Tuzla-class patrol vessel
Turkish Navy patrol boat class designed by Dearsan; 16 delivered by 2015.
Turkish operators on a Tuzla-class patrol vessel steered the MKE robot boat that sank a surface target with a live 100kg warhead in the Denizkurdu-I exercise, which ran from 20 to 25 September 2026.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Why did Turkey run a robot strike boat from a patrol vessel?
Timeline for Tuzla-class patrol vessel
Mentioned in: MKE robot boat hits with a live warhead
Autonomous Systems: Land & SeaBackground
The Tuzla class has taken on a new job as a mother ship for Turkish uncrewed boats. During Denizkurdu-I/2026, which ran from 20 to 25 September, operators steered an MKE one-way-attack robot boat from a control station on one of the Tuzla patrol boats, moving it between remote and autonomous control. Its 100kg live warhead wrecked a surface target. MKE says no earlier exercise in the series had a live-warhead strike.
Dearsan Shipyard designed and built the class. The contract for 16 'New Type Patrol Boats' was signed with Turkey's defence procurement agency on 23 August 2007, and all 16 were delivered to the Turkish Navy by February 2015. Ten more went to Turkmenistan. The boats are about 56m long, displace 400 tons, make 25 knots and carry a CREW of about 35.
The Turkish Navy uses a modest coastal patrol hull to steer its attack drones: it has room for a control console and CREW, and it can stay out of reach of the target while the uncrewed boat runs in.
