The Turkish Armed Forces are conducting the Distinguished Observer Day of Exercise EFES 2026 on 20–21 May at the Doğanbey live-fire area in Seferihisar, İzmir – the culminating event of what has become one of the largest multinational combined joint exercises in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Defence Minister Yaşar Güler, Chief of the General Staff General Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu, and all three Turkish service commanders – Land Forces Commander General Metin Tokel, Air Force Commander General Ziya Kadıoğlu, and Naval Force Commander Admiral Ercüment Tatlıoğlu – are present alongside defence ministers and chiefs of general staff from the 50 participating countries. Milliyet reported that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is also expected to attend.
Scale and Participants
The numbers are substantial by the standards of any multinational exercise in the region. Daily Sabah reported that 10,388 personnel are deployed across the exercise area, including 1,305 from allied and partner nations drawn from 50 countries. NATO members – the United States, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom among them – are training alongside Azerbaijan, Pakistan, and Malaysia, while Japan, Sweden, Somalia, and Rwanda are also participating in various capacities.
Two participants stand out for their geopolitical weight rather than their force contributions. Syria’s army is taking part in EFES for the first time since the fall of the Ba’athist regime, reflecting the rapid security rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus that followed the political transition in late 2024 and the comprehensive military cooperation agreement signed in August 2025. Syrian forces conducted live-ammunition drills using heavy artillery and mortar shells under direct Turkish Army supervision, alongside units from Azerbaijan and Albania.
Libya’s presence is equally striking – Daily Sabah noted that EFES 2026 brought together rival military forces from Libya’s west and east for the first time in the same exercise. Eastern Libyan personnel departed Benghazi aboard a Turkish Air Force aircraft, with additional contingents arriving in subsequent days.
Azerbaijan’s role at EFES 2026 extended well beyond routine participation in the live-fire phases. Azerbaijani Lieutenant General Azer Aliyev and Turkish Aegean Army Commander General İrfan Özsert held strategic talks on the sidelines of the drills, with both sides describing the discussions as focused on expanding joint military activities, improving operational readiness, and deepening defence-industrial coordination between Ankara and Baku.
Pakistan’s participation, while less covered in Turkish media, provides Islamabad’s procurement officials with a direct operational window into the Turkish defence systems that the Pakistan Armed Forces are evaluating for their modernization programs – from the KAAN fifth-generation fighter to naval platforms and autonomous strike systems. With TCG Anadolu deployed off the coast and the full spectrum of Turkish land, air, and naval capabilities in live operation, the exercise functions as a more convincing demonstration than any static exhibition.
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A Different Exercise From Previous Years
The exercise has taken on a distinctly different character compared to previous EFES iterations. Colonel Bülent Kılınç of the Aegean Army Command’s General Secretariat stated during a press briefing on 18 May that EFES 2026 emphasised a hybrid operational environment and urban warfare – focusing on Special Forces operations, night-time sea and air infiltrations, and the rescue of critical personnel – “showcasing distinct differences from the exercises conducted in previous years.”
Earlier EFES iterations were structured primarily around conventional amphibious assault and coordinated fire support across the three services. The 2026 version incorporates night-phase infiltrations by combined Special Forces teams – para-dropped from transport aircraft and inserted by fast boat under total darkness – followed by Combined Underwater Assault (SAT) and Underwater Defence (SAS) teams conducting beach reconnaissance and landing corridor clearance. The 2026 iteration added electronic warfare suppression of simulated air and coast surveillance radars by special forces teams prior to the main amphibious force’s approach – a reflection of lessons drawn from the Ukraine conflict and the broader proliferation of drone and EW threats across modern battlefields.
Autonomous Systems and the KARGU Swarm
STM’s KARGU autonomous loitering munition swarm drew the most attention among the autonomous systems deployed at EFES 2026. STM announced on 18 May that KARGU would demonstrate its autonomous swarm capability in the field during the exercise, operated by a single controller coordinating all 20 units simultaneously. This follows the Polatlı live-fire test in January 2026 – described by STM as a world first – in which 20 KARGU drones autonomously split into three sub-swarms and struck designated targets with live ammunition using fully indigenous algorithms.
The swarm architecture is distributed rather than centralized, meaning each KARGU unit makes autonomous decisions, and the mission can continue even when individual drones are neutralized by countermeasures. The UAVs used a distributed control framework during the Polatlı test, communicating with each other to coordinate task sharing, timing, and mission continuity without reliance on any central command node. The drones can carry interchangeable anti-personnel or armour-piercing warheads selected based on the target profile, and the system incorporates anti-jamming antennas and GNSS-denied navigation capabilities. More than 1,000 KARGU units have reportedly been produced for the Turkish Armed Forces alone, and the system is now operationally deployed across 15 countries on four continents.
STM General Manager Özgür Güleryüz described the deployment of KARGU swarms at EFES 2026 as a demonstration of the level Türkiye has reached in autonomous systems and swarm warfare concepts. Alongside the swarm, STM displayed the KUZGUN – a kamikaze UAV system with a reported operational range exceeding 1,000 km – and the TUNGA-X, a high-speed drone interceptor designed to reach 300 km/h for neutralizing hostile loitering munitions.
