CTech Unveils Hybrid Satcom Link for Turkish USV Swarms
CTech, the Istanbul-based communications subsidiary of Turkish Aerospace, has unveiled a hybrid satellite and line-of-sight architecture that lets a single unmanned surface vessel (USV) relay command-and-control signals to an entire swarm of drone boats, including expendable “kamikaze” vessels, from a command centre thousands of kilometres away.
The company announced the concept on September 14, pairing two existing products it already sells separately: the AquaARX satellite communication terminal and the UfukLink-Mini Pro line-of-sight radio. In the configuration CTech is now promoting, only one vessel in a swarm needs to carry the relatively large and expensive AquaARX dish. That vessel receives instructions from the command centre over satellite, then rebroadcasts them locally over UfukLink-Mini Pro to the rest of the swarm, including low-cost attack USVs that carry no satellite hardware of their own. Live video from the operating area is relayed back to the command centre over the same link.
What the two systems do
AquaARX is CTech’s maritime satcom terminal, built in 12-inch (40 kg) and 20-inch (45 kg) reflector versions that track across both Ku and Ka bands, use DVB-S2 modulation with AES-256 encryption, and are rated for continuous operation at sea in temperatures down to minus 40°C. CTech markets it for both manned and unmanned vessels, from coast guard cutters to armed USVs.
UfukLink-Mini Pro is a smaller, shorter-range line-of-sight radio built for rapid deployment, capable of data rates up to 100 Mbps over distances of roughly 200 km and designed with frequency-hopping to resist jamming and interception. On its own it needs a relay within range; paired with AquaARX on a single “bridge” vessel, it effectively extends satellite connectivity to every drone boat in the group without equipping each one with its own dish.
Building on a Riyadh demonstration
The swarm concept extends a capability CTech first showed in public in March, when it used AquaARX to control a USV operating in Istanbul from its exhibition stand at the World Defense Show in Riyadh — roughly 1,400 km away — in real time. “By remotely controlling the unmanned surface vessel operating in Istanbul via satellite link from our booth in Riyadh, we demonstrated to our stakeholders the real operational capability of secure and uninterrupted satellite communications,” CTech General Manager Dr. Cüneyd Fırat said at the time. The September announcement is the company’s answer to the next problem that raises: how to extend that same reach to a whole group of vessels without pricing the concept out of reach.
Why it matters for USV swarms
Cost is the practical issue driving this. A satcom terminal like AquaARX is a substantial piece of hardware to bolt onto a vessel that may be designed to be expended in a single one-way attack mission. Türkiye’s navy has been moving toward exactly that kind of asset: it is procuring around 100 expendable one-way-attack USVs from three domestic manufacturers, alongside armed and reconnaissance USVs such as Dearsan’s SALVO and KAYRA, which Azerbaijan has already begun co-producing, and ASELSAN’s TUFAN and KILIÇ strike platforms. A hybrid architecture that puts satellite hardware on only one vessel per swarm, while the rest carry cheaper line-of-sight radios, is a direct fit for a force that wants dozens of expendable hulls without dozens of satellite bills.
The same logic applies beyond Türkiye. Naval planners across NATO and the Gulf have watched one-way-attack USVs reshape naval warfare in the Black Sea, and are weighing how to field their own swarms affordably. CTech, whose satellite and radio systems already fly on Turkish uncrewed aircraft with more than 400,000 combined flight hours, is positioning itself as a systems-level supplier for that market rather than just a component vendor — a role it has also been pushing at recent European shows, including MSPO 2026 in Poland, where it showed NATO-listed anti-jam satcom terminals and signed a cooperation memorandum with Estonia’s Wayren.
No customer or programme has yet been named for the swarm architecture itself, and CTech has not disclosed pricing or a timeline for fielding it. The company’s own USV work so far has centred on demonstrations rather than an in-service swarm system; Türkiye’s armed USVs already in service, such as ARES Shipyard and Meteksan’s ULAQ, use their own established communication suites. What CTech has shown is a cheaper path to scaling command and control across many vessels at once — a problem every navy pursuing USV swarms will eventually have to solve.
Sources: C4Defence; CTech product data for AquaARX and UfukLink-Mini Pro; Defense Arabia on the March 2026 World Defense Show demonstration.
