanwhile, is an unmanned suicide surface vehicle that the company said was launched onto the water and displayed as part of the TEKNOFEST Mavi Vatan events, while MARLIN is in the inventory of the Turkish Naval Forces.
Linking Naval Systems to Air Defense
ASELSAN is also participating in the TF-2000 air-defense destroyer project. Akyol said the company is working to equip it with a digital AESA radar, SİPER, HİSAR, and GÖKSUR systems, a laser weapon, the GÖKDENİZ system, and multistatic sonar and long-range submarine-detection capabilities.
Regarding broader production, Akyol said the company delivered approximately 100 components of the ÇELİK KUBBE system during the previous year and aims to deliver more than 100 components during the current year. He also noted that ASELSAN’s investments exceed $2.5 billion and that the Oğulbey site, which covers more than 8,000 dönüms, has begun activating its first section for the production of certain air-defense systems.
What Matters in Practice?
The core value of the announcement is not the introduction of a single product, but rather an attempt to build an integrated chain for naval design, testing, and production within the company. This is particularly important for systems in which reliance on a small foreign component could disrupt operations; Akyol had previously cited the development of a national submarine periscope after countries stopped repairing the supplied periscopes.
Nevertheless, the figures and capabilities announced remain statements from ASELSAN management. The source provides no independent technical details about the performance of KILIÇ or TUFAN, nor a detailed schedule for bringing each facility into operation. The investment announcement alone also does not establish that the projects have been completed or that all the systems have entered service. Akyol said the company’s order backlog had risen to $23 billion and could reach $30 billion by the end of the year, with $4.9 billion in new business recorded over six months.