President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at the Blue Homeland, New Naval Platforms Delivery Ceremony at Yalova Sefine Shipyard.
Highlights from President Erdoğan's remarks:
"We believe that each of our delivered ships will add more strength to the power of our Naval Forces. Our replenishment combat support ship TCG Derya has the distinction of being the largest ship after TCG Anadolu. With the entry into service of TCG Derya, the refueling and water supply of the units will be rapidly carried out, and the fuel and water needs of the combat elements will be easily met in areas close to the operational area.
As known, TCG Istanbul, the fifth ship of the MİLGEM project, is Türkiye's first domestically produced national frigate. We integrated different radar, close air defense, and electronic warfare systems into this ship using our own capabilities. One of the systems integrated into TCG Istanbul is the national vertical launcher system.
Our logistic support ship TCG Üsteğmen Arif Ekmekçi, which we put into service today, will meet the fuel, fresh water, and food needs of the combat elements. I wish the delivered ships to be auspicious for our navy and the Turkish Armed Forces. I would like to thank everyone who has given us this joy and pride on behalf of myself, my country, and my nation.
Today, we are not only satisfied with the delivery of our ships. We are also delivering our first unmanned surface vehicle with electronic warfare capability to our navy. Our autonomous surface vehicle Marlin SİDA will perform intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance, surface warfare, electronic support, and electronic attack missions unmanned and fully autonomously. Marlin SİDA, with its superior technical features, will support our dominance at sea and instill confidence in our allies and fear in our enemies. I wish Marlin SİDA to be auspicious for our Naval Forces as well.
The secret of these successful projects that make us proud lies in the increasingly developing close cooperation and coordination among our institutions. Under the leadership of the Presidency of Defense Industries, our Naval Forces Command, military and private shipyards, relevant state institutions, universities, private sector, and SMEs are working in harmony. As inter-agency coordination and understanding strengthen, game-changing projects like the ones we see here today emerge. I wholeheartedly believe that we will achieve new successes by taking this coordination further in the coming period."
