Navy completes the ‘largest-ever’ Denizkurdu drill
THE Turkish Navy has completed the “largest-ever” iteration of exercise Denizkurdu, involving 132 surface vessels, 10 submarines, 43 winged aircraft, 28 helicopters and 14 drones.
Denizkurdu is a largescale exercise carried out by the country’s naval forces every two years. The exercise which began on May 25 ended on Sunday in the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. All Navy units participated in the training, which aims to demonstrate the service’s operational readiness, evaluate decision-making processes in a multithreat environment, test interoperability methods and mutual support capabilities, and allow for personnel to train with naval assets.
Denizkurdu-2021 was carried out in three phases.
In the first phase, units conducted operational readiness drills.
The second involved “forceon-force training” based on a four-day crisis scenario.
In the third phase, ships made visits to ports on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts.
On completion of the port visits, the fleet hosted a “Distinguished Visitors Day” that saw a gathering of officials from Turkey’s Defence Ministry and military command echelon as well as military attachés from 25 countries.
The Navy’s TB2 Bayraktar drone hit a target at sea with the MAM-L guided munition for the first time, striking a decommissioned auxiliary ship floating at sea.
A statement on the ministry’s official Twitter account said this year’s iteration stood out from previous years because non-governmental organisations such as Kızılay (or Red Crescent) also took part.
Naval Warfare Center Command managed the exercise and was responsible for the exercise control center, established in accordance with Nato exercise planning processes adopted by the Turkish Navy.
Turkey’s first indigenous unmanned combat surface vessel, dubbed ULAQ, conducted its first live-fire trial
during the exercise.
Developed by Turkish defence companies Ares Shipyard and Meteksan Defence, ULAQ was launched in January and completed sea trials in April. During the live-fire trials ULAQ launched a laserguided Cirit missile twice — the first one involved telemetry (Remote monitoring of data), and the second used a real warhead — hitting its target in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Turkey’s top defence procurement official, İsmail Demir, said in a speech after the livefire trials: “The days have come where we begin to see similar products to the gamechanging UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles]: now in the form of inland vehicles, surface vessels and submarines.”