Albania buys Turkish towed howitzers

Albania has become the third country in the world to buy Turkey’s domestically built BORAN howitzer, signing a contract with Turkish state manufacturer MKE just days before NATO leaders gather in Ankara for this year’s summit, defense outlet Ulusavunma reported.

The deal covers six BORAN 105mm towed howitzers along with an undisclosed quantity of ammunition, and it makes Albania the second European nation to add the system to its arsenal, following North Macedonia’s purchase in 2025, while Bangladesh remains the howitzer’s first export customer after receiving its initial batch in 2024, a sale that itself marked the first howitzer export in the history of the modern Turkish Republic.

BORAN is a light, towed artillery piece built specifically for units that need serious firepower without the weight and logistical burden of heavier guns, weighing roughly 1,745 kilograms (3,847 pounds) including its full fire control system, light enough that Turkey’s own Sikorsky S-70 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters can lift it into position rather than requiring a truck convoy to haul it overland. That air-mobility feature matters directly to how commando and rapid-reaction units operate, since a howitzer that can be slung beneath a helicopter and dropped into a forward position within minutes gives infantry supporting fire options that a slower-moving convoy simply cannot match, particularly in mountainous or hard-to-access terrain like much of Albania’s own countryside.

The howitzer entered Turkish Armed Forces service in 2021 following a formal adoption decision, and it has remained in active use with Turkish units ever since, giving MKE a genuine combat and training track record to point to when pitching the system abroad rather than relying purely on paper specifications. According to the contract announcement, BORAN can reach a firing position from a fully stowed, towed configuration in under one minute and sustain a rate of fire between six and 12 rounds per minute, with the manufacturer citing a demonstrated performance of 12 accurate rounds fired in 33 seconds, a figure MKE has previously described as a world record for howitzers in its weight and caliber class. The system’s fire control suite, developed by Turkish defense electronics firm ASELSAN, combines GPS-assisted targeting with a panoramic sighting scope, an integrated muzzle velocity radar that measures each shot’s exit speed in real time, an electro-optic laser rangefinder, and a ballistic fire control computer, a combination that lets crews achieve precision typically associated with far more expensive, heavier artillery systems.

BORAN’s maximum effective range reaches 17 kilometers (10.6 miles) using standard ammunition, extending to roughly 21 kilometers (13 miles) with specialized long-range, base-bleed extended-range shells that MKE has separately developed and successfully test-fired, according to earlier reporting on the program. The gun’s design also incorporates a networked command and control architecture, letting it plug directly into joint operational environments where artillery units need to coordinate fire missions with other branches or allied forces in real time rather than operating as an isolated firing platform, a capability increasingly expected of any modern artillery system fielded within a NATO context.

Albania’s decision to buy BORAN fits a broader pattern of NATO members diversifying their artillery suppliers beyond the traditional American and Western European manufacturers that have historically dominated the alliance’s equipment market, a trend Turkey has aggressively courted through its state-owned defense industry.

The Defence Blog reported in January 2026 that MKE had continued expanding BORAN’s international footprint following strong performance in comparative firing trials held in Malaysia in 2025, where the system reportedly outperformed competing designs during live demonstrations, generating additional foreign interest that has since extended to countries including the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Colombia, according to defense trade reporting on the program’s export prospects. MKE has also continued developing the BORAN platform domestically, with The Defence Blog reporting in May 2026 that the company unveiled a vehicle-mounted derivative called URAN at the SAHA 2026 defense exhibition in Istanbul, a variant that keeps the same 105mm firepower but mounts it directly on a vehicle chassis to cut the time between repositioning and firing, a feature designed specifically to counter modern counter-battery radar systems capable of locating a gun’s position within seconds of it firing.

Turkey’s own domestic production has scaled alongside this export push, with a pilot batch of seven BORAN howitzers already delivered to the Turkish Armed Forces, one assigned to training duties at the Artillery and Missile School Command in Polatlı and the remaining six deployed to active operational areas, while serial production of 114 additional units is now underway with deliveries scheduled to begin this year and continue over a multi-year timeline. That domestic manufacturing base gives MKE the capacity to fulfill export orders like Albania’s without diverting howitzers directly from Turkish Armed Forces stocks, a production depth that matters increasingly as more countries express interest in a system that has now proven itself across trials and operational deployments on three separate continents.