Keel Laying Ceremony of the Qatari Emiri Navy Guided Missile Fast Attack Crafts Held at DEARSAN Shipyard

The contract for the Qatar 50-meter Guided Missile Attack Crafts (MAC) Project was signed on June 21, 2023, and officially announced during the DIMDEX 2024 Exhibition held in Doha on March 4–6, 2024. Under this project, two 50-meter Guided Missile Attack Crafts (MAC) are being built at the DEARSAN Shipyard for the Qatari Emiri Navy (QEN). The “Keel Laying Ceremony” for these vessels was held on December 23, 2024, at the DEARSAN Shipyard, with the participation of the Qatari State Delegation led by the Commander of the Qatari Emiri Naval Forces, Rear Admiral (RADM) Abdullah Hassan Al SULAITI. At the ceremony, DEARSAN Chairman of the Board Aziz YILDIRIM and DEARSAN Board Member & General Manager Murat GORDİ were present, along with the TNFC Northern Sea Area Commander, the Qatari State Military Attaché in Ankara, the Deputy Consul General of the State of Qatar in Istanbul, the Head and personnel of the Qatari Naval Forces Command Project Control Office, and the Mayor of Tuzla.

As part of the project, it is planned to build a total of five DEARSAN-designed 50-meter Guided Missile Attack Crafts (MAC), which was named Halul-11 by the Qatari Naval Forces. It is expected that, in the near future, the Qatari Naval Forces Command and the Qatar Armed Forces Procurement and Logistics Directorate will request an additional contract for the construction of the remaining three vessels, which are anticipated to have different configurations.

Under the contract signed on June 21, 2023, work commenced on February 12, 2024, and the Project Control Office team began working at DEARSAN on April 12, 2024. During this period, the Preliminary Design and Critical Design Review activities were carried out effectively and efficiently. With the valuable contributions of the Project Control Office personnel, the Preliminary Design Review phase of the 50-meter Guided Missile Attack Crafts Project was successfully completed on July 3, 2024, and the Critical Design Review phase was successfully concluded on November 28, 2024. In the project, the first steel-cutting ceremony for the two fast-attack crafts was held on November 22, 2024.

The 50.76 m full length, 9.53 m full width, 2.10 m draft, 36 knots maximum speed, and 1000 nautical mile range Missile Attack Crafts are designed to operate effectively in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The vessels, which will have a crew of 33, feature steel hulls and aluminum superstructures. The primary missions of the 50-meter Guided Missile Attack Crafts (MAC) include conducting anti-surface warfare using surface-to-surface guided missiles and a 40 mm gun, air defence warfare with air-to-air guided missiles, asymmetric warfare with 12.7 mm stabilized and manually operated machine guns, and electronic warfare using an Electronic Support System. Their secondary missions include patrolling, protecting territorial waters, combating piracy, arms, and drug trafficking, surveillance, and search & rescue operations in inland and coastal areas.

Equipped with ASELSAN’s X-Band CENK-200N (formerly MAR-D) 3D Air/Surface Surveillance Radar, ALPER-100N LPI Radar, AHTAPOT-S Electro-Optical Director (EOD) System, ARES-2NC Radar Electronic Support System (with a new antenna design), two Chaff/Decoy Launcher Systems, and a Kelvin Hughes SharpEye LPI Radar, these fast attack crafts will be armed with a Leonardo OTO MARLIN 40 mm main gun, two ASELSAN 12.7 mm STAMP Remote-Controlled Stabilized Weapon Systems, two 12.7 mm pedestal-mounted manual machine guns, the ROKETSAN-produced SUNGUR Air Defence Missile System (4-cell launcher), and the ÇAKIR Anti-Ship Missile System (2x2). The 50-meter Guided Missile Attack Crafts will feature HAVELSAN’s ADVENT Combat Management System and be powered by three MAN 20V175D diesel engines—each rated at 4,400 kW—driving three waterjets. The first vessel is expected to enter service in 2027, followed by the second in 2028.

Following the playing of the national anthems of both countries, the ceremony commenced with a recitation from the Holy Quran by Commander (Cdr) İbrahim Al BADER, Deputy Head of the Qatar Project Control Office. During the ceremony, DEARSAN Shipyard Board Member and General Manager Murat GORDİ, as well as DEARSAN Shipyard Business Development Manager and Project Manager of the Qatari Emiri Naval Forces (QENF) 50-meter Guided Missile Attack Craft Project, Erkan YENİÇERİ, each delivered a speech.

DEARSAN Shipyard Board Member and General Manager Murat GORDİ, in his speech at the ceremony, first touched upon the milestones reached in the project—from the signing stage to the keel-laying stage—and stated the following: “Today, we have gathered to conduct the keel-laying ceremony for these vessels. We believe that these modern ships will make a very important contribution to the maritime security of the State of Qatar and will play a vital role in maintaining peace and stability in the region. On this occasion, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to the Commander of the Qatari Naval Forces, the Qatar Armed Forces Procurement and Logistics Directorate, and the esteemed personnel of the Qatari Naval Forces for the trust they have placed in DEARSAN, as well as for their significant support and contributions in launching and implementing the 50-meter Guided Missile Attack Craft Project and bringing it to this stage. We would like to once again offer our heartfelt thanks for joining us on this important day.”

