ANKARA / ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s defense industry is expanding its unmanned surface vehicle (USV) exports, following its global success with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The Turkish defense industry produces these state-of-the-art vehicles and provides them to the inventory of security forces, but the sector also achieved a position in the world with exports of these platforms with advanced software, adding capabilities like autonomous operation as well as extensive payloads.

Ares Shipyard and ULAQ Global achieved Türkiye’s first export of armed USVs to the Qatar Coast Guard.

The deployment of the ULAQ armed USV, with its autonomous capabilities, helped enhance the system’s technological maturity to the highest degree, while the positive user feedback attracted demand from different customers in different regions, playing a decisive role in the business development of the craft.

Ares Shipyard and ULAQ Global have been in business development activities with allied countries within the framework of the Turkish National Defense Ministry.

Negotiations with various Gulf countries are currently underway for the ULAQ family of vehicles, which have an array of capabilities. These business activities are also ongoing in the Asia-Pacific region, with new export deals expected to be revealed throughout 2026.

- New export deals

The Turkish defense industry is diversifying exports with new USV contracts this year.

Turkish defense firm Onur Yuksek Teknoloji (OYT) received an order worth $1.4 million to develop an integrated voice and data communications system for USVs from a domestic customer to be delivered abroad. This deal is the expansion of a previous project that the firm completed with the same customer.

Turkish defense giant Aselsan signed export contracts worth $171 million in total with its Asia-Pacific customers for the direct sale of communications systems and payloads for USVs.

The most significant aspect of this agreement is the export of payloads—with experience gained from vehicles such as Marlin, Sancar, and ULAQ, Turkish defense is entering the global market with subsystems and payloads that form the brains and operational power of the platforms it already exports worldwide.

Sensors, communications, and weapons systems make up the economic and strategic value of USVs, and Türkiye’s direct export of these payloads to the Asia-Pacific market shows that these systems have come to be globally competitive.

OYT’s $1.4-million order shows that the prime-subcontractor relations in the sector are going well—Turkish shipyards are exporting USVs abroad with these types of orders by going through a domestic customer, which brings Turkish subsystem manufacturers to the world stage.