Türkiye aims to boost domestic missile’s range: Erdoğan

MUĞLA

The current range of Türkiye’s domestic missile is 565 kilometers, but this is not enough, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.

“We will increase it to 1,000 kilometers,” Erdoğan said while speaking in the province of Muğla during a visit on Jan. 14.

Türkiye will not hold back when it comes to protecting its rights in the Mediterranean, the Aegean, and the Black Sea.

“National matters are above politics and should remain so. If we have achieved gains in the Mediterranean, the Aegean, and the Black Sea, we must protect this together, without exception,” he said.

Noting that the domestic production share in the country’s defense industry has increased from 20 percent to 80 percent since he came to power nearly two decades ago, Erdoğan said that Türkiye is now capable of making its own UAVs and UCAVs.

“Kızılelma will carry the bomb carried by the F-16 after it starts mass production. What do the Greeks say now? They say, ‘What are those crazy Turks up to?’ Tests are being carried out from Izmir, and a missile that might be launched from there begins to scare them. As Türkiye has ensured stability in its internal affairs, it has gained the capability to pursue a more effective foreign policy,” he also said.

Türkiye’s first indigenous unmanned fighter aircraft Bayraktar Kızılelma, developed by Baykar Technologies, completed its test take-off last December.

The drone was showcased at Teknofest, Türkiye’s largest aerospace and technology festival, in the northern province of Samsun, attracting great attention despite ongoing design and development efforts.

Kızılelma, whose engine integration test was carried out on Sept. 19, 2022, successfully completed taxi and ground driving tests on Nov. 20, 2022.

On early December 2022, the maiden test flight was carried out, announced by Bayraktar on Twitter, tweeting, “We are holding it hard… Bayraktar Kızılelma swept its feet off the ground. Almost there, I hope.”

Kızılelma is planned to make a difference on the battlefield, especially with its “landing and take-off capability on ships with short runways.”

It will be able to carry 1,500 kilograms of payload (weapons and devices, etc.). Its flight range is 930 kilometers, while the operating altitude was declared as 10,668 meters. It can operate in the air for five hours and has a maximum speed of 900 km/h.

The drone will be equipped with the locally made active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar.

The first flight of Kızılelma is expected to take place in 2023, according to Bayraktar.

The Turkish drones got worldwide fame amid the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War that broke out on Sept. 27, 2020, between Armenia and Azerbaijan when Türkiye, a rising drone power in the international arena, supplied its ally Azerbaijan with UAVs for use in the conflict and significantly contributed to Azerbaijan’s victory.