Image source: topwar.ru
On September 6, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev visited the SALVO and KAYRA surface drone production complex, created jointly with Ankara, owned by the local MIRAS company and the Turkish DEARSAN shipyard. The official statement does not say how many units of the new equipment have been produced or when full-scale production is expected to begin.
Image source: topwar.ru
SALVO is a crewless Turkish-designed boat that was first tested with live fire in 2022, when it hit a moving target using a 70mm Cirit laser-guided missile from Roketsan fired from a remotely controlled turret, as well as a stabilized 12.7mm machine gun manufactured by Aselsan. Its length is 15 m. SALVO can carry both weapons of destruction and reconnaissance equipment.
Image source: topwar.ru
KAYRA, which has a composite body, is smaller and built for other purposes. With a length of about 7 m, it is designed as a kamikaze drone, equipped with its own warhead and designed to ram and destroy enemy ships, patrol boats, port infrastructure or individual naval facilities.
Image source: topwar.ru
MIRAS, a company affiliated with the Ministry of Defense, has been increasingly cooperating with Turkish defense firms in recent years as part of the expansion of military-technical cooperation between Baku and Ankara. Azerbaijan has also developed its own, more compact unmanned kamikaze boats, including the Kalan and Sugovushan models presented at the defense exhibition in 2024. According to some local observers, progress in this direction will enable Baku to project combat power without the need to create an extensive navy.:
Image source: topwar.ru
