ANKARA \u2014 Turkey launched its third locally produced corvette Saturday\u00a0at a high-profile ceremony and has begun the construction of its forth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking at the launch of the Ada-class corvette, the TCG Burgazada, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country is seeking full self-sufficiency in defense systems by the year 2023, the centennial of modern Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officials say Turkey’s local industry meets 60 percent of the military requirements, up from around 25 percent in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Erdogan said that Turkey would soon “be in a position to make our own aircraft carriers.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though that may seem ambitious, Turkish shipyard Sedef Shipbuilding Inc. has teamed up with Spain’s Navantia to build Turkey’s first landing platform dock for less than $1.5 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Burgazada is the third Ada-class corvette produced under a program dubbed MILGEM. The first ship, the TCG Heybeliada, was launched in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The MILGEM ships, named after the Prince\u00a0Islands off Istanbul, are designed primarily for search and rescue, patrol, and anti-submarine warfare missions. They can carry a Seahawk helicopter and are armed with a 76mm\u00a0gun, missiles and torpedoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They have a displacement of 2,400 tons, a maximum speed of more than 29 knots (33 mph) and a range of 3,500 nautical miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turkish officials recently said they will order four more corvettes after the MILGEM program is complete. These will be “more advanced and bigger vessels,” they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking at Saturday’s ceremony, Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik said that reducing dependence on foreign arms is a key goal of the Turkish defense industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Confirming commitment to that goal, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that the Ankara government had invested $30 billion in the defense industry over the past 14 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country is seeking full self-sufficiency in defense systems by the year 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":114411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":16,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[33,16],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3466],"class_list":["post-54294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-naval"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"54KFLKRBENCMZCGZDKUMAT65TU","arc_canonical_url":"\/naval\/2016\/06\/21\/turkey-launches-3rd-corvette-vows-self-sufficiency-in-defense\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n