Türkiye Fields Record 16-Company Delegation at Euronaval 2026

Türkiye sent its largest-ever delegation to Euronaval 2026, the biennial naval defence exhibition running November 3-6 at Paris Nord Villepinte, with 16 Turkish participants listed in the show’s official digital catalogue — double the eight companies that exhibited at the 2024 edition, according to C4Defence’s review of the exhibitor list.

The jump reflects how far Türkiye’s naval-industrial base has broadened beyond the handful of prime contractors that used to carry its flag at European shows. This year’s roster covers combat-system houses, shipyards, an engine maker and a communications specialist, all placed together in Hall 6: ASELSAN, ASFAT, HAVELSAN, MKE, Nurol Teknoloji, STM, DEARSAN Shipyard, DESAN Shipyard, Sanmar Shipyards, TAIS Shipyard, TEI, TUALCOM and ARES Shipyard, alongside Borusan Cat, the Turkuaz Exhibition Agency and one Turkish media organisation.

ASELSAN brings submarine optronics to Paris

The clearest new product on display is ASELSAN’s MERCAN 100, a submarine optronic mast the company showed publicly in Paris on November 4, according to Turkish defence outlet TurDef. The system pairs a twin-aperture optical head — combining MWIR, SWIR and day HD cameras — with an ESM/GPS antenna assembly, and can run in quick look-round mode or sectoral scanning, functions that mimic radar search patterns but work in the visible and infrared bands instead.

ASELSAN has shown the MERCAN family before, including at UDT 2025 in Oslo and IDEF 2025 in Istanbul, so Euronaval is not the mast’s debut. What is new is the company’s explicit pitch of the system beyond today’s submarines: TurDef’s report links MERCAN to Türkiye’s indigenous MİLDEN-class design and to the extra-large unmanned underwater vehicles the country is developing, which are expected to need their own optical search-and-attack sensors. ASELSAN has not published dimensions, weight or detection-range figures for the mast, and did not respond with additional technical detail by publication time.

The submarine mast adds to two other ASELSAN and MKE systems already unveiled at the show this week: ASELSAN’s containerised versions of the GÖKDENİZ close-in weapon system and GÖKSUR point-defence missile system, aimed at retrofitting naval air defence onto vessels that were not built with it, and MKE’s armed PİRANA autonomous surface vessel, a larger and weapons-carrying derivative of its PİRANA kamikaze USV.

Shipyards, engines and command systems fill out the stand

Beyond ASELSAN, the Turkish presence leans heavily on shipbuilding and support systems rather than headline weapons. DEARSAN, DESAN, Sanmar Shipyards and TAIS Shipyard are showing military and commercial vessel construction, repair and conversion work, while ARES Shipyard and state-owned ASFAT — the naval shipbuilding arm under Türkiye’s Ministry of National Defence — round out the yard presence. TEI is exhibiting engine design, maintenance and overhaul capability, and TUALCOM is showing communication and RF technologies for shipboard use.

STM is presenting naval platforms, tactical mini-UAV systems and command-and-control software, continuing a pattern the company has run at other 2026 shows such as FIDAE in Chile. STM’s business model — it owns no shipyard and instead contracts out construction across eight yards worldwide, according to an executive who spoke to Shephard Media at SAHA Expo in May — has let it chase export work “from Portugal to Pakistan” without the capital overhead of a yard of its own. HAVELSAN’s stand covers its SANCAR armed unmanned surface vessel, commissioned by the Turkish Navy in February, its ADVENT naval combat management system, and its broader naval command-and-control line; Nurol Teknoloji is showing ballistic protection products rather than a dedicated naval system.

Notably absent from this year’s list is Roketsan, which exhibited naval munitions at Euronaval 2024 but does not appear in the 2026 catalogue reviewed by C4Defence. The company has not said why it skipped this edition, and it continues to show naval weapons such as the ATMACA anti-ship missile and ÇAKIR cruise missile at other venues.

Why it matters beyond Paris

The size of the delegation matters as much as any single product on the stand. Türkiye’s defence and aerospace exports jumped 61% in October alone, pushing the year-to-date total past $11.3 billion, and naval systems are one of the segments Ankara is counting on to keep that curve climbing. A fair with 16 Turkish exhibitors, instead of eight, is a visible marker of how many mid-tier suppliers — engine houses, shipyards, communications firms — now see a European naval show as worth the stand space, not just the primes.

For buyers scouting submarine upgrades, MERCAN 100 is a reminder that ASELSAN’s electro-optics business, built mostly on land and surface programmes, is pushing into the underseas domain at the same time Türkiye is trying to export its own submarine-support ecosystem rather than just the hulls themselves. And for navies weighing unmanned surface vessels, having both MKE’s armed PİRANA and HAVELSAN’s in-service SANCAR on the same show floor underlines that Türkiye now has more than one credible domestic USV line competing for the same export customers it is trying to win.

None of this week’s Euronaval announcements include a signed export contract for a Turkish company, and none of the companies involved has disclosed pricing or named a prospective buyer for MERCAN 100. The show runs through November 6, and further announcements, including any contract signings, remained possible as this article was published.

Sources

• C4Defence, “Turkish Participation at Euronaval 2026 Increases Compared to the Previous Edition,” November 1, 2026
• TurDef, “Euronaval 2026: ASELSAN Unveils MERCAN 100 Optronic Mast,” November 4, 2026
• Shephard Media, “STM’s European wins strengthen Turkey’s naval credibility on the continent,” May 13, 2026
• Naval News / Defence Turkey reporting on the MERCAN family at UDT 2025 and IDEF 2025