Turkmenistan parades latest military equipment

Among the land platforms were Titan-DS vehicles. (Watan Habarlary)

The Armed Forces of Turkmenistan displayed a wide range of military equipment at a parade held in Ashgabat to commemorate the 31st anniversary of Turkmenistan's independence.

Video footage released by the state-run TV channel, Watan Habarlary, showed Chinese, Emirati, Israeli, Italian, Russian, South Korean, and Turkish equipment.

Highlights included footage of the newly inducted Turkmen-class corvette Deniz Han , Cavalon two-seat autogyro, StormRider light armoured vehicle, and Titan-DS armoured personnel carrier.

Deniz Han was commissioned in August 2021. The 91.4 m-long ship is armed with MBDA's Otomat Mk 2 Block IV surface-to-air missile system, two vertical-launch (VL) systems for MBDA's VL MICA short-range anti-aircraft missiles, a 76 mm Leonardo Super Rapid Gun, and a 35 mm Korkut-D twin-barrelled close-in weapon system.

Titan-DS vehicles were paraded in Armed Forces of Turkmenistan colours, while the StormRider vehicles were displayed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which also has the Titan-DS in its inventory.

According to data from Inkas – manufacturer of the Titan-DS – the vehicle features STANAG Level II base armour level and has eight firing ports. During the parade, it was shown fitted with a turret equipped with a 12.7 mm NSV heavy machine gun.

Plasan's StormRider 4×4 is based on fourth-generation SandCat architecture and features a mine-protected monocoque hull and up to STANAG Level III protection. The production of the StormRider started in 2020 and Turkmenistan is the first user to display the vehicle.

Four Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano light attack turboprop aircraft and five M-346 twin-engine, two-seat advanced jet trainers were also seen during the parade. These were purchased as an attempt to replace an ageing fleet of Su-25.