Euronaval 2026 – Aselsan introduces a containerised air defence and antidrone solution to provide point defence to merchant ships

Attacks against merchant ships in critical areas of the world have become common, the Black Sea the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, being currently the most dangerous areas. Here the main threat does not come from surface high speed boats but rather from suicide drones and loitering munitions, hence some sort of protection is needed, Aselsan of Turkey proposing a containerised version of its Gökdeniz close-in weapon system

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Fitting all merchant ships operating in risky areas with defensive systems is impossible for many reasons, cost being the first one, but not necessarily the most critical. “Plug and play” systems that can be easily installed and removed is one of the possible solutions, notwithstanding serious legal concerns about using heavy weapons from a civilian platform.

And this might be key for a new model of use of such air defence and counter drone assets; imagine a ship approaching a critical chokepoint; calling into a nearby harbour, embarking the defensive system let say in one day time, crossing the risky sea lane, and calling into the first safe harbour to disembark the system.

And possibly its crew. It is unrealistic thinking that the ships complement would be able to manage the system by himself. Contractors might be the solution; however, this is to be arranged with nations which coats lie along the sea lane. Or it could be military personnel from this or those nations. Here too legal issues are not simple to solve. A ship enjoys extraterritoriality; it is therefore subject to the laws of the nation whose flag flies from its stern. In this context, would the military personnel on board be subject to the laws of a foreign nation, or to those of their own country? In the event of an engagement involving the use of weapons, who bears responsibility on board—the ship’s commanding officer, or the commander of the military detachment operating the defensive system?

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Back to the technical field, to defeat the drone threat what is needed is a sensor capable to detect and track the incoming threat, single or swarm, and an effector that can defeat it at safe distance from the target. Aselsan Gökdeniz is the naval version of the company Korkut, a 2 x 35 mm gun mount part of the company Steel Dome overall air defence system. Another effector available in the electronic defence company portfolio is the Göksur 100N, a missile-based system, with a much greater range than its artillery counterpart.

Adding containers on board merchant ships is usually not a great issue, as they are mostly designed for this, hence fitting the company systems into 20-foot containers was the optimal solution for reducing the logistic footprint and make deployment as easy as possible.

The number of containers needed depends on the customers’ needs. At Euronaval Aselsan exhibited the model of a tanker fitted with several containers. At the bow, a Gökdeniz system was visible, mounted on a platform designed to absorb recoil forces; behind the gun was a container housing the weapon itself, demonstrating its transportability within a 20-foot ISO container. Located behind this was another container, which housed the fire control centre and the generator. Further back, on the port side, an ISO-10 container was installed; one half contained six vertically positioned Göksur missiles, while the other half housed the electronics and a generator.

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Moving toward the stern, we found an ISO-20 container hosting the fire control centre, and further aft, a second Göksur VLS container. Quite an impressive defensive suite, but we must consider which asset was being defended: a 320,000-deadweight ton very large crude carrier costs around US$ 130 million which, added to the around US$ 180 million of its load makes a total value of over US$ 300 million, something which is worth protecting well, not counting the impact on international financial markets when sea lines of communication are severed.

The Gökdeniz builds on the success of the Korkuz, and is able to fire 1,100 rounds per minute, including Aselsan Atom 35×228 mm airburst munition containing tungsten cylinders, a key element when dealing with drones at ranges up to 4 km. The gun mount is fitted with a Ku-band Akrep 100N fire control radar and an X-band Cenk 200-N surveillance radar, capable to detect a Shaheed at 18 km range. Considering the 15 km range of the Göksur, the radar can provide targets also to the missile system, which effectors employ an imaging infrared seeker in the final attack phase, and which are usually used against bigger targets, such as for example against Wing-Loong Chinese UAVs, such missiles being obviously more expensive than artillery rounds, a multi-round engagement against a Shaheed being valued around US$ 10,000. Should friendly naval platforms be operating in the same area, these may provide the merchant ship defensive detachment with target cueing at greater distances via datalink, agreements on information sharing with nations along the ship route being also possible.

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In its standard version Gökdeniz is in service with the Turkish Navy on modernised MEKO-class frigates, known as Barbaros-class, and on Milgem frigates, Istanbul-class, some of them in service and some other under construction. Overall, the land and naval version of the twin-35 mm system is in service in nine nations, including Ukraine as recently unveiled by Aselsan’s CEO in an interview to the Financial Times.

EDR On-Line understood that Aselsan has already bagged an order for its containerised solution, for now the order being for a one-digit number of systems, no more details being available. What is sure is that it includes the artillery as well as the missile systems, deliveries being planned within 2026 for Gökdeniz and in 2007 for the Göksur.

It will be interesting to see how the customer will solve legal issues, as well as how the service will be provided to shipping companies. As seen, hiring such a service has a lot of issues. As for Aselsan’s business model, for the time being the company will sell its system to an end user who will then operate it.

Photos by P- Valpolini