In his speech at the TCG Anadolu Ship Delivery Ceremony and the New MİLGEM Frigates Sheet Metal Cutting Ceremony, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “The TCG Anadolu, which we put into service, is the world's first warship of its kind. In other words, TCG Anadolu is the world's first SİHA ship.” used the phrases.
Reminding that the construction of the TCG Anadolu ship began in April 2016, President Erdoğan said, “At the end of 7 years, we are putting our TCG Anadolu ship into service. We are happy, we are proud. May my Lord perpetuate this pride of ours.” he said.
Wishing the best for TCG Anadolu, the country's largest military ship, President Erdoğan said: “Of course, this is not enough for us. Hopefully, now our second stage is to build the whole of this aircraft carrier, I hope. We have held talks with many countries, we are doing it, and we will succeed in this. We see this ship as a symbol that will clinch our position as a leading country in the Turkish Century and having a say in the world. Not only that, we are also doing the haircuts of our 3 new MİLGEM stowage class frigates that we will bring to Mavi Vatan.” used the phrases.
“TCG Anadolu is the world's first SİHA ship”
President Erdoğan thanked everyone who contributed to the construction of TCG Anadolu and will take part in the construction of the frigates, and said, “The TCG Anadolu, which we put into service, is the world's first warship in its field, where the largest and heaviest helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles can land and take off. In other words, TCG Anadolu is the world's first SİHA ship. Bayraktar TB3, SİHA, Kızıl Elma Unmanned Fighter and HÜRJET Light Attack Aircraft will be able to land and take off on this ship. In addition, thanks to the tanks and armored amphibious assault vehicles it carries, this ship has the features that will enable us to carry out military and humanitarian operations in every corner of the world when necessary.”
Emphasizing that the ship's locality rate is at a very high level of 70 percent, President Erdoğan noted that thanks to TCG Anadolu, a force the size of a battalion can easily be transferred to crisis regions in the Aegean, Mediterranean and Black Seas without the need for main support.
“Our shipbuilding industry will properly build our national aircraft carrier”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that the weapons, war management, electronic warfare, infrared search and tracking, electro-optical search, laser warning and torpedo defense systems and radars on the ship were developed by the domestic and national industry.
“There is a fully-equipped hospital and operating room on this ship, which we can use for military purposes as well as natural disaster relief workers and humanitarian operations when necessary. With all these features, 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. The experience we have gained in such projects allows us to bring more advanced technologies, which are more domestic and national, to our country. With the commissioning of our amphibious assault ship, we have taken a big step towards producing our national aircraft carrier. Our shipbuilding industry has built and will build our national aircraft carrier as well.”
Underlining that the target of constructing three ships simultaneously in a private shipyard and delivering them to the Naval Forces in a period of approximately 36 months is a unique project in the world, President Erdoğan said, “All of the weapon and sensor systems that will be placed on our frigates have been developed with domestic and national means.” he said.
Expressing that the Turkish defense industry has made a revolution in the last 20 years with its foundations and private companies, SMEs, research institutions and technology centers, President Erdoğan continued his words as follows:
“Of course, it was not easy for our defense industry to become the rising star of Turkey. When we came to power, we saw that strong diplomacy on the field and at the table is only possible with a strong defense industry. With this understanding, we have set our target as a fully independent defense industry. If you remember, they didn't even give us a drone that we wanted to fight terrorism at that time. They did not allow us the opportunity to effectively use the UAV, which we obtained from elsewhere with great difficulty, for a long time. Son Bush, I have a meeting with him. At that time, I was not officially the prime minister yet, we had the meeting and I said, 'Fight against terrorism, you still have not given us a drone or a SİHA.'. Then Condoleezza Rice called the Secretary of State, 'You still haven't.' she said. 'You will immediately deliver a UAV to Turkey'. They gave, but they did not ensure that they stay with us for a long time. 48 hours. But may God have mercy on him, Özdemir Bey declared a mobilization. They quickly took the step of the UAV. Together with the children, they succeeded in this work and saved us from being dependent on the outside. UAV started. SİHA, Akıncı and finally the Red Apple. Of course, I hope now we are going even further with HÜRJET and so on.”
“We started the period of domestic and national projects in 2004”
Recalling that with the decisions taken at the Defense Industry Executive Committee in May 2004, President Erdoğan started the period of domestic and national projects instead of foreign purchases, and continued as follows:
“At the end of the developments that started after this decision, the number of defense industry projects, which was 62 in our country, reached 750, and the number of defense industry companies, which was 56, reached 2. From where to where? Believing… When we came to the government, defense projects with a budget of approximately 700 billion dollars were being carried out. Today, this figure has exceeded 5,5 billion dollars. Today, it is not possible for a single company to operate in any field of the defense industry. Development and production activities from many different branches continue in all areas, not only in SİHAs. We have seen and continue to see the important benefits of the competitive environment in our effort to reach the best. Now, we are increasing our defense industry budget to 60 billion dollars with the projects whose tender process continues.”
“We have come to a very good level in reducing our dependence on foreign sources”
Emphasizing that this expansion will bring new breakthroughs in every field, from the number of companies to exports, President Erdoğan noted that the industry has shown great effort until it reaches this point.
Expressing that the annual budget allocated to research and development in the defense industry has increased from $ 49 million to over $ 1.5 billion, President Erdoğan said:
“The sector's exports reaching a record level of 248 billion 2022 million dollars by 4 from 400 million dollars is also a sign of this. Thanks to our upright stance and determination in the domestic and national defense industry, we have come to a very good level in reducing our foreign dependency. Our local rate was 20 percent when we took office, but increasing it to 80 percent now is a historical success that will be better understood in the future due to its importance. Today, the Turkish defense industry has reached a level that can meet the needs of security units in every subject from design to development, from research and development to innovation and mass production. We are no longer just with the vehicle, now we are in the ammunition. We have all kinds. Now there are demands from us for domestic and foreign ammunition. We meet the needs brought before us by our operations in different geographies, again through our defense industry.”
