Turkish defense industry continues to make a splash in the global press. According to US-based defense publications, ARES Shipyard is preparing to establish a new structure comprising two separate shipyards in Saudi Arabia; The swarm drone attack test with live ammunition carried out by STM revealed the stage Türkiye has reached in autonomous warfare technologies. Joint production plans and swarm UAV systems in the Gulf region point to Türkiye’s expansion in defense technologies in the region. According to the information provided by Breaking Defense, ARES Shipyard’s new company, ARES Naval, based in Saudi Arabia, aims to create a long-term production and maintenance infrastructure in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. In the same period, it was reported that KARGU ammunition attacked three separate targets simultaneously, autonomously, in the test carried out by STM in the shooting and training area in Ankara.
NEW SHIPYARDS IN THE GULF
According to Breaking Defense’s analysis, ARES Naval plans to establish two shipyards in Dammam and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. According to the analysis article, the ARES Naval structure will focus on the production and maintenance-repair activities of naval platforms and the majority of the company’s shares will remain with ARES. It was stated that cooperation will be carried out with Sofon, which is the main contractor in Saudi naval projects, and it was emphasized that GCC countries will be one of the most important export markets for ARES in the future. The 11-meter ISR version of the ULAQ unmanned marine vehicle, exhibited at the Qatar coast guard stand at the Dimdex 2026 fair, is equipped with an electro-optical director and remote-controlled weapon system; It was also stated in the analysis article that it can be used in migration and search and rescue missions.
AMMUNITION Swarm DRON TEST
According to the information in the analysis article, in the test carried out in Ankara The KARGU swarm system, under the command of a single operator, autonomously divided into subgroups in the mission area and hit three separate targets. Each platform carried an anti-personnel warhead and shared data through a swarm UAV architecture developed entirely with domestic algorithms. In the analysis article, it was commented that the successfully carried out test was a turning point in terms of autonomous systems and swarm warfare concept.
AUTONOMOUS CAPACITY BUILDING
According to the information provided by Defense Post, another US-based defense publication, an autonomous swarm operation with a mixed load consisting of six KARGUs was successfully carried out in July 2025, and a contract was signed for the delivery of the system to an unnamed NATO member. In November 2025, Skydagger company introduced the Toyca-05 swarm kamikaze UAV with network-based communication and anti-electronic jamming technology. HAVELSAN company also exhibited the Barkan-2 unmanned ground vehicle, which has autonomous navigation capability and can launch guided munitions, and announced that the swarm UAV/SIHA concept has been moved to land-air integration. According to US defense experts These developments reveal that Türkiye has built a multi-domain capacity in autonomous warfare and defense technologies.
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