On his social media accounts, Demir said, “A feast gift from our defence industry! GÖKDENİZ Close Air Defence System, developed for our navy, successfully destroyed the high-speed target in its last fire test on the ship. GÖKDENİZ will be ready for duty on the Istanbul frigate this year.”

Demir’s words indicate that the last test was against sub-sonic anti-ship missiles.

GÖKDENİZ is a crucial close air defence system as it is the last layer in defending naval platforms against air threats. The CIWS defends vessels against a wide range of threats such as helicopters, fighters, UAVs and asymmetric surface naval threats.

The GÖKDENİZ system consists of a 35 mm gun, search radar, tracking radar, and E/O sensors. All are located on the same platform. Thanks to the integration, the system can perform all the target detection, threat prioritisation, automatic tracking and destruction of the engaged threat.

The system has a 35 mm double gun produced by the Defence Ministry company MKE. Its firing rate with a 35 mm twin gun system is 1100 rounds per minute.

Another important capability of GÖKDENİZ is the Automatic Linkless Ammunition Feed Mechanism (ALAFM) allows loading both HEI and Airburst Ammunition simultaneously and switching between ammunition types needed. The GÖKDENİZ system, which can be used against surface and land targets and air threats, can successfully fulfil its tasks for different purposes thanks to this mechanism.

The basic sub-components such as 35 mm guns, Airburst Ammunition (ATOM), radars, E/O sensors, motion control systems, and mission computers used in GÖKDENİZ were developed and produced domestically by the Turkish defence industry.

The land version of GÖKDENİZ is named the Korkut air defence platform. The marine version was first introduced as Korkut-D and later renamed GÖKDENİZ. Dearsan Shipyard built a ship for Turkmenistan and exported the CIWS.