President of the Defense Industries Prof. Dr. İsmail Demir, in an interview with Hakan Çelik on CNN TV’s “Hafta Sonu” program, stated that TCG ANADOLU LHD is ready for service meanwhile the training of presonnel keeps going.
Demir also added some details regarding TCG ANADOLU’s future capability to carry out various operations with UCAVs (Specifically Bayraktar TB3 and KIZILELMA). He explained that the capacity for UCAVs depend on configurations of vehicle bays:
“UAV/UCAV capacity depends on the configuration you will make. The ship can carry 30 UAVs with its current configuration. It will be able to carry up to 70 or even 100 units when different designs are studied.”
🔴🇹🇷UAV/UCAV capacity of TCG ANADOLU
🔸@IsmailDemirSSB :"UAV/UCAV capacity depends on the configuration you will make. The ship can carry 30 UAVs with its current configuration. It will be able to carry up to 70 or even 100 units when different designs are studied." pic.twitter.com/L0Dk5C5CdA
— Defence Turk English (@Defence_Turk_EN) March 25, 2023
TCG ANADOLU sports three sections for vehicle/payload carriage: Deck, aviation bay and floodable bay reserved for amphibious vehicles or landing craft. Should the lower bay be altered to carry UAVs, the capacity can be increased significantly.
However it should be kept in mind that doing this would result in trading the design’s one of the main capabilities off wholly. It is known that there are intentions, if not plans, for follow-ons of ANADOLU LHD design. These follow-ons would be better options to experiment with the idea of boosting the aviation capabilities on ANADOLU’s design, with other future additions to Turkish naval aviation like navalized T929 ATAK 2, HURJET and ANKA-3 MIUS as well as advancements in use of navalized UCAVs to come with experiences from TCG ANADOLU.
As it was announced by İsmail Demir before, Bayraktar TB3 which is already in production line is planned to start its landing and takeoff tests from TCG ANADOLU itself 2023.