Later, DEARSAN Shipyard Business Development Manager and Qatari Emiri Naval Forces (QENF) 50-metre Guided Missile Attack Crafts Project Manager Erkan YENİÇERİ took the podium. In the first part of his speech, he focused on the military shipbuilding projects undertaken by DEARSAN Gemi İnşaat Sanayi Inc.—one of Türkiye’s leading shipyards, established in 1980, which has built more than 120 commercial and military vessels since its founding—beginning from 2007. In the second part, he provided information about the QENF 50-meter Guided Missile Attack Crafts Project. YENİÇERİ stated the following: “DEARSAN Gemi İnşaat Sanayi Inc. became the first private shipyard in Türkiye to design and build a warship when it won the tender for 16 TUZLA-Class Patrol Boats, each measuring 57 meters, which was launched in 2007 by the Secretariat of Defence Industries (SSB). Subsequently, DEARSAN established a shipyard in Turkmenistan, where it built derivative models of the TUZLA-Class vessels—including guided-missile versions—for the Turkmen Border Guard and Naval Forces, making DEARSAN the first shipyard in Türkiye to export warships abroad. In Turkmenistan alone, DEARSAN has constructed and delivered more than 40 ships and boats ranging from 15 meters to 92 meters in length. Delivered in mid-2022, the 92-meter Deniz Han Corvette—classifiable as a light frigate considering the onboard weapon and sensor payload—is the first and only corvette-class vessel to be both designed and built by a private shipyard in Türkiye and then officially delivered. Among our ongoing activities in 2024 is the construction of two 76-meter Offshore Patrol Vessels for the Nigerian Navy. The launching ceremony for the first 76-meter Offshore Patrol Vessel was held on October 26, 2023, and the second launching ceremony took place on April 19, 2024. Currently, harbor and sea trials are underway for these vessels. In addition, we have signed a contract in Tanzania for the construction of a shipyard on the shores of Lake Tanganyika and the building of two roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) ships—each weighing 3,000 and 3,500 tons—that will operate on Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria for passenger, vehicle, and train transport.

On January 3, 2024, at the Defence Industry Executive Committee meeting held under the chairmanship of the President of the Republic of Türkiye, a consortium led by DEARSAN was commissioned to build four HİSAR-Class Offshore Patrol Vessels featuring the MİLGEM ADA-Class hull. Furthermore, DEARSAN Shipyard was selected for the construction of the Next Generation Mine-Hunting Vessel, a highly critical, high-tech project that only a few countries in the world can undertake. With the contract for the Next Generation Mine-Hunting Vessel Project signed on August 9, 2024, DEARSAN will become the first private shipyard in Türkiye to design and build this cutting-edge vessel. Having already built and delivered numerous different naval platforms—including corvettes, patrol vessels, high-speed guided missile attack boats, fast intervention boats, a hydrographic survey ship, tugboats, and landing ships—DEARSAN Shipyard continues to solidify its position and goal of becoming a world-class company by pursuing future-oriented projects such as Armed Unmanned Surface Vehicles (AUSV), Kamikaze Surface Vessels, and Light Submarines.

As for the main projects on which we have been focusing our full attention in 2024, foremost among them is the construction of the DEARSAN-designed 50-meter Guided Missile Attack Crafts (MAC), named Halul-11 by the Qatari Naval Forces. Since April 12, 2024, when the Project Control Office team began working at DEARSAN, the Preliminary Design and Critical Design Review activities have been carried out effectively and efficiently. During this process, more than 80 meetings, discussions, and on-site inspections have taken place, including visits to subcontractor companies as well as visits to the Naval Forces Command and bases in Doha. We completed the Preliminary Design Review phase of our Qatar 50-meter Guided Missile Attack Crafts Project on July 3, 2024, and the Critical Design Review phase was finalized on November 28, 2024. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all DEARSAN personnel and stakeholders for their dedicated, productive, and solution-oriented efforts throughout this process. In this context, starting from April 22, 2024, we also offer our sincere gratitude to the Head of the Project Control Office and his valuable team, who have been working at DEARSAN on behalf of the end user, the Qatari Naval Forces Command, for their proposals and valuable contributions. In conclusion, the DEARSAN-designed Qatar 50-meter Guided Missile Attack Crafts Project will comprise high-tech vessels that will significantly enhance the Qatari Naval Forces’ maritime capabilities. From the very beginning, this project has called for a total of five vessels, and we look forward with enthusiasm to receiving requests for additional ships from the Qatari Naval Forces Command and the Qatar Armed Forces Procurement and Logistics Directorate in the near future through the signing of a supplementary contract. We hope that cooperation between Qatar and Türkiye will grow even stronger and that the friendship between our two countries will endure. On behalf of DEARSAN’s senior management, we once again thank you all for your participation and extend our respectful regards.

Following the speeches, the first symbolic block joining weld was made at the Welding Ceremony Table by the Commander of the Qatari Emiri Naval Forces, Rear Admiral (RADM) Abdullah Hassan Al SULAITI. Subsequently, the Keel Laying Certificates for the Qatari Emiri Naval Forces 50-meter Guided Missile Attack Crafts (MAC) were presented to Rear Admiral SULAITI by DEARSAN Chairman of the Board, Aziz YILDIRIM. The ceremony concluded with a commemorative photo session. After the ceremony, Rear Admiral SULAITI and his accompanying delegation examined and received information on the full-scale (1:1) Bridge and Combat Information Center (CIC) mock-ups of the 50-meter Guided Missile Attack Crafts