Less than a week after the launch of the Kimon frigate, Turkey demonstrated one of the possibilities offered by the deployment of indigenous unmanned surface vessels.
The Turkish Defense Ministry released a video in which a Bayraktar TB2 flying drone detects the target ship, transmits the data to the center and then eight drones with an explosive payload attack it, sinking it.
The reference to the "Blue Homeland" is a warning to Greece as well, which is an obstacle to Turkey's revisionist plans for the realization of its neo-Ottoman plan to expand its sovereignty in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.
The Turkish Ministry of Defence in the relevant post specifically states.
"Our new force in the Blue Homeland. For the first time in the world, a swarm attack was carried out with the joint operation IDA-UAV!
A test firing took place in Mersin for the Kamikaze İDA Albatros, which was developed by ASELSAN with local and national resources and allows the explosive contained in it to detonate hitting enemy targets moving at high speed in water.
As part of the test, the Albatros, which can move in a swarm of 8 boats, carried out an attack on the target ship. One of the Albatros Kamikaze İDA, carrying ROKETSAN ammunition, hit the target ship and exploded.
As a result of the successfully completed test firing, the 22-meter target ship was sunk within minutes.
The test firing also involved the Bayraktar TB2 UAV attached to our Naval Forces Command.
As part of the applied scenario, unmanned maritime vehicles were directed to the target detected by the Bayraktar TB2. Thus, for the first time in the world, the concept of kamikaze attack with IDA swarms was demonstrated with the joint IDA-UAV operation. The test was conducted off the coast of Mersin. It was watched moment by moment at the Naval Forces Command Headquarters by the Commander of the Naval Forces Admiral Ercüment Tatlıoğlu, President of the Presidential Defense Industry Haluk Görgün, Director General of ASELSAN Ahmet Akyol and other officials. In order not to harm the environment, the target ship was washed and cleaned of any pollutants such as fuel and oil before the test."
Fortunately, the Greek Navy is prepared for such scenarios and as a result the Kimon class ships are equipped to deal with asymmetric threats such as swarms of unmanned aircraft both from the air and from the surface. Plans are also reportedly in place to counter attacks by underwater swarms of unmanned explosive-charged drones.
