The Qatar Emiri Naval Forces (QENF) received a landing ship and three landing craft in a ceremony held at Anadolu Shipyard’s Tuzla facility on 6 July, the Qatari Ministry of Defence and the Turkish company announced.
The vessels were identified as the 80 m landing ship tank (LST) Fuwairit (QL 80), the two 40 m landing craft mechanised (LCMs) Ishat (QL 40) and Broog (QL 41), and the 15.7 m landing craft vehicle and personnel (LCVP) Al-Aaliya (QL 15).
Anadolu Shipyard said that the vessels would be sent to Qatar after six weeks of “tactical shakedown training”.
Photographs of the event confirmed that Fuwairit is armed with two 30 mm Aselsan Smash remotely operated weapon stations (ROWS) on either side of its ramp and two 12.7 mm Stop-2 ROWS on either side of its bridge. The 40 m LCMs have two .50 calibre machine guns on pintle mounts and the LCVP is unarmed.
In 2020, Anadolu Shipyard and Barzan Holdings signed a contract to construct landing equipment for the Qatari Emiri Navy. The vessels have been constructed under the terms of the contract.
The shipyard kicked off the construction of the ships in July 2021, while the units were launched at a ceremony held in February this year. The 40-meter long ships are designed to carry armoured vehicles or personnel.
Anadolu Shipyard also constructed two cadet training ships for Qatar. The work was performed during 36 months.
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