Turkey begins construction of the first amphibious assault ship for the Turkish navy. The new ship was named TCG Anadolu (Anatolia in Turkish) and developed by the Sedef–Navantia consortium.
The TCG Anadolu will use the same design as that of the Spanish ship Juan Carlos I. All of the ship’s weapons system will be procured by Turkish firms Havelsan and ASELSAN. Expected launch in year 2021
The first steel cut ceremony was held at Sedef shipyard in Tuzlay Bay close to Istanbul. During the ceremony President of Turkish Republic Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that “TCG Anadolu will be the first ship in the navy from which F-35B SVTOL will be operate and would be delivered in 4 years (compared to the originally planned 5 years and a half).
| Length: | 232 m (761 ft) |
| Beam: | 32 m (105 ft) |
| Draught: | 6.9 m (23 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × 11 MW Siemens SiPOD |
| Speed: | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Range: | 9,000 nautical miles (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Armament: | 5 × STOP, 2 x Phalanx CIWS, 1x RAM |
| Aircraft carried: | T129, CH-47F Chinook, Seahawk, UAV, F-35B SVTOL |
