Turkey’s 104-Strong Kamikaze Maritime Drone Programme Takes Shape: Aselsan Tufan, STM Yaktu and Havelsan Swarms Head to the Fleet

According to Defense Express (en.defence-ua.com), Turkiye’s kamikaze USV programme has moved out of the technology-demonstration phase and into a formal procurement contract distributed across three of the country’s largest defence primes. The 40-32-32 breakdown gives the Turkish Navy a fleet-scale tactical asset and the country a benchmark capability in unmanned surface warfare. The doctrine envisages four-boat swarms, meaning 104 vessels will field 26 attack groupings at any one time.

Background: From Albatros to Tufan and Yaktu

According to Anadolu Agency’s running SSB-backed coverage since 2023, Turkiye’s first credible kamikaze USV was Aselsan’s ALBATROS-S. In an October 2023 live-fire event in the Black Sea, an eight-vessel ALBATROS-S swarm destroyed a target vessel — the first publicly documented joint USV-UAV swarm strike. Tufan, the platform now anchoring the new contract, is the heavier successor of that line: 8.5 metres long, top speed around 90 km/h, range approximately 370 km and a roughly 250 kg payload comparable to a Mk 82 bomb. STM’s Yaktu, by contrast, is a 5.8-metre compact strike platform optimised for mass production, low signature and confined-water rapid-attack profiles.

The Contract: How the Programme Is Divided

Drawing on Daily Sabah’s defence reporting and Interesting Engineering’s technical breakdowns, the three-way split sends each platform after a different mission profile. Aselsan Tufan covers the heavy open-sea ambush role; STM Yaktu fits short-range, high-tempo strikes in straits and narrow coastal water; Havelsan’s still-undisclosed model is being optimised for an alternate tactical concept the firm has not yet released to the public. The table below summarises the comparison.

Eastern Flank Context: USV Age on the Black Sea

As Breaking Defense noted in its recent assessments of Baykar’s K2 and STM’s AI-guided kamikaze programmes, swarm USV attack has become the defining naval-warfare doctrine on the Black Sea since 2022. Ukraine’s Magura and Sea Baby vessels inflicted serious losses on Russian fleet units off Sevastopol, and NATO’s eastern wing wants to absorb the lesson into its own force structure quickly. Turkiye’s 104-platform move is therefore not just a national procurement — it constitutes the next attack layer of NATO’s Black Sea posture, with parallel utility for fleet defence, EEZ protection and harbour-approach security in the Eastern Mediterranean within the Mavi Vatan (“Blue Homeland”) doctrine.

Why It Matters for Turkiye

This programme is the most concrete proof yet that Turkiye’s defence industry has reached global front-rank capability in unmanned surface systems. The domestic USV genealogy that began with ARIDA, ULAQ and MARLIN now graduates to fleet-scale strike capacity through Aselsan ALBATROS and Tufan, with STM Yaktu in parallel. The fact that three independent national primes share a single procurement — rare even in mature defence ecosystems — speaks to the maturity of Turkiye’s industrial base. The autonomy delivered by KAAN in fifth-generation airpower, SIPER in strategic air defence, BAYKAR and TUSAS in UAVs is now mirrored on the surface unmanned domain through the Aselsan-STM-Havelsan triad. Operating 104 platforms at scale will make Turkiye the first NATO ally with a doctrine-level mature USV swarm capability.

Strategically, this gives Ankara low-cost, asymmetric denial against major surface adversaries across the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, operationalising Mavi Vatan’s “strike from distance, retreat fast” logic with 104 AI-enabled platforms. The contract is also a flagship export reference: Gulf states, Pakistan and Indonesia have reportedly entered formal request-for-proposal exchanges for Tufan and Yaktu.

Frequently Asked Questions

What separates Tufan from Yaktu? Tufan is an 8.5-metre heavy open-water striker; Yaktu is a 5.8-metre compact platform built for narrow waters and high-tempo strikes.

What does the swarm doctrine mean? Four-vessel groups operate together, share missions autonomously, continue the attack if some are lost and approach the target from multiple axes simultaneously.

Why is Havelsan’s design still confidential? Havelsan’s platform uses a different mission-system architecture; the firm appears to be saving its public reveal for IDEF 2026 or SAHA Expo 2026.

Which Turkish vessels will deploy the USVs? Istif-class frigates (TCG Istanbul lead ship), MILGEM corvettes and LST landing ships are listed as principal mother platforms; shore-launched concepts of operation are also included.

Is the programme export-oriented? Phase one is for the Turkish Navy, but the Aselsan and STM contracts retain flexibility to open dedicated lines for foreign customers.

Bottom Line

The 104-vessel Turkish kamikaze USV programme is not merely a procurement decision — it is a doctrinal milestone. The Black Sea has proven that swarm USV strike is the defining asymmetric weapon of 21st-century naval warfare. By distributing this concept across three national primes inside a single contract, Turkiye both deepens its national defence and accelerates its export footprint.

Sources

• Defense Express (en.defence-ua.com): Four Drones Per Swarm, 104 Total: Turkiye’s Kamikaze Maritime Drone Program Takes Shape, 23 May 2026.
• Anadolu Agency (AA): Turkiye tests naval kamikaze drone ‘Albatros’.
• Army Recognition: Turkish Navy successfully tests Albatros S kamikaze naval drone (contextual archive, 2023).
• Interesting Engineering: Turkey unveils two autonomous naval strike drones with 230-mile reach.
• Breaking Defense: Baykar unveils K2 Kamikaze drone with AI, swarming capabilities (contextual).
• Daily Sabah: Turkish drone teams with kamikaze naval vessel in landmark joint operation.