Azerbaijani building armed USVs

The two nearly completed vessels displayed at Puta naval base were effectively identified as the 16 m version of the Salvo USV. (President of the Republic of Azerbaijan)

The Azerbaijan is in the process of building unmanned surface vessels (USVs) with the assistance of the Turkish company Dearsan, it was revealed on 6 September when President Ilham Aliyev inspected the project.

The president's office announced that he was briefed on the Salvo armed USVs and Kayra ‘kamikaze' USVs that are being jointly produced by Dearsan and the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence's Miras Military-Industrial Company.

The presidency released a video and photographs showing Aliyev and his wife visiting Puta naval base southwest of Baku where they were shown two largely-completed vessels and two additional hulls that were being worked on in a shed. These were effectively identified by posters that were shown to the Aliyevs as the 16 m version of the Salvo.

The posters showed three types of Salvo that are named after their primary armament: the Salvo Çakır, Salvo Sungur, and Salvo L-UMTAS Cirit. The Salvo Çakır was stated to be 19 m long and have three water jets, while the other two are both 16 m and have two water jets, like the partially completed ones displayed at the naval base.

The two variants of the 16 m Salvo are fitted with a weapon station for either Sungur short-range surface-to-air missiles or one that can be armed with a combination of L-UMTAS long-range anti-tank missiles and Cirit laser-guided missiles. All these weapons are made by Turkey's Roketsan.

The Salvo Çakır is designed to carry two Roketsan Çakır cruise missiles with a range of 150 km.