A new USV design of ARES Shipyard has emerged on the Turkish patent database, featuring a catamaran hull and enough space to accommodate a 40 ft container.
ARES Shipyards is going for a larger USV design compared to the monohull ULAQ line, with a generous amount of free space relative to its size. ARES Shipyard's design was spotted on Türk Patent's database for design submissions. It is known that ARES Shipyards has experience with designing and building catamaran platforms, most notably ARES 17 CF.
The new USV measuring 22.5 m in length, can accommodate a single 40 ft container, which opens new possibilities.
Firstly, the allowance to carry the largest standard container possible means that the design is more than viable for logistics support.
However, the more important point regarding a 40 ft container today is the provision for containerised weaponry. It is known that a 40 ft container can easily house strike-length VLS for long-range cruise missiles and air defence missiles, as it has been put to use with the US Army and Navy’s Mk70 PDS.
ROKETSAN signalled its plans for containerised missile launchers during IDEF2025 with a 20 ft container launcher for six ÇAKIR cruise missiles. It is not hard to imagine ROKETSAN developing larger examples in the near future (Such as containerised MİDLAS VLS or even TAYFUN SRBM).
Outside of use revolving around the 40 ft container, the new USV design can carry larger UUVs than the previous types to support ASW operations or more potent electronic warfare systems thanks to the generous free space on the flatbed section.
ARES Shipyards’ most recent work on USVs was the TUFAN kamikaze USV co-developed with ASELSAN [BIST:ASELS] (Providing software, sensors, and electronics). It is possible that the new USV design might be developed jointly with ASELSAN similar to the way TUFAN was developed.
Author: Kaan Azman
Editor:Özgür Ekşi
