Azerbaijan is building drone fleet on Caspian sea: what will SALVO and KAYRA change?
Azerbaijan’s drone fleet in the Caspian
Azerbaijan has launched local production of armed naval drones and loitering maritime drones based on Turkish technology. The new systems are designed for a range of missions, from protecting energy infrastructure in the Caspian Sea and carrying out reconnaissance to attacking ships. However, the number of drones being produced, the cost of the programme and the share of manufacturing actually carried out in Azerbaijan have not been disclosed.
On 6 September, President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva visited the Azerbaijani Navy.
The visit was intended to showcase two unmanned naval platforms: the SALVO armed uncrewed surface vessel and the KAYRA maritime kamikaze drone.
According to Azerbaijan’s presidential website, the drones are being produced by a joint venture between MİRAS, a defence industry company operating under Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defence, and Turkish shipbuilder DEARSAN. Aliyev was briefed on the drones’ technical specifications before the systems underwent live demonstrations.
The official statement did not disclose production volumes, the cost of the project or when the first batch would be delivered to the Azerbaijani Navy.
They have been showcased before
SALVO and KAYRA are not being shown in Azerbaijan for the first time. SALVO was unveiled in August 2025 during military exercises focused on “the protection and defence of maritime energy infrastructure”.
KAYRA was presented in November that year at a military parade in Baku.
The significance of the 6 September presentation, therefore, is not the introduction of the systems themselves. The key change is that they are now being produced at a joint facility in Azerbaijan, and the production process was officially demonstrated to the country’s leadership for the first time.
This suggests that Azerbaijan wants to move beyond simply buying finished military equipment from Turkey towards domestic production, maintenance and potentially technology transfer. However, the official information does not make clear how much of the hulls, engines, electronics, communications and control systems is actually produced in Azerbaijan.
What is the difference between SALVO and KAYRA?
SALVO is a larger, multi-purpose platform designed for repeated use. KAYRA, by contrast, is a smaller kamikaze drone designed to rapidly approach and destroy its target.
| Specification | SALVO | KAYRA |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 14.79 metres | 7,6 metres |
| Maximum speed | More than 35 knots, around 65 km/h | More than 60 knots, around 111 km/h |
| Maximum range | Up to 400 nautical miles, around 740 km | 300 nautical miles, around 555 km |
| Hull | Aluminium | Composite material |
| Main role | Patrolling, surveillance and armed operations | One-way attack and target destruction |
According to DEARSAN, SALVO can be used to patrol coastlines and borders, conduct reconnaissance, combat smuggling, carry out search-and-rescue operations and engage surface targets.
During tests conducted by the company in 2022, SALVO launched a Cirit missile made by Turkish defence company Roketsan, hitting a moving target. A stabilised 12.7mm machine-gun mount produced by ASELSAN was then tested. The platform can be controlled from a mobile station on shore, a command centre or another military vessel.
It is not known what weapons will be fitted to the SALVO platforms intended for Azerbaijan.
The missions listed for KAYRA are primarily offensive. According to its manufacturer, the drone is designed to strike enemy ships and patrol boats, naval bases, ports, coastal infrastructure and logistics routes.
The type and amount of explosive carried by KAYRA, its guidance system and its ability to operate autonomously if communications are lost have not been publicly disclosed.
Why are these systems needed in the Caspian?
One of the main tasks of the Azerbaijani Navy is to protect oil and gas infrastructure in the Caspian Sea, as well as ports, pipelines and the country’s maritime borders.
According to Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defence, during naval exercises in 2025, ships patrolled and monitored areas where oil and gas pipelines run. They also practised responding to attacks by a simulated enemy, countering underwater sabotage groups and dealing with the threat of mines.
SALVO-type systems can carry out some of these tasks without putting ship crews at risk. They can conduct surveillance for extended periods, track suspicious vessels and, when armed, use force if necessary.
KAYRA, by contrast, is more of an offensive and deterrent weapon than a defensive one. Their small size and high speed could create additional challenges for the defences of warships. Using several such drones simultaneously from different directions could force a larger vessel to devote more resources to self-defence.
At the same time, drones do not replace a conventional navy. Their effectiveness depends on the quality of intelligence, the resilience of communications, operator training and their integration with other vessels into a unified command system. Electronic warfare, GPS jamming and loss of communications are considered key vulnerabilities of such systems.
Lessons from the war in Ukraine
The war in Ukraine has significantly changed perceptions of the role of naval drones in modern warfare. Ukraine, which does not have a large conventional navy, has used relatively cheap uncrewed boats to limit the capabilities of the Black Sea Fleet of Russia.
The experience has shown that smaller states can develop a maritime deterrent without having to build up large warships on a comparable scale. However, Russia has also strengthened its defences, port barriers and drone detection systems over time. This shows that the advantage provided by such technologies is not permanent.
The fact that Azerbaijan is producing KAYRA alongside SALVO, with KAYRA designed for one-way attacks, suggests that Baku is embracing this new model of naval warfare.
Will the military balance in the Caspian change?
The Caspian littoral states are Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan. The Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea, signed in 2018, calls on the parties to develop their military capabilities within “reasonable sufficiency”, maintain a balance of arms and ensure transparency. The convention also bans the presence of armed forces from non-littoral states in the Caspian.
Producing equipment in Azerbaijan based on technology from a Turkish company does not violate this ban. It involves technological and industrial cooperation rather than the deployment of foreign armed forces in the Caspian.
The emergence of two new platforms does not, by itself, alter the regional military balance. Assessing their impact would require knowing how many systems will be produced, what weapons they will carry and how they will be integrated with the rest of the navy.
There is also no public evidence that Azerbaijan is developing these systems specifically against Russia or Iran. Baku conducts joint exercises in the Caspian with Iran and Kazakhstan. Nevertheless, amid rapid rearmament and the spread of military technologies, neighbouring states are likely to take every new strike capability into account when planning their defences.
Key questions remain unanswered
The president’s visit officially confirmed that the naval drones are being produced in Azerbaijan. However, key information needed to assess the scale of the project remains undisclosed:
- How many SALVO and KAYRA systems are planned for production?
- How much will the contract and the production facility cost?
- What share of the components will be manufactured in Azerbaijan?
- What weapons and control systems will the Azerbaijani versions carry?
- Have the systems already entered operational service, or are they still undergoing testing?
- Who will decide when and under what procedures the kamikaze drones can be used?
SALVO could expand Azerbaijan’s surveillance and armed patrol capabilities in the Caspian, while KAYRA could provide a new asymmetric strike capability. Local production could also make maintenance easier and reduce dependence on foreign suppliers to some extent.
However, the actual capabilities of this “drone fleet” will depend on production volumes, how well the systems are integrated into a unified combat command network, and the financial terms of the project, which have not yet been disclosed.
Azerbaijan’s drone fleet in the Caspian
