The Chinese Navy plans to purchase 100 disposable unmanned boats.

According to a report by Reference News on May 24, the U.S. publication Defense News reported on May 21 that it learned at the 2026 SAHA International Defense and Aerospace Exhibition in Turkey that Turkey plans to procure approximately 100 disposable unmanned surface vessels for its navy.

The procurement plan was finalized at a meeting of the Defense Industry Executive Committee in February this year. This committee is the highest decision-making body for Turkey's defense procurement and military industry policy.

The Turkish Defense Industry Secretariat is responsible for coordinating this procurement project, and these 100 disposable unmanned surface vessels will be manufactured by three different suppliers.

One of the partners is Aselsan and the Ares Shipyard, which showcased the jointly developed "Storm" unmanned vessel at the 2026 SAHA International Defense and Aerospace Exhibition held in Istanbul. The second is the Defense Technologies Engineering and Trade Company and the Yonca-Onuk Shipyard, which presented the "Akat" unmanned vessel at this year's exhibition. The third partner is Havelsan and the Sefin Shipyard.

Both the "Storm" and "Akat" unmanned vessels are designed as disposable precision strike unmanned surface platforms. They feature a compact, low-profile hull design to reduce the likelihood of radar and visual detection. Their cluster architecture enables multi-vessel cooperative operations and real-time data sharing, autonomously assigning combat tasks during missions. (Translated by Xu Yanhong)