Stating that they are preparing for the combat environment of the future while continuing their current projects and following the technological advances, President Erdoğan said, “We are particularly pleased that our defense industry products, which are successfully used by our security forces in their domestic and international operations, are starting to take their place in the inventories of friendly countries.” he said.
Expressing that they will work harder to meet the needs of the security forces locally and nationally on land, in the air, at sea and in cyberspace, President Erdoğan said: Air defense system with its plane, helicopter, SİHA, ship, armored vehicle, electronic warfare and radar systems with its missiles and ammunition and laser systems. He said that they will not stop until they bring Turkey to the place it deserves in the world without leaving any gaps with its electromagnetic weapons.
“Our SİDAs, just like our SİHAs, have begun to be followed with envy in the world”
President Erdogan said:
“The level we have reached is of course important, but there is still a lot of work we need to do to overcome the implicit and open embargoes against our country. The security of the blue homeland has become much more important in this critical period we are in. This is the need behind the work we carry out for our country to have a stronger and deterrent navy. Will we achieve these too? Don't worry, we will succeed and we will succeed by diversifying. Because, in general, there is no collective defense system or attack anymore. We have to achieve this by diversifying. To date, we have brought many products to our army such as our MİLGEMs, amphibious tank landing ships, intelligence ship, submarine rescue ships, Tuzla class patrol ships, coast guard boats, fast patrol boats and SAT boats. We have become one of the world's leading countries in this field by successfully applying the experience we have gained from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to unmanned sea vehicles. Our SİDAs, which we have developed at the most advanced technological level, have started to be followed with envy in the world, just like our SİHAs.”
“The fact that Turkey is one of the 10 countries that design, develop, build and maintain its own ship is not a dry slogan, it is an achievement to be proud of.” President Erdoğan stated that this success has been achieved with the exemplary cooperation of the Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Interior, Presidency of Defense Industries, military and civilian shipyards, hundreds of subcontractors, SMEs, universities and research centers.
Pointing out that with each project they completed and saw the result of, their determination and excitement increased even more, President Erdoğan stated that they set 2023 as a milestone for many projects in the defense industry.
President Erdoğan said, “Today, we started to implement our giant projects with 2023 calendar, one by one. Our naval resupply and combat support ship Derya, which will be the second largest ship in our country, our Piri Reis submarine, and our first stowage class frigate Istanbul will be put into service again this year, hopefully. We are ahead of schedule in air defense systems in projects that will bring our air power to the top, especially our National Combat Aircraft.” he said.
TCG Anadolu ship will be opened to public visit
Emphasizing that he will have many good news in the field of defense industry in the coming months, President Erdoğan continued as follows:
“Everyone should see and accept the fact that the security of a stronger and growing Turkey now begins beyond its own borders. With this understanding, we will continue to increase the number of such projects in order to protect and develop the interests of our country in the international arena. We will build the Century of Turkey by following the safe path that our defense industry has paved the way for us. I wish the ships we commissioned and cut sheet metal to be beneficial for our country, our army and our Naval Forces Command. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the construction and equipping of our ships.”
President Erdoğan stated that he wanted to announce another news to the nation on this occasion and said, “We will pull TCG Anadolu from here to Sirkeci and we will open our TCG Anadolu ship to our people in Sirkeci. We want our people to come and visit our TCG Anadolu ship. Let's not just be proud, let's give our people the opportunity to be proud of TCG Anadolu as a nation.” he said.
They started their duty by taking an oath.
After his speech, President Erdoğan was presented with gifts by İsmail Demir, President of Defense Industries, and Metin Kalkavan, Chairman of the Executive Board of SEDEF Shipyard, to commemorate the day.
TCG Anatolian Commander Naval Staff Colonel Erhan Albayrak, who received the service entrance certificate and commander's flan from President Erdoğan, took the ship's oath and started his duty. After the personnel were dispatched to the ship, the commander's flange was buckled on TCG Anadolu.
Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar, President of Defense Industry İsmail Demir, Commander of the Naval Forces Admiral Ercüment Tatlıoğlu and Chairman of the Executive Board of SEDEF Shipyard Metin Kalkavan gave speeches at the ceremony, where the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Mustafa Şentop, Vice President Fuat Oktay, Deputy Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Celal Adan, Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank, MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli, AK Party Deputy Chairman Binali Yıldırım, Grand Union Party Chairman Mustafa Destici, Welfare Party Chairman Fatih Erbakan again, HUDA PAR Chairman Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu and Democratic Left Party Chairman Önder Aksakal, former Parliament President İsmail Kahraman, Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, Presidency Sözcüü İbrahim Kalın, Governor of Istanbul Ali Yerlikaya, Chairman of the Board of BAYKAR Selçuk Bayraktar and the TAF command level also attended.
At the ceremony, Vice President Oktay, AK Party Deputy Chairman Yıldırım and Minister of Industry and Technology Varank posed for a souvenir photo with members of the press.
President Erdoğan later attended the New MİLGEM Frigates Sheet Metal Cutting Ceremony. Here, President Erdoğan and the leaders of the political parties participating in the program also cut metal sheets.
After the ceremony, President Erdoğan posed for a souvenir photo with the leaders of the political parties forming the People's Alliance in front of TCG Anadolu, and then made observations on the ship.