MKE Unveils TOLGA Dual 20mm Naval Gun After Sea Trials

Turkish state manufacturer MKE has unveiled a naval version of its TOLGA short-range air defence system, pairing two 20mm revolver cannons on a single remote-controlled mount and pitching it as protection against both aerial drones and small attack boats. The company showed the system, designated the TOLGA 20mm Dual Weapon Revolver System, at Euronaval 2026 in Paris from November 3-6, weeks after it fired for the first time from a Turkish Navy corvette.

The mount pairs two gas-operated 20x102mm revolver cannons on a single remotely operated turret, with a combined rate of fire MKE puts at up to 3,200 rounds per minute, roughly 1,600 rounds per minute from each gun. The company has not disclosed sustained or burst-fire limits, so that combined figure describes peak output rather than a rate the mount can hold continuously. Elevation runs from -30 to +70 degrees with continuous traverse, and the turret is stabilised by its own inertial navigation unit, with a provision to take heading and motion data from the host ship so it can keep tracking a target while the vessel is manoeuvring.

Each gun feeds from its own ammunition line, which MKE says lets an operator switch between high-explosive and pre-programmed fragmentation rounds without reloading. Fire control includes day and night electro-optical tracking with automatic ballistic calculation, and MKE says the mount can take a feed from an external radar, though it has not named a specific sensor pairing for the version tested at sea. The unarmed mount weighs 842 kilograms without ammunition, according to specifications reported by EDR Magazine from the Euronaval show floor.

First Firing From TCG Beykoz

MKE tested the dual 20mm mount at sea for the first time during the TURNAs-2026 unmanned systems exercise in late October, firing it from the corvette TCG Beykoz. The company says the system engaged both an aerial target and a surface target during the demonstration and “successfully struck both target categories,” though it has not released engagement ranges, target speeds, or how many rounds were expended. TURNAs-2026 put 41 unmanned and counter-unmanned systems through trials across the Turkish Navy, and the Beykoz firing was one part of a broader push to test layered defences against drones and small boats.

The naval mount is a derivative of the land-based TOLGA air defence system, which MKE has built around a family of 12.7mm, 20mm and 35mm remote weapon stations tied together by the Gökbörü AESA radar, electro-optical sensors and jamming equipment. A single 20mm TOLGA mount already has a combat record: it scored what MKE described as Türkiye’s first directed-energy drone kill when paired with a laser weapon during the Ateş Serbest-2026 live-fire exercise in October, and the company has pitched the land system to buyers looking for cheaper point defence against the kind of cheap, massed drone threats that Turkish firms have increasingly built an export product line around.

A Pitch to Shipowners, Not Just Navies

MKE is marketing the dual mount beyond the Turkish Navy, describing commercial vessels, tankers and other civilian ships operating in contested waterways as potential customers. That pitch tracks a wider shift in the naval weapons market since 2023, as Houthi missile and drone attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea and Bab-el-Mandeb pushed several navies and private operators to look at embarked weapons for ships that previously carried none. ASELSAN has made a similar case this year for containerised versions of its GÖKDENİZ and GÖKSUR systems, shown at the same Euronaval exhibition, which can be fitted to a ship and later removed rather than requiring a permanent naval-grade installation.

Arming merchant ships raises questions that go beyond the hardware. Flag states, insurers and port authorities set their own rules on weapons aboard civilian vessels, and a system that performs in a naval demonstration still has to clear that separate set of approvals before an oil major or shipping line can fit it. MKE has not named a commercial or military customer for the dual 20mm mount, and the company says the system is ready for contracting rather than already sold. The Turkish Navy has not announced a procurement decision either, and no fleet-wide fitting has been confirmed beyond the single trial mount carried by TCG Beykoz.

Part of a Larger Euronaval Showing

The TOLGA unveiling was one piece of a record 16-company Turkish delegation at Euronaval 2026, where MKE also displayed its armed PİRANA uncrewed surface vessel and its MALAMAN smart bottom mine, and ASELSAN showed its MERCAN 100 submarine optronic mast alongside the containerised air defence systems. For MKE specifically, the naval TOLGA adds a maritime counter-drone product to a company better known for ammunition, artillery and the land-based TOLGA line, and gives it a second export avenue into a segment, small-calibre counter-drone and counter-USV weapons, that Turkish firms have increasingly used to break into markets dominated by Western shipbuilders and systems houses.

Sources: Naval News, EDR Magazine, Army Recognition, MKE TOLGA product page.