Overview
- Locals discovered the unmanned surface vessel on March 20 on a beach in the Ünye district of Ordu province.
- Turkish Navy explosive ordnance disposal teams and SAS commandos inspected the craft on March 21 and determined it was operational and equipped with a warhead.
- Officials towed the vessel roughly four kilometers offshore and detonated it in a controlled blast after evacuating nearby homes as a precaution.
- Images shared on social media were matched by analysts to Sierra Nevada Corporation’s AEGIR-W design, though officials have not confirmed the operator.
- This marks the fifth naval drone to wash up on Turkish shores since September 2025 and the first identified as a non-Magura foreign-made system, with its origin and mission still unverified.