The maritime edition of the world’s largest aviation, space, and technology festival — TEKNOFEST Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan) — continues at the Istanbul Shipyard Command, bringing Türkiye’s defense industry and youth together under one mission: innovation beneath the waves. Organized under the leadership of Roketsan, the Underwater Rocket Competition is being held for the first time, challenging young engineers to design, develop, and successfully launch underwater rocket systems in a realistic maritime environment.

The event, hosted in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Technology, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Türkiye Technology Team Foundation (T3 Foundation), with TRT as its communication partner, aims to strengthen Türkiye’s capabilities in underwater propulsion and guidance technologies. In addition to the Underwater Rocket Competition, the festival features the Unmanned Underwater Systems and Unmanned Surface Vehicle competitions — fostering innovation in areas such as autonomous control, sonar navigation, visual processing, hydrodynamics, and underwater communication.

Visiting the competition site, Selçuk Bayraktar (Chairman of TEKNOFEST and T3 Foundation Board of Trustees), Defense Industry Agency President Haluk Görgün, and Roketsan General Manager Murat İkinci met with participants and examined their projects. Speaking at the event, İkinci emphasized the strategic importance of underwater technologies: “Underwater rocket technologies represent one of the strategic domains of the future. As Roketsan, we are proud to stand by our young engineers and encourage their efforts.”

The competition provides a rare opportunity for participants to gain field experience in propulsion testing, waterproofing, structural design, and mission execution — all under real operational conditions. It also serves as a technology incubator, turning academic research and student innovation into potential defense applications.

Beyond the competition, TEKNOFEST Blue Homeland serves as a platform for cultivating maritime awareness among young generations while showcasing Türkiye’s growing expertise in naval engineering. Through events like Roketsan’s Underwater Rocket Competition, Türkiye continues to invest in the engineers of tomorrow — those who will protect and advance the Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan) in the years to come.