Layered Air Defence: Steel Dome in the Field
Aselsan’s layered integrated air and missile defence (IAMD) architecture – marketed as “Steel Dome” (Çelik Kubbe) – received its first operational exercise demonstration at EFES 2026. Daily Sabah reported that the system brings together the long-range Siper interceptor alongside Hisar-A (short-range), Hisar-O (medium-range), and Sungur (very short-range/MANPADS) in a layered configuration designed to intercept targets across the full threat spectrum – from cruise missiles and tactical ballistic missiles down to small commercial-grade drones. MKE’s TOLGA short-range air defence system was also integrated into the live demonstration during the daytime phase of the Distinguished Observer Day.
Land Systems and Munitions
MoND spokesperson Rear Admiral Zeki Aktürk confirmed during a press briefing that 50 different weapons and systems are being fielded for the first time during the exercise. Among the systems Aktürk specifically named were the Panter truck-mounted 155mm howitzer, the KARAOK short-range anti-tank weapon, the Special Purpose Tactical Wheeled Armoured Vehicle, and the Karayel-class patrol boat.
The Panter was developed under ASFAT coordination with contributions from MKE, Aselsan, and BMC, integrating a 155mm artillery system onto an 8×8 tactical wheeled vehicle to enable rapid deployment and shoot-and-scoot operations. KARAOK, produced by Roketsan, is a man-portable fire-and-forget anti-tank missile designed for infantry use against armoured vehicles and fortified positions.
Roketsan’s contribution extended well beyond KARAOK in terms of both scale and diversity. Roketsan systems were actively deployed across multiple operational scenarios throughout the exercise, including the Sungur air defence missile, TEBER precision guidance kit, MAM-T smart munition, and the UMTAS long-range anti-tank missile. Alongside the live-fire activities, Roketsan displayed more than 20 defence systems at the Defence Industry Exhibition area – including the ÇAKIR cruise missile, KARA ATMACA land-to-land cruise missile, AKYA heavyweight torpedo, ORKA lightweight torpedo, and a mock-up of the Tayfun Block 4 ballistic missile.
Additional land systems confirmed for the exercise include the MEMATT mechanical mine-clearing vehicle, the 105mm BORAN howitzer, the ASLAN unmanned ground vehicle fitted with SARP remote-controlled weapon station, the Dragon Eye-2 thermal camera, the EJDERHA IED detection and neutralisation system, and the YENER modern mine detection system. The MKE Alpay-II vehicle-mounted minefield breaching system – an 18-tonne electric-hybrid platform capable of remotely launching rocket-propelled line charges from under armour – was also exhibited at the defence industry fair alongside the exercise.
Naval and Air Dimensions
Baykar’s Bayraktar TB3 unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) conducted operational sorties directly from TCG Anadolu, Türkiye’s light aircraft carrier, during the exercise. Daily Sabah described this as an achievement for the country’s naval aviation program – demonstrating that Türkiye can project armed UAV capability from a carrier at sea, a capability that only a handful of navies currently possess. The Bayraktar Akıncı heavy-payload UCAV provided close air support and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) coverage throughout the joint operations.
FNSS’s ZAHA Marine Assault Vehicle – designed to transfer marines rapidly from TCG Anadolu to shore during amphibious landings – is participating in EFES for the second consecutive iteration following its debut at EFES 2024. The first two vessels of Türkiye’s New Type Landing Craft Tank program (YLCT), designated C-159 and C-160, also participated in the amphibious phase. The TAI GÖKBEY utility helicopter was deployed for joint air operations, expanding its operational validation beyond the test campaign.
Vessels from the MİLGEM Ada-Class Corvette program – in which STM serves as lead subcontractor, having delivered four corvettes to the Turkish Navy – are performing missions during the live-fire phases. The locally produced Karayel-class patrol boat debuted at EFES 2026 in its first operational exercise.
The Defence Industry Exhibition
Running alongside the Distinguished Observer Day, a parallel Defence Industry Exhibition has drawn procurement officials and military delegations to stands hosting more than 50 Turkish defence firms. TAI is displaying the KAAN fifth-generation fighter, the Hürjet advanced jet trainer, and the Anka-3 stealth unmanned combat aircraft in their current development configurations – giving visiting delegations direct access to the programs whose export potential Ankara is actively working to expand.
Nurol Makina brought three vehicles to the exhibition area: the Ejder Yalçın Ambulance for armoured medical evacuation, the NMS EWB 4×4 with an integrated 30mm turret, and the NMS-L 4×4 – all positioned for export evaluation by visiting delegations. CANiK’s SYS Grup also exhibited weapon system integrations on the ZAHA Marine Assault Vehicle platform, with CEO Cahit Utku Aral describing EFES as “an extremely important platform that demonstrates not only the operational strength of the Turkish Armed Forces, but also Türkiye’s engineering, production, and integration capabilities in the defence industry on an international scale.”
Daily Sabah observed that EFES 2026 “offers a direct look at a defence industry that has moved from dependency to self-sufficiency within a decade, and that is now competing for export contracts across Central Asia, Africa, and Europe.” This assessment came two weeks after SAHA 2026 in Istanbul – where total export agreements exceeded $8 billion and the Turkish Ministry of National Defence revealed both a 42,000 lbf turbofan engine and an intercontinental ballistic missile concept.
The sequencing of SAHA followed by EFES is deliberate rather than coincidental in its design. SAHA 2026 was the static exhibition where contracts were signed and prototypes unveiled. EFES 2026 is the operational demonstration where those same systems are fired, flown, and sailed in front of 50 national delegations deciding where to spend their defence budgets.
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