While the world’s gaze is fixed on the reported US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Turkish shipyards are quietly humming with activity as they raise the country’s first national aircraft carrier, the Mugem.
Last week, Naval Forces Commander Admiral Ercument Tatlioglu announced that the carrier is now expected to be completed toward the end of next year, a timeline that has set off renewed excitement in defense circles. His statement implies that the ship’s hull will be finished nearly a year sooner than originally planned.
When finished, the Mugem will be the largest warship ever built in Turkey: some 285 metres long with a displacement around 60,000 tonnes. That will eclipse the French carrier Charles de Gaulle (261 metres, 42,500 tonnes), long regarded as the Mediterranean’s most powerful flagship. Designed to carry about 60 aircraft, the vessel will feature a short take-off system to launch its air wing.
Alper Coskun, a former Turkish ambassador and now a senior fellow at the Carnegie think tank in Washington, said the carrier project is a visible sign of Turkey’s growing integration into the European security architecture and a testament to its robust defense industry.
Coskun added that the new carrier could raise Turkey’s profile within NATO at a time when the US is urging allies to shoulder more responsibility and at times signals it may step back from Europe.