Bloomberg has learned of Turkey’s ballistic missile test
The missile flew 561 kilometers during the test, making it the longest range of any such weapon developed in Turkey, the agency wrote
The Turkish missile has reached 561 kilometers in the course of tests, becoming the longest range among all similar weapons developed in Turkey, the news agency reports
Turkey has tested over the Black Sea short-range ballistic missile of its own production, developed under the Tayfun project (“Typhoon”). It is reported by Bloomberg with reference to sources with knowledge of the launch.
According to sources of the agency, the missile was launched from a mobile platform at the airport near the port city of Rize at around 07:00 on October 18. The city is located on the Black Sea coast in the northeast of the country. The missile flew 561 kilometers before falling off the coast of the port of Sinop (located west of Rize).
Thus, this ballistic missile is the longest of all such weapons developed in Turkey, Bloomberg notes.
The sources stressed that the Turks had been working on the Tayfun secret missile project for several years.
Dmitry Stefanovich, a researcher at the Center for International Security at IMEMO RAS, told RBC that Turkey is interested in developing new missile weapons not only for its own needs, but also for the purpose of their possible export. “Turkey has quite decent prospects, the company Roketsan consistently increases the characteristics of its products, which include almost all types of guided weapons of all types of basing – from gliding bombs to anti-ship cruise missiles,” he states. Turkey, the expert notes, has certain competitive advantages in the arms market. “Unlike, say, Iran, North Korea (and, for some time, Russia), they [the Turks] are not ‘toxic’ and are somewhat less sensitive to political issues compared to Israel (not to mention NATO countries). In fact, their main competitors are China and, apparently, South Korea,” Stefanovich points out.
The Turkish Typhoon missile project was not previously known with certainty, but the Turkish Han missile, with a range of up to 280 kilometers and a similar launcher, is known. With a claimed range of more than 500 km, the Typhoon could reach targets on Russian territory, as well as Russian targets, for example, in Syria, but the tests do not pose a direct threat to Russia’s security, Stefanovich believes. “There may be different assessments of the state of our relations with Turkey, but it is not excluded that a kind of mutual minimum non-nuclear deterrence existed and exists,” the expert points out. Supplies of missiles with ranges over 500 km to third countries are unlikely due to the existing restrictions of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). “If we talk about exports, products with ranges up to 300 km will traditionally be offered here in accordance with the requirements, albeit relatively mild, of the Missile Technology Control Regime,” Stefanovich believes. – In case of a direct violation of this non-proliferation regime, even if it is informal, the consequences might be very serious, first of all in terms of military-technical cooperation.
