Mogadishu (Somalia Today) — Turkey is building a launch site in Somalia that could serve both its space programme and its ballistic missile ambitions, French newspaper Le Monde has reported.
The site is under construction near Warsheikh, a coastal town about 70 kilometres north of Mogadishu, and will combine a satellite launch base with a ballistic missile testing facility for Turkey’s defence industry, according to the newspaper.
Le Monde said construction began quietly in October 2025, weeks before Turkey and Somalia publicly announced a space cooperation agreement.
The project, estimated at $350 million, has officially been presented by Ankara and Mogadishu as a civilian space initiative. But Le Monde’s report said the facility also carries a military dimension, with potential use for long-range missile testing.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the plan in December, saying: “Under the agreements we have signed, we plan to establish a spaceport in Somalia.”
Missile testing claim
Le Monde cited the Middle East Forum, a US-based pro-Israel think tank, as saying Turkey’s state-backed missile developer Roketsan could use the Somali site to test long-range ballistic missiles.
The think tank said the facility could accommodate missile systems with a range of up to 2,000 kilometres.
Such a range would not put Israel itself within reach, but it would allow Turkey to project power across large parts of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Red Sea region and the Gulf.
Le Monde said such a capability could cover major energy routes, the Strait of Hormuz, Bab al-Mandab, Western bases in the region and Gulf capitals.
That makes the project more than a question of space technology. If confirmed, the ballistic component would give Ankara a strategic platform on the Indian Ocean and expand the reach of its fast-growing defence industry.
Turkish officials say Somalia offers clear technical advantages for satellite launches.
Its location near the equator can reduce fuel consumption and increase payload capacity, while its Indian Ocean coastline allows launch debris to fall into the sea rather than populated areas.
Le Monde quoted a Turkish government source as saying Ankara also hopes to make the project profitable by allowing other countries to launch satellites from Somalia. The Turkish Space Agency declined to comment.
The project would make Turkey the 13th country in the world with a sovereign space launch base, according to Le Monde.
Arda Mevlutoglu, director at Turkish consultancy Mergen Analytical Strategies, told the newspaper the site would allow Ankara to “access space autonomously” and strengthen its place in the global space economy.
Satellite images
Le Monde said satellite images showed construction beginning in mid-October 2025 on the outskirts of Warsheikh.
By February, workers had installed a heliport and perimeter structures made up partly of walls and sand berms. By late June, several barracks and a buried storage area were visible, the newspaper said.
The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by summer 2027.
The scale of the site appears significant. Selcuk Bayraktar, the head of Turkish drone manufacturer Baykar, said in December that Turkey controlled a 30-kilometre-by-30-kilometre area in Somalia, according to Le Monde.
Baykar, best known for its combat drones, plans to launch positioning satellites from the site using in-house-developed rockets, the newspaper reported.
Security ring
The project is taking shape in a region where security remains fragile.
Somalia has fought Al-Shabaab for more than two decades, and the Al-Qaeda-linked group remains active in parts of southern Somalia and Middle Shabelle, the region where Warsheikh is located.
Le Monde reported that Turkey had deployed special forces and military advisers outside Mogadishu, in Middle Shabelle, for the first time, to help oversee Somali army operations around the area.
“Turkey has put in place a collar of pearls of military outposts in the region to ensure that the space base will not be attacked,” Le Monde quoted an East African diplomat as saying.
That security build-up has sharpened questions over whether the project is purely civilian.
Burhanettin Duran, the Turkish presidency’s communications director, said in February that cooperation between Turkey and Somalia could open new areas in “security, defence industry and technology sharing”, according to Le Monde.
Turkish footprint
The project marks a new stage in a partnership that began in 2011, when Erdogan, then prime minister, visited Mogadishu during a famine and at a time when much of the capital was still recovering from years of war.
Since then, Turkey has become one of Somalia’s most influential foreign partners.
Turkish companies have expanded into construction, health care, education, and infrastructure. Ankara has built its largest overseas embassy in Mogadishu and opened Turksom, its only official military base in Africa.
The base trains Somali forces and anchors a security relationship that has deepened sharply in recent years.
In 2024, Turkey signed a defence and economic cooperation agreement with Somalia under which Ankara pledged to help protect Somalia’s territorial waters. Turkey has also secured offshore energy exploration blocks and is expanding drilling activity off the Somali coast.
Le Monde said Ankara’s deepening role has turned Somalia into a key platform for Turkey’s Africa policy and its wider push for influence across the Red Sea, the Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
For Somalia, the project offers the prospect of becoming one of Africa’s few space launch hubs.
For Turkey, it could provide something far more strategic: a launch site that links Ankara’s space ambitions to its defence industry and gives it a new platform for power projection from the Horn of Africa.
