Qatar receives Turkish-made landing ships

The 80 m LST and 15.7 m LCVP that Turkey's Anadolu Shipyard delivered to Qatar. (Anadolu Shipyard)

The Qatar Emiri Naval Forces (QENF) received a landing ship and three landing craft in a ceremony held at Anadolu Shipyard's Tuzla facility on 6 July, the Qatari Ministry of Defence and the Turkish company announced.

The vessels were identified as the 80 m landing ship tank (LST) Fuwairit (QL 80), the two 40 m landing craft mechanised (LCMs) Ishat (QL 40) and Broog (QL 41), and the 15.7 m landing craft vehicle and personnel (LCVP) Al-Aaliya (QL 15).

Anadolu Shipyard said that the vessels would be sent to Qatar after six weeks of “tactical shakedown training”.

Photographs of the event confirmed that Fuwairit is armed with two 30 mm Aselsan Smash remotely operated weapon stations (ROWS) on either side of its ramp and two 12.7 mm Stop-2 ROWS on either side of its bridge. The 40 m LCMs have two .50 calibre machine guns on pintle mounts and the LCVP is unarmed.

Anadolu Shipyard has delivered two training ships to the QENF in 2021, both of which are in Qatar.