Turkey is Developing New Defense Technology

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Turkey has been leading a policy of manufacturing defense products and parts domestically in order to reduce dependency on imports. To date, the country has been depending on purchases from abroad for anti-ballistic missile systems. 

Now, Ankara has stepped up efforts to develop such systems. A leading local defense company, Roketsan, recently said it is accelerating its work on the technology: “In addition to our Hisar and Siper air defense systems, we will speed up our design and technology development studies for the development of missile defense systems that will eliminate ballistic missiles by engaging in the upper layer.” 

Ballistic missile systems consist of a warhead, missile control unit, fuel tank, fins, engine and guidance electronics, and unlike cruise missiles or other precision-guided ammunition, they follow a parabola trajectory.

Developing anti-ballistic missiles requires high technology and a time-consuming period but may be considered a necessity for countries like Turkey that neighbor civil-war-torn Syria where relatively short-range ballistic missiles can fall into the hands of terrorist organizations, reports dailysabah.com. 

Roketsan’s development of the system is also requiring time and will be carried out step by step, yet it gained momentum as explained by the company official: “The work carried out by Roketsan in the space field will have very positive reflections on the anti-ballistic missile program.”

The project will probably include several other local defense companies. For example, Turkish defense giant Aselsan, particularly, works on the sensor development part. The domestic long-range air defense missile system, Siper, will use the Early Warning Radar System of Aselsan.