Mogadishu (Somalia Today) — A Turkish spaceport taking shape on Somalia’s Indian Ocean coast has raised concern in Israel after a French newspaper reported that the site could also serve as a testing ground for long-range ballistic missiles.
Le Monde reported that Turkey quietly began construction in October 2025 near Warsheikh, a coastal town about 70 kilometres north of Mogadishu.
The newspaper described the project as both a satellite launch base and a ballistic missile testing site for Ankara’s defence industry.
Turkey and Somalia have publicly framed the project as a space cooperation initiative, part of Ankara’s expanding technological, military and economic footprint in the Horn of Africa.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the plan in December, saying: “Under the agreements we have signed, we plan to establish a spaceport in Somalia.”
Le Monde said the project, estimated at $350 million, would make Turkey the 13th country in the world with a sovereign space launch base.
It quoted Arda Mevlutoglu, director at Turkish consultancy Mergen Analytical Strategies, as saying the site would allow Ankara to “access space autonomously” and strengthen its position in the global space economy.
Dual-use concern
Turkish officials say Somalia offers clear technical advantages. Its position near the equator can reduce fuel consumption and increase payload capacity, while its Indian Ocean coastline allows launch debris to fall into the sea.
According to Le Monde, a Turkish government source said Ankara also hopes to make the project profitable by allowing other countries to launch satellites from Somalia. The newspaper said the Turkish Space Agency declined to comment.
But in Israel, concern has focused on the reported military dimension of the project.
The Jerusalem Post, citing Le Monde and the US-based Middle East Forum, said the facility could accommodate missile systems with a range of up to 2,000 kilometres.
That would not put Israel itself within range, 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 global energy routes, the Strait of Hormuz, Bab al-Mandab, Western bases in the region and Gulf capitals.
It would also place Somaliland, which Israel recognised in December and has sought closer ties with, within Turkey’s potential reach. Somalia has condemned Israel’s recognition of Somaliland as an attack on its sovereignty.
Satellite images
The scale of the project appears larger than earlier public descriptions suggested.
Le Monde said satellite images showed work starting in mid-October 2025 on the outskirts of Warsheikh.
By February, workers had installed a heliport and perimeter structures made up in part of walls and sand berms. By late June, several barracks and a buried storage area were visible.
The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by summer 2027.
“Turkey holds a 30-kilometre by 30-kilometre area in Somalia,” Selcuk Bayraktar, the head of Turkish drone giant Baykar, said at the Take Off Istanbul summit in December, 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.
The project marks the latest stage in a partnership that began in 2011, when Erdogan, then prime minister, visited Mogadishu during a famine, when much of the capital was still scarred by war.
Since then, Turkey has become one of Somalia’s most influential foreign partners.
Turkish companies have moved into construction, health, education and infrastructure, while 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 wider 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.
Security ring
Le Monde said Turkey’s growing military presence around Warsheikh reflects the security risks surrounding the project.
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 cordon of military outposts in the region to ensure that the space base will not be attacked,” the newspaper 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 the cooperation could open new areas in “security, defence industry and technology sharing”, according to Le Monde.
The Middle East Forum said Roketsan, Turkey’s state-backed missile developer, would use the site to test long-range ballistic missiles, a claim Ankara has not publicly confirmed.
Wider tensions
The debate over the Somali spaceport comes as Turkey-Israel relations continue to deteriorate over Gaza, Iran and the wider Red Sea region.
Erdogan has repeatedly denounced Israel’s war in Gaza and accused the Israeli government of trying to destabilise the region.
“The current war-addicted Israeli government must not be allowed to drown our geography in the smell of gunpowder and blood again,” he said on Saturday.
Israeli politicians have also sharpened their warnings about Turkey.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett said in February that Israel must not “turn a blind eye” to Ankara, adding: “A new Turkish threat is emerging.”
Turkey, a NATO member, has spent years expanding its domestic defence industry, including drones, missiles and air defence systems.
For Somalia, the project offers the prospect of becoming a rare African launch hub and attracting new technology investment.
For Israel and its allies, the same geography that makes Somalia attractive for satellites also raises questions about missiles, military access and the future balance of power around the Horn of Africa.
