Local Air Defence Missile System For TF-2000

5 Dec 2016

Defence acquisition agency Undersecreteriat For Defence industries (UDI) has started a development project for air defence missiles to be used TF-2000 warship.

According to the website of UDI, the aim of the project is to procure short/medium and long-range air defence missile, which can be integrated with the combat management system, multi-purpose phased array radar system and TF-2000 platform and capable of force and zone air defense.

The project model is local development. There will be a short/medium ranged missile and a long ranged missile. The shot text also mentions the system of the missile. What we should understand from it is at the moment a bit unclear. The UDI states that a request for proposal regarding the design and development phase is under preparation.

At the moment Turkey has developed two air defence missiles:

Hisar-A low altitude missile system

Hisar-O medium altitude missile system.

These missiles were developed for the army to protect military bases, ports, facilities and troops against threats from the air. Their targets are military aircraft, attack helicopters, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles. According to Roketsan producer of the missiles, they present a modular structure with the integrity of a family and are designed to be compatible with different platform integrations.

Both missiles have high explosive fragment warhead, mid-course guidance with inertial navigation and data link terminal guidance with IIR (imaging infrared seeker). The range of Hisar-A is 15 km and the range of Hisar-O is 25km. It is too early to say, whether the recently announced naval air defence missiles will be developed from the existing Hisar missiles or build from the scratch.

The command and control and fire control systems for the land based Hisar air defence system is done by military electronics company Aselsan. Aselsan is also developing the phased array radar to be used for the TF-2000 air defence frigate. Thus the development of the electronics for the air defence system will be carried out by them.

With the initiation of this project, Turkey takes another step to the realisation of TF-2000 air defence frigate.