Erdogan: Our naval forces will grow stronger with the national artillery

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the national naval artillery will increase his country’s forces once it is put into use.

This was stated in a video message on Thursday sent to the Naval Artillery Test Program.

Erdogan expressed his happiness to participate in the naval artillery tests equipped with a digital control system developed with local capabilities, describing this day as a historic day for the Turkish defense industries.

He explained that cannons are one of the most important combat systems for the naval forces, wishing the success of the tests currently underway.

Erdogan pointed out that cannon systems, which are the striking force of warships, play crucial roles in wars.

He continued, “Within the framework of the campaign to develop our defense industries, we focused about a year ago on the local naval artillery industry, because our goal is to rid our country of dependence on the outside” in this sector.

And he added: “Recently, we have encountered problems importing our needs, and we have also been subjected to some types of announced and undeclared bans.

Therefore, we decided to intensify our efforts to rid our defense industries of foreign dependency, and within a short period of time we were able to produce this naval gun.”

He pointed out that Turkey has become one of the few countries that produce such combat systems, noting that the national artillery is capable of hitting targets 16 kilometers away.

And he added, “Our naval fleet has become stronger thanks to this weapon, which can fire 80 rounds per minute in five modes.”