The indigenous HISAR-A+ missile launches successfully in Turkey

Turkey’s National Defence Ministry on Tuesday announced that the country has successfully test fired its home-grown HISAR-A missile in the central province of Aksaray.

Sharing pictures of the system and the moment it fired, the ministry on its Twitter account said that the missiles hit the drone right on target. 

HISAR missiles are short range defence weapons developed to protect military bases, ports, facilities, and troops against air-based threats. They provide a low and medium-altitude air defence security system.

The system has a proven ability in being effective against invading aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and air-to-ground missiles.

The project started in 2007 and is part of the Turkish air defence technology HISAR. It is capable of hitting targets within a range of 15 kilometres and at a ten-kilometre altitude. 

It allows the armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to navigate through the low-altitude air space and hit targets with precision by reducing the possibility of getting hit by low-flying helicopters and jets. 

It consists of a Self Propelled Autonomous Low Altitude Air Defence Missile System, Missile Launch System, Low Altitude Missile and Missile Transport and a Loading System, which was developed by leading Turkish defence industry companies ASELSAN and ROKETSAN.

The two giants have been working together on the project and they have partnered in the development process of HISAR as both of them are Turkish defence equipment manufacturers.

HISAR-A can detect and track targets day and night, and in bad weather conditions with the help of positioning and direction finding systems. It can easily integrate with the wider defence system and has a potent friend-enemy recognition system.

In March 2019, it had a hundred percent success rate in testing while hitting a high-speed target aircraft. HISAR-A also hit a second target with the change of engagement after it fired at the first one.

The recently test-fired HISAR-A+ short-range air defence system is the advanced and upgraded version of HISAR-A and is part of the medium and long-range Hisar air defence system family. 

The components of the HISAR-A+ missile, like radar, command, control, and fire control were developed by Aselsan. Roketsan was responsible for the development of the missile system.

While discussing the upgrades on HISAR, the head of the Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) of Turkey, Ismail Demir, said that the autonomous HISAR-A+ configuration, had successfully destroyed the high-speed target aircraft with increased performance in altitude and range.

The upgraded HISAR system will be part of Turkey’s layered air defence. 

In March, the upgraded version of HISAR-O, the HISAR-O+ medium-range air defence system, completed a test-fire in which the longest range and highest altitude test took place in Turkey. 

HISAR-O is capable of achieving long-distance targets at high altitudes. It can hit fighter planes, helicopters, UAVs, cruise missiles and air-to-land missiles.

It can neutralise targets within a range of 25 kilometres, with at least 18 missiles ready to launch. HISAR-O can simultaneously detect and track more than 60 warplanes within a range of 40-60 kilometres.

A land-based transportable system, KORAL, which is capable of intercepting, jamming and deceiving radar systems, is also being used in operations. 

Turkey has long been working on producing a domestic long-range air defence system and domestic fighter jets under the Vision for 2023 plan.