Now Turkey is buying an aircraft carrier as the arms race in the volatile Middle East continues

(NationalSecurity.news) As odd as it sounds, the onetime leader of the Ottoman Empire is set to build a “multipurpose” aircraft carrier with “trans-continental” capabilities, The Daily Beast reported.

The ship, which will be about 225 meters (+/- 738 feet) and dubbed the “Anadolu” (or Anatolia), will likely enter service around 2021. Turkish defense officials say the ship be designed to take fighter aircraft, attack helicopters, troops, tanks and landing craft to areas around the Mediterranean Sea and as far away as the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.

Some analysts have said Turkey likely needs a vessel of this type, but others say the costly project is one aimed at building prestige that outpaces Ankara’s military limitations, The DB noted.

Still, others see it as Turkey – a NATO member – being determined to become the preeminent power in the Middle East and even beyond, but the push is coming with ramifications. Already the region is home to some of the most volatile geopolitical scenarios on the planet, including the Syrian civil war, new tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and continued chaos in Libya, Egypt, Iraq and Yemen.

And most recently relations between Turkey and Russia soured dramatically after Turkish F-16s downed a Russian Su-25 that Ankara said had crossed into Turkey’s airspace.

• More: Turkey sent warning to Russia days before shooting down one of Moscow’s warplanes

In addition, Iran’s naval presence has been increasing in the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean, Turkish officials noted, making it even more vital for Ankara to bolster its offensive military capabilities.

Behlul Ozkan, a Turkish foreign policy expert at Istanbul’s Marmara University, told The DB that the aircraft carrier program was in line with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s vision of Turkey’s global role.

“He really thinks Turkey can be an oceanic power,” he said, adding that Davutoglu’s vision might be “beyond Turkey’s capabilities.”

For instance, Ankara has also set a goal to become of the world’s 10 largest economies by 2023, an objective that a number of serious analysts believe is completely out of reach.

Already the Turks field a highly modernized military force that includes more than 600,000 soldiers, making it the second-largest force in NATO, behind the United States.

As for the Anadolu, analysts say it will resemble a landing platform dock, or LPD, a vessel that carries troops to hot spots and sends them ashore via landing craft, or a Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD).

The ship will come with a small compliment of F-35 jets and helicopters, an on-board hospital with at least 30 beds, and space for landing craft and other small vessels, as 13 main battle tanks.

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The Daily Beast

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