More Details Of Turkey's New Aircraft Carrier Revealed

Turkey has revealed more details about its plans to build its own home-designed aircraft carrier.

At the Saha Expo trade show in Istanbul last week Turkey's Ministry of National Defence revealed concept images of the "Mugem" national aircraft carrier, a project first announced back in February.

A few months later the Turkish Navy's Design Projects Office was quoted in media reports as saying that all aspects of the new vessel would be domestically produced.

The new Mugem ship is expected to be 285m long and have a displacement of 60,000 tonnes. According to reports it will feature three runways — one for landing and two for take-offs — and will use a Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR) hooking system to facilitate shorter stopping distances for returning aircraft.

It's thought the ship will carry about 50 aircraft — a mixture of crewed and uncrewed platforms — and will be able to hit at least 25 knots via a gas-turbine-powered propulsion system. No timetable for the vessel's construction has yet been announced, however.

The planned vessel's specifications would make it at least twice the size of the TCG Anadolu, a Juan Carlos I-class amphibious assault ship-aircraft carrier commissioned in April 2023. A sister ship to the Anadolu, the Trakya, is also planned.