Turkey’s domestic naval cannon to improve mobility of naval forces: President

By Enes Kaplan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s president said Thursday that the country’s naval forces will gain mobility thanks to its domestic naval cannon that has a digital fire control system.

“Turkey has become one of the few countries that produce this weapon system with the national naval cannon it has developed,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a video message sent to the Mechanical and Chemical Industry (MKE) Sea Cannon Land Shooting Program. “The national naval cannon has an effective range of 16 kilometers (9.9 miles).”

The navy has become stronger because of the weapon that can fire 80 shots per minute with five different firing modes, added Erdogan.

He said Turkey developed the national sea cannon in a record time of 12 months with domestic and national resources, despite obstacles.

“Especially in the last period, serious problems began to be experienced both in costs and delivery times of products coming from abroad. We were also subject to many invisible embargoes and blocking attempts,” according to Erdogan, who said, “high costs and hidden embargoes” encountered in procurement from abroad will become history.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar