In the first part of the panel, Defense Industry Agency Head of Naval Platforms Department Cenk Cumhur KIYKIM spoke about the advantages of 4 different unmanned platforms, which are being developed by the leading Turkish defense industry companies under the Unmanned Surface Vehicles Program initiated by the Defense Industry Agency (SSB), and shared their expectations and goals of the project. Cenk Cumhur KIYKIM underlined that their expectation from the program, which is being carried out under 4 different contracts, is to create unmanned platforms that are operationally different from each other with their specialized payloads: "Reconnaissance, surveillance, and anti-surface warfare are standard requirements under each contract. We have assigned one platform for Electronic Warfare and another platform for Mine Countermeasure operations. Additionally, we have designated another platform for Anti-Submarine Warfare. The last task we set is the development of organic UAV capability for our unmanned surface vehicles. So each USV has different payloads. We can expect a lot from these platforms operationally. There is also competition between the parties in terms of autonomous capability."

Underlining that the work on anti-surface warfare is being developed very quickly, KIYKIM stated that all platforms can accurately engage moving targets or more than one target with long-range weapon systems and show these capabilities. "There are different requirements for USVs in the maritime environment, and it is not suitable to meet all these needs with a single platform design. So, we expect these platforms to take shape according to the operational environment. As I mentioned, the next step in our roadmap is to define how we can improve operational concepts or gain other capabilities. We will be considering these as well."