From the flagship of the Turkish fleet, twenty meters above sea level, the view of the Bosphorus Strait and the European side of Istanbul is breathtaking. The TCG Anadolu, its 232 meters long and its 27,000 tonnes of steel, proudly dominates the turquoise waters in this strategic strait. While he was still sailing north of Europe a few weeks ago during a NATO deployment – Turkey is the second largest army in terms of numbers of men in the Alliance – he has just been urgently recalled at the very start of the war in Iran.
On the main deck, the Turkish commanders, dressed to the nines, do not hide their pride in exhibiting this amphibious boat, which has become the shining symbol of Ankara’s naval power. On board, this giant of the seas, commissioned in 2023, has a storage capacity of 4 landing boats, 13 tanks, 29 helicopters. Initially, it was also to accommodate American F-35 planes. But Turkey was excluded from this program in 2019 after Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft batteries, which it now plans to return to Moscow. Faced with this sanction, Turkey therefore changed its plans and transformed the TCG Anadolu first drone carrier in the world, one of the great specialties of Turkish defense.
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