Marlin armed USV fires Kuzgun-KY missile

A screen capture of video imagery posted on Twitter by SSB on 28 March showing the Marlin armed USV firing a Kuzgun-KY solid fuel SSM for the first time. (SSB)

The Marlin armed unmanned surface vessel (USV) jointly developed by Turkey's Aselsan and Selfine Shipyard successfully fired a Kuzgun-KY solid fuel surface-to-surface missile (SSM) for the first time, İsmail Demir, head of the Turkish Presidency of Defence Industries (Savunma Sanayii Başkanlığı: SSB), announced.

During the firing test, which was conducted in the Gulf of Saros and attended by the SSB and Turkish navy officials, the missile was fired by remote control from a mission control station located on land, according to video imagery published by Demir on his official twitter page on 28 March.

The Marlin armed USV programme was first announced by Sefine Shipyard in July 2021, and in September 2022, the USV took part in NATO's Exercise ‘Dynamic Messenger' in Portugal with an electronic warfare (EW) payload.

When the Marlin programme was first announced in 2021, there were two versions of the vessel: one for anti-surface warfare (ASuW) and one for anti-submarine warfare. The original images shared by the shipyard indicated that the ASuW version would be based on a trimaran hull form where the sponsons attached to the sides of the vessel would carry the SSMs.

However, the Marlin version used in the latest live-firing test resembles the one used with an EW payload, indicating that for test purposes the EW payload was replaced with the launch pad.

Marlin