Türkiye to be game changer country in defense, Erdoğan says as TCG Anadolu begins duty

TCG Anadolu, Türkiye's national warship, has begun duty on Monday with the participation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Stating that Türkiye is one of the 10 countries that design, develop, build and maintain its own ship is an achievement to be proud of, Erdoğan said, 'Thanks to TCG Anadolu, we will become a country that pioneers game-changing technologies, systems and solutions that are among the first in the world.' Reminding that TCG Anadolu is the world's first warship in its field, where UAVs can land and take off, President Erdoğan said, 'Everyone should see and accept that a strengthened Türkiye is now beyond its own borders. We will continue the construction of the Century of Türkiye from the safe path of the defense industry.' 'After 7 years, we are putting our TCG Anadolu ship into service. I wish good luck to our hero army. We are happy and proud. We see this ship as a symbol in the Century of Türkiye,' he said. ' We will also perform the sheet metal cutting of the new MİLGEM Frigates that we will bring to Mavi Vatan.' Stressing that TCG Anadolu is the world's first warship in its field, where UAVs we put into service can land and take off, Erdoğan said that 'Our vehicles such as KIZILELMA, Hürjet, Bayraktar TB2 will be able to land and take off from this ship.' 'It has the capabilities to carry out military operations in every corner of the world. With this ship, which has a local rate of 70 percent, we will be able to easily move to crisis areas,' he added. 'We will continue to bring more advanced technologies, which are more domestic and national, to our country. We have built our national aircraft carrier and will do it.' Underlining the 'revolution' the country made in the last 20 years in the Turkish Defence Industry, Erdoğan said this process and development 'was not easy,' announcing that the country will be increasing the defense industry budget to 75 billion dollars. 'We have set our target as a fully independent defense industry.' 'Of course, the level we have reached is important,' he said, 'but there is still a lot of work to be done to overcome the secret and open embargoes against our country.' Erdoğan also said that the TCG Anadolu ship will be pulled to Sirkeci, where it will be open to the visit of the citizens. 'We want our people to tour our ship, let us experience this pride together.'