Friday, 12 February 2021 15:39 ARES Shipyard and Meteksan Defence, which had initiated Turkey’s first indigenous Armed Unmanned Surface Vehicle (AUSV) program in October 2020, announced that the prototype vessel, ULAQ AUSV has been launched and sea trials have been started. The prototype AUSV’s missile systems are inclusive of 4 cells of Cirit and 2 of L-UMTAS (Picture source: Meteksan Defence Industry) Utku Alanç, Chief Executive Officer of ARES Shipyard, and Selçuk K. Alparslan, General Manager of Meteksan Defence, stated: "In the field of Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs); we would like to proudly announce that we have launched the first Armed Unmanned Surface Vehicle of ULAQ series, and have initiated the intensive sea trials period. From now on, our next short term target is to complete the sea trials successfully and carry out the guided missile firing tests. Since the very first announcement of ULAQ Unmanned Systems, we have encountered significant interest from our country and our allies. This interest and support has given us great incentive to design and build unique, state-of-the-art solutions. On this wise, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Turkish Ministry of National Defense, The Presidency of Defense Industries and Turkish Naval Forces and all our citizens who have provided full support since the very first launch of ULAQ program."