3 yıl önce

Turkey tests indigenous long-range missile defence system

Ankara aims to reach full domestic capability in airspace defence, which has seen multiple rocket attacks from neighbouring war-torn Syria.

AA

Turkey has been working to fortify its air space defence capability since the mid-2000.

Turkey has tested its first long-range domestically-engineered missile defence system, the 'Siper'.

The country's top defence industry official announced on Monday that Ankara has successfully achieved another milestone in developing an indigenous long-range and multi-layered defence system.

"We will eliminate all threats against our Gokvatan [a reference to Turkey's air space] in the most powerful way with Siper, which we plan to take into (army's) inventory in 2023," said Ismail Demir, President of Defence Industries.

According to Demir, Turkey will continue to produce new weapons and will have up to six different multi-layered air defence systems.

Uzun menzilli ve çok katmanlı milli hava savunma sistemimiz #SİPER’in geliştirme çalışmalarında bir aşamayı daha başarıyla tamamladık.🚀

2023 yılında envantere almayı planladığımız SİPER ile Gökvatanımıza karşı bütün tehditleri en güçlü şekilde bertaraf edeceğiz. pic.twitter.com/Nr4lmq9H4h
— Ismail Demir (@IsmailDemirSSB) November 6, 2021

The Siper project is led by Turkey's defence companies Aselsan, Roketsan and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.

Besides Siper, which is expected to rival Russia's S-400, Korkut, Sungur and Hisar air defence systems are in place.

Turkey has been dedicated to fortifying its aerial defence capabilities since the mid-2000's.

Ankara has developed short and medium range defence systems dubbed the Hisar A and Hisar O.

It has also developed longer range Hisar A+ and O+ defence systems that work together to destroy targets across overlapping fields of fire, altitude and range.

Turkey has faced challenges in protecting its airspace from long-range missile attacks.

After the US turned away multiple bids to procure the Patriot missile defence systems, Turkey resorted to purchasing Russia's sophisticated long range S-400 systems, which strained ties with Washington.