OUT OF THIS WORLD!
Türkiye, in recent years, demonstrated that it has superiority in electronic-warfare & SIGINT power: Aselsan has been a big part of the success. It is the leading defense industry company of the rising Eastern power. Currently, it ranks number 48 among the global defense behemoths of the top 100. In no time, it should rank in the top ten, if not better, with this incredible progress displayed to date.
Türkiye has six more companies in this prestigious list already. Plus, there are more in the pipeline with potential to join the rest as well. Yet, none of this explains Turkish superiority. Syria, Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh, Ethiopia, and Ukraine examples are bewildering. Technologically advanced Turkish military platforms simply redefined war-making. As a result, some questions beg answers.
One, how much Aselsan and its cohorts showed to the world so far? Two, what are the exact capabilities of what they showed so far? Three, what does “when the time comes, they will see who has the power” mean? Ismail Demir of TDI stated it more than once. Finally, Hulusi Akar, Defense Minister said: “Greece, militarily, deployed too much, but not enough for Türkiye.” What is he exactly referring to?
Aselsan
Aselsan A.Ş., is a Turkish defense corporation headquartered in Ankara, Turkiye. It researches, develops, and manufactures advanced military products for air, land and maritime platforms. Türkiye established Aselsan in 1975, as a by-product of the Turkish “Peace Operation” in Cyprus. That is when Türkiye decided not to trust America anymore and began the path to independence from the Western yoke.
President Jimmy Carter was then the 39th president of America. Three year long sanctions against Türkiye, by America and the rest of the Western powers, gave birth to Aselsan. For the first two decades of its life, Aselsan became the joke of the West. Now, it is a monster no one knows what to do about it. It overwhelms and overpowers the best of the best in the world, having long turned the joke on them.
Electronic-Warfare & SIGINT: Aselsan Leads The Pact
Past twenty years, the Turkish defense industry has been rapidly growing. Newly developed major military platforms are promptly entering into mass productions. They are hi-tech wanders, built for the land, sea, and air forces. Quite many of them have Aselsan fingerprints.
Three of them that stand out are the focus of this posting. Türkiye displayed them in active war scenarios or drills for the world to note their might. However, it did not reveal everything about them. They are still largely enigma, called, Koral, TCG Ufuk, and Marlin.
The world, for the moment, must ponder what the statements of Demir and Akar entail to figure more about them. The bravado of the Erdoğan regime and the brinkmanship of the Turkish navy across the Blue Homeland, Mavi Vatan, also give some hint.
Koral-1 and Koral-2
Koral is the land based electronic-warfare & SIGINT platform. It already evolved into the next generation. The original version, Koral-1, proved its worth in Syria. Since then, reportedly, it is deployed everywhere from Libya to Azerbaijan to Ukraine, as well as across Türkiye.
However, no information is available on their actual deployment. They are naturally kept as military secrets. Meanwhile, Türkiye is soon to unveil Koral-2. Would this next edition be additionally deployed on naval platforms small and large, for example?
TCG Ufuk
TCG Ufuk, newly built Turkish corvette, is a warship for electronic-warfare & SIGINT. Surely, it is like a “Disney World” for Aselsan and the likes to experiment their toys. The other problem with this warship is that it is hard to locate. It appears like a small fishing boat in vast seas.
Reportedly, once Heybeliada, the first of five corvettes built with the same stealth technology with TCG Ufuk, was deep in Greek waters. After two full days of lurking and no Greek visiting, Heybeliada left the “crime scene”.
Turks reported the adventure of Heybeliada to the world after the fact. They made reference to a melancholic, but also popular song. Until 1974, it was, for sure, the most liked song among Greek Cypriots as well!
In Turkish it is titled: “Bekledim de gelmedin”, meaning “I waited but you did not come”.
Marlin
Aselsan, with Sefine, recently developed Marlin. The unmanned surface vehicle (USV) demonstrated capabilities during NATO exercises REPMUS 22 in Portugal in September. Marlin was the only USV that participated in the exercises. The other USVs were there but were not equipped to operate in rough seas. A much talked about and promoted French USV couldn’t either.
On top, Marlin did not only perform as an USV. Aselsan apparently loaded it with micro electronic-warfare & SIGINT toys. Reportedly, Marlin did a lot more than what an USV supposed to do. Like its brethren TB-2 in the air, it delivered beyond expectations. As a result, it marveled military experts, but also, puzzled them as to how advanced the Turkish USV capabilities could already be.
Electronic-Warfare & SIGINT: Aselsan
Koral-1, Koral-2, TCG Ufuk, and Marlin have Aselsan in common. However, they are not the only ones that incorporate Aselsan into their productions. Ismail Demir, the Head of the Turkish Defense Industries, states that there are some hundreds of projects soon to be revealed.
How many of them will contain Aselsan’s wanders like these four already operate will never be known. On that note, some questions about past incidents warrant answers. For example, was it Aselsan that put to test the French frigate or the US F-35 fighter?
Greek-French
Joint Aegean Naval Exercise
Most recently, in October 2022, Greek and French navies conducted a joint naval exercise in the Aegean. They faced similarly distressing malfunctions. Weeks after the exercises, they are still looking for basic answers.
One, was TCG Ufuk ever present in the vicinity during days long exercise? If so, was it responsible for the mishaps in the communications between Greek and French warships?
On that note, were Koral-1 or 2 or a Marlin or two on the crime scene as well? If so, what other advanced robotics did Aselsan and the likes experimented for the first time on these unsuspecting navies, rather novices?
