After Algeria, Egypt and Iran, Turkey introduces its TCG Anadolu aircraft carrier into active servic

After Algeria, Egypt and Iran, Turkey introduces its TCG Anadolu aircraft carrier into active service

Unlike the announcement of the introduction of the aircraft carrier in  its test phase two years ago and which was highly publicized, the entry into active service  of this ship at the beginning of this year, took place in discretion. Probably, for geopolitical reasons.

With the entry into active service of TCG Anadolu, Turkey joins the club of Middle Eastern navies that have such command ships, landings and force projections, capable of transporting vehicles, tanks, helicopters, light aircraft and especially drones.

The first country on the southern shore of the Mediterranean to acquire this naval potential was Algeria, officially introducing on March 28, 2015 the Qalaat Beni Abbas, which is derived from the Italian amphibious ship and aircraft carrier of the San Giorgio class and was built by the Fincantieri shipyards in Italy.

The second country in the Middle East to successfully equip its navy with two Mistral-class amphibious   helicopter carriers was Egypt, with the first   being delivered by DCNS in France September 16, 2016. They were named Gamal Abd El-Nasser and Anwar Sadat.

The third regional power to adopt aircraft carriers in its naval forces has opted for a different approach.  Iran preferred toinnovate and do differently than the others: it transformed a civilian ship into an aircraft carrier. This original idea allowed Tehran to provide its navy with a quick and less expensive solution. The Shahid Mahdavi can operate heavy helicopters and a very large number of drones.

The TCG Anadolu which bears the number L-400 is derived from the Spanish aircraft carrier of the Juan-Carlos class of which Spain has one copy and Australia has two.  Its licensed construction  officially started on 30 April 2016 at the SEDEF shipyard in Istanbul's Tuzla  Bay. Its first operational deployment at the  end of 2022, makes Turkey the fourth country in the Middle East to have an aircraft carrier. She is the flagship and first carrier of the Turkish Navy. In 2019, the project of a sister-ship, the TCG Trakya, was launched.

All of these aircraft carriers are considered the centerpieces for the navies that employ them. Not just because these ships are the heaviest units these navies have, but because they are forward bases for landing and commanding expeditionary forces. These naval  platforms are therefore used to deploy mechanized  amphibious armored and naval  air troops, to provide an air and logistics base, fire support and even a hospital for medical assistance. Not to mention that it is these aircraft carriers that command the other ships of the fleet that escort it.

Ankara maintains a significant military presence abroad and deploys troops beyond its borders. Whether in the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans or the Caucasus, these theatres of operation can justify for Ankara the need to have multi-purpose aircraft carriers capable ofsupporting its forces.

Since the geostrategic needs and imperatives are necessarily different for the navies of the countries we have mentioned, it is more relevant to present in detail all these aircraft carriers each separately and in chronological order. We will try to dedicate the next recording to Kalaat Bani Abbas algerian. The second video will be dedicated to the  Egyptian Gamal Abd Al-Nasser. The third will talk about the Iranian aircraft carrier Shahid Mahdavi. The last video in this series will discuss the case of TCG Anadolu turv.

This arms race between the Middle Eastern powers in the naval aviation field will lead to these nations being equipped with the means of intervention beyond their geographical squares. This expeditionary capability will weigh increasingly heavily on diplomatic perceptions and contribute to the prestige of these countries in the eyes of their own populations and in the eyes of other friendly or enemy forces.

The most notable aspect of these developments is above all the tendency of these countries to want to build their aircraft carriers on their own and not only to buy them abroad. Whether by building these vessels under license accompanied by technology transfers as in the Turkish case or by developing innovative and original solutions as in the case of Tehran.  

This process of building a heavy naval industry is very long and each of its stages can take about ten years. If the effort of these navies is maintained, one day soon will see their endowments of real naval air forces with real aircraft carriers capable of implementing conventional fighter aircraft.