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Türkiye’s ZAHA Amphibious Assault Vehicles Lead NATO Baltic Landing in STEADFAST DART 26 Maritime Drill.
Turkish Marines deployed FNSS-built ZAHA Amphibious Force Multiplier vehicles during NATO’s STEADFAST DART 26 maritime phase off Germany’s Baltic coast on February 18, 2026. The operation marked the first major NATO use of Türkiye’s new amphibious assault vehicle family in a multinational task group, underscoring enhanced Alliance power projection in contested littoral environments.
On February 18, 2026, NATO’s STEADFAST DART 26 exercise reached its climactic maritime phase off the Baltic coast of Germany, with allied forces executing a complex amphibious landing in the Putlos training area. In this scenario, Turkish Marines riding FNSS-built Amphibious Force Multiplier MAV (ZAHA) vehicles came ashore under a dense umbrella of allied air, naval, and special operations support. According to information released by FNSS, NATO’s Joint Force Command Brunssum and the Turkish Ministry of National Defence, this was the first major NATO deployment of Türkiye’s new amphibious assault vehicle family as part of a multinational task group. For both Türkiye and the Alliance, the event showcased how nationally developed platforms like ZAHA are transforming NATO’s ability to move combat power rapidly from sea to shore in contested European littorals.
Turkish Marines deployed domestically built ZAHA amphibious assault vehicles during NATO’s STEADFAST DART 26 exercise in Germany’s Baltic region, marking the platform’s first major multinational operational use and reinforcing Alliance sea-to-shore power projection capability (Picture Source: FNSS, Turkish MOD, Anadolu Agency)
STEADFAST DART 26 is NATO’s flagship live exercise for the Allied Reaction Force (ARF), designed to validate rapid reinforcement from Southern Europe to the Baltic region by sea, land, and air. Around 10,000 personnel, more than 1,500 vehicles and 17 ships from over a dozen Allies have been mobilized, with Germany acting as host nation and operational hub. The ARF itself is a key element of NATO’s New Force Model, expected in crisis to generate up to 40,000 troops within ten days under political direction, giving the Alliance a high-readiness tool for deterrence and defense on any flank. Within this framework, the amphibious phase in the Baltic is not a standalone spectacle; it is the practical demonstration of how NATO intends to project ground combat power across oceans, seas, and choke points without losing tempo.
For Türkiye, STEADFAST DART 26 is the operational culmination of a broader strategic commitment. Earlier reporting has highlighted the deployment of the Anadolu Task Group on a year-long NATO mission from July 2025 to June 2026, positioning Turkish naval forces at the core of allied amphibious and rapid-reaction operations from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. This task group, built around the drone-carrying amphibious assault ship TCG Anadolu and including the frigates TCG Oruçreis and TCG İstanbul plus the fleet replenishment ship TCG Derya, gives NATO a sovereign Turkish amphibious strike package able to serve as a regional command node or integrate into larger maritime formations.
At the beginning of STEADFAST DART 26, the same force also enabled a historic first: a Bayraktar TB3 unmanned combat aerial vehicle launched from TCG Anadolu executed a live precision strike against a surface target in the Baltic Sea, completing the full cycle of launch, engagement, and recovery under NATO command arrangements. Together, these elements show a Turkish Navy that not only sails with the Alliance but shapes its amphibious and unmanned playbook.
The amphibious demonstration described by NATO’s Joint Force Command Brunssum tightly integrated this naval architecture with air and ground maneuver. The operation opened with a TB3 sortie from TCG Anadolu providing real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance over the objective area, feeding targeting data into the allied network. Simulated enemy assets detected by the UAV were then struck by German Eurofighter 2000 aircraft, illustrating how Turkish and German capabilities can share the same kill chain. Once the objective area was shaped from the air, Spanish special operations forces conducted an underwater insertion to clear mock explosive hazards, while Turkish and Spanish naval SOF fast-roped ashore from helicopters to secure key points along the beachhead. Turkish attack helicopters delivered close air support as the main landing force arrived by high-speed boats and, crucially, by ZAHA amphibious assault vehicles pushing inland under armor. A secondary landing by allied landing craft extended the beachhead, and the scenario ended with the tactical extraction of Spanish SOF using an airborne extraction platform, demonstrating that the ARF can both insert and recover forces under combat conditions.
At the heart of this ship-to-shore movement is the FNSS Amphibious Force Multiplier MAV (ZAHA), a tracked armored amphibious combat vehicle purpose-built for operations with TCG Anadolu and other landing platforms. According to FNSS, the vehicle measures roughly 8.3 meters in length and 3.3 meters in width and carries a 21-person complement including driver, commander, gunner, and embarked Marines. It is powered by a diesel engine with a power-to-weight ratio of about 20 horsepower per ton, driving a fully automatic transmission and torsion-bar suspension for cross-country mobility. On land, ZAHA can reach road speeds up to 70 km/h, tackle 60 percent gradients, negotiate 40 percent side slopes, cross two-meter trenches, and climb 0.9-meter vertical obstacles.
In the water, a fully sealed hydrodynamic hull and twin water-jet propulsion system deliver up to 7 knots, while a self-righting capability allows the vehicle to recover from capsizing in rough sea states. The platform mounts the FNSS CAKA remote-controlled turret with a 12.7 mm machine gun and 40 mm automatic grenade launcher, supported by day/night sights, 360-degree situational awareness cameras, and an integrated battlefield management system. Protection is based on classified STANAG 4569-level ballistic and mine standards, complemented by an automatic fire-suppression system, CBRN protection, smoke grenade launchers, and an integrated smoke generator.
These technical characteristics translate directly into tactical effects during STEADFAST DART 26. Launched from TCG Anadolu and other amphibious platforms during the beach-landing phase, ZAHA vehicles close the last several kilometers between ship and shore at speed, surfacing through surf zones that would slow or swamp lighter craft. Marines disembark under armor protection through a hydraulically operated rear ramp, already connected to the unit and NATO command network via onboard communications and navigation systems. Once ashore, the same vehicle that functioned as a seaborne connector immediately transitions into an armored personnel carrier or infantry fighting vehicle, keeping pace with main battle tanks and mechanized forces as they push inland. By combining protected mobility, organic firepower, and full amphibious performance in a single tracked platform, ZAHA reduces the number of specialized vehicles needed in the first wave and simplifies the logistics tail behind the landing force.
The logistics story of STEADFAST DART 26 is as important as the beach assault itself. Turkish naval elements and their ZAHA detachments deployed to the Baltic after a roughly ten-day movement that involved heavy equipment and personnel flowing by air, sea, rail, and large road convoys. Once in Germany, they integrated into a multinational maritime component of 15 ships from six nations under the ARF Maritime Component Command, embarked in part aboard the Spanish amphibious ship ESPS Castilla. The exercise thus validated not only ZAHA’s tactical performance but also Türkiye’s ability to move an entire amphibious task group across European theaters, plug into host-nation support structures in Germany, and then project power further forward. The German defense minister Boris Pistorius, Bundeswehr Chief of Defense General Carsten Breuer, and Turkish Navy Commander Admiral Ercüment Tatlıoğlu personally observing the amphibious phase alongside NATO commanders underlined the political weight behind these capabilities, as also reported by Anadolu Agency and Turkish official channels.
For NATO, the integration of the Turkish Amphibious Task Group, TB3 unmanned aviation, and ZAHA armored vehicles into a single scenario offers a real-world template for future littoral operations. In a crisis on the Alliance’s northern flank, the ARF could employ TB3 and other unmanned systems to surveil and shape contested coastal areas, while ZAHA waves deliver Marines, engineers, and command elements directly onto defended beaches or austere ports. The combination compresses the sensor-to-shooter timeline, extends the reach of naval fires inland, and gives ground commanders a protected, networked spearhead from the moment the ramp drops. The fact that these capabilities are provided by a non-US Ally is strategically significant: it shows that NATO’s high-end amphibious warfare toolbox is diversifying, increasing resilience and redundancy even in scenarios where American assets may be committed elsewhere.
From Türkiye’s perspective, ZAHA’s performance in STEADFAST DART 26 confirms the maturity of a program originally launched to meet the Turkish Naval Forces’ own requirement for a modern amphibious assault vehicle. Initial vehicles were introduced in 2019 and deliveries to the Amphibious Marine Brigade have totaled 27 units tailored for operations from TCG Anadolu. What began as a national modernization effort has now evolved into a NATO-relevant capability, tested in the exact Baltic scenario where the Alliance expects contested amphibious operations to be most demanding. The messages circulating on official Turkish defense ministry channels during the exercise, highlighting how the armored amphibious combat vehicle was “leaving its mark” on the blue waters of the Baltic, accurately capture this transition from national project to alliance asset.
There are also important geostrategic implications for NATO’s maritime posture. By dispatching a fully equipped amphibious task group from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Baltic, Türkiye demonstrates that it can serve as both a southern anchor and an expeditionary contributor to northern deterrence. This north-south mobility complicates any potential adversary’s planning by ensuring that forces based near the Straits and Levant can rapidly reinforce the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, or the Black Sea as needed. Germany’s role as a logistics hub and host for STEADFAST DART 26 reinforces a European framework in which Turkish amphibious units, Spanish command ships, German airpower, and other allied assets can mesh seamlessly under the operational control of JFC Brunssum. In this architecture, ZAHA is not simply another armored vehicle; it is the physical connector that turns maritime access into land combat power along vulnerable shorelines from the Baltic archipelagos to other NATO littorals.
At the industrial level, ZAHA’s debut in a major NATO exercise sends a clear signal about the value of Turkish defense companies such as FNSS to the wider Alliance. Very few manufacturers worldwide currently produce new-generation tracked amphibious assault vehicles in series; FNSS is one of the rare suppliers inside NATO with an active production line, modern digital design, and combat-validated performance. The vehicle’s modular architecture allows derivatives for command-and-control, recovery, and combat engineering roles, opening the door for other allied navies that operate landing ships but lack modern armored connectors. If additional Allies decide to procure or co-produce variants of ZAHA, NATO could gradually build a more standardized amphibious fleet, easing joint training, sustainment, and interoperability in exercises like STEADFAST DART and in real contingencies.
STEADFAST DART 26 has turned the Amphibious Force Multiplier MAV (ZAHA) from a national acquisition story into a visible NATO capability, proving that Turkish-designed and Turkish-built systems can anchor allied operations far from the Anatolian coast. Under the operational leadership of JFC Brunssum, and with the Anadolu Task Group, TB3 unmanned aviation, and Turkish Marines at its core, the Alliance has demonstrated that it can project armored forces from sea to shore in the Baltic with a tempo and protection level suited to modern high-threat environments. For Türkiye, this performance confirms its status as a maritime and industrial power whose platforms are now integral to NATO deterrence; for FNSS, it is proof that a vehicle conceived for national requirements can become an alliance workhorse. As future iterations of STEADFAST DART and other allied drills unfold, ZAHA’s wake in the Baltic is likely to be seen not as a one-off debut, but as the starting point of a long-term Turkish contribution to NATO’s amphibious edge.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.