The Siper Project is a high-altitude and long-range air defense system project initiated with the collaboration of several defense industry companies in Turkey to meet the country’s high-altitude and long-range air defense needs. It is expected that the Siper Air Defense Systems, produced within the scope of the Siper project, will soon be included in the inventory of the Turkish Armed Forces. There have been significant developments in the Siper Product-1 and Siper Product-2 Missiles within this project.
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Siper Product-1 Missile
According to the latest information shared on the official social media account of the Presidency of Defense Industries, there are significant recent developments in the Turkish defense industry. Speaking at IDEF 2023, the President of the Turkish Defense Industries, Haluk Görgün, made important statements regarding the recent developments. (Read Also: “I-Class Frigates | Turkey’s Istif Class Frigates“)
Görgün particularly emphasized significant progress in air defense systems. He stated that short, medium, and long-range air defense systems have been successfully tested, and the acceptance tests of the Siper Product-1 Missile, which is part of the Siper high-altitude and long-range air defense system project, are planned to be completed within this year.
Siper Product-1 holds great significance as a system preparing to enter service. This system draws attention to the use of the relay vehicle and the Multi-Function Fire Control Radar in integrated system-level firing tests. In previous tests, Siper achieved a range of 100 km, using the EIRS radar and Low Altitude Radar.
Within the framework of Turkey’s layered air defense strategy, the development and testing of components for the Siper long-range air defense system continue. In this context, the first test firing of the Siper Block 0 missile type was conducted in November 2021.
The Siper Long-Range Regional Air and Missile Defense System aims to meet high-altitude air defense needs, protect strategic and economic facilities from enemy air attacks, and support joint operations. This system has significant features such as multi-engagement capability, the ability to operate in challenging weather conditions, and integration with tactical data links and upper command control.
The Siper Long-Range Regional Air and Missile Defense System is equipped with 8 Missile Launch Systems, each capable of launching 6 missiles.
Siper Product-2 Missile
The Turkish defense industry continues to demonstrate its strong potential on the international stage through projects like Siper. These developments stand out as significant steps taken to strengthen Turkey’s defense capabilities and ensure national security. (Read Also: “Anka-3 Fuel Refueling Version to be Developed“)
Gürcan Okumuş, Director of TÜBİTAK SAGE, shed light on an important stage of a critical project for the Turkish defense industry. He announced that the range of the Siper Product-2 missile would be increased by 1.5 to 2 times by adding a special booster. Sharing this exciting development during the “Conversations with Experts Program” held as part of TEKNOFEST 2023 in Ankara, Gürcan Okumuş emphasized the importance of the project with the following statements:
“Siper is an extremely important project for the Turkish defense industry. Conducted in cooperation with TÜBİTAK SAGE, ASELSAN, and ROKETSAN, this project has started its test firings and has reached a significant stage. Siper Product-2 is rapidly progressing towards becoming a ready-to-use product. The potential of this monoblock system has been designed to increase its current range by 1.5 to 2 times. This is just the beginning of Siper’s development process. Our company was initially developing air-to-air missiles, and now we continue with air defense missiles. Siper represents the current peak, but in a few years, we will be talking about new and advanced Siper missiles.”
The first firing test of the Siper Product-2 was successfully conducted at the Sinop Test Center. This significant development was officially shared by the President of Defense Industries, Haluk Görgün, who stated the following in his announcement:
“The first firing test activity of the Siper Product-2 was successfully completed at the Sinop Test Center. I congratulate ASELSAN, ROKETSAN, TÜBİTAK SAGE, and all subcontracting companies involved in this project.”
Siper Air Defense System
The Siper Long-Range Regional Air and Missile Defense System aims to provide long-range air defense for strategic facilities, limit, delay, or neutralize air-breathing targets, cruise missiles, and air-to-ground munitions attacks by the enemy during peacetime and crises, ensure the survival of friendly forces, protect strategic and economic facilities from enemy air-breathing targets, cruise missiles, and air-to-ground munitions attacks, and support joint operations under more favorable conditions. The project was initiated on January 15, 2018, through the Siper Long-Range Regional Air and Missile Defense System Project Stage-C (SİPER) contract between the Presidency of Defense Industries and the ASELSAN-ROKETSAN-TÜBİTAK SAGE Joint Venture.
The Siper Long-Range Regional Air and Missile Defense System provides long-range air defense for strategic facilities, featuring distributed architecture, close and distant deployment capabilities, multi-engagement and sequential firing, the ability to operate in challenging weather conditions, transportability by land, sea, air, and rail, integration with multiple tactical data links, upper command control integration with the Radar Network Management System (RADNET), and the Air Force Information System (HvBS) connectivity.
With the Siper Project, Turkey aims to complete one of the key components of its layered air defense network. Turkey, which produces short and medium-range air defense systems and is also working on producing air defense destroyers, considers the Siper Project one of its top priorities. Once the Siper Project is completed, Turkey will also undertake efforts in the field of ballistic missile defense. Some of the missiles produced under the Siper Project will be designed for use in naval systems as well. This will enable the Turkish Navy to deploy the missiles produced under the Siper Project on its inventory of ships.
Conclusion: The Siper Project
The Siper Project was initiated by the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) to meet our country’s long-range regional air and missile defense system needs. The project is led by ASELSAN Inc., ROKETSAN Inc., and TÜBİTAK SAGE Joint Venture. The tests conducted aim to collect data under flight conditions for use in the future stages of the project.
Within the scope of the Siper Project, while the acceptance activities of Product-1 are ongoing, the System/Subsystem Development and Test Stage of Product-2 is also progressing rapidly. Siper Product-2 has the same ground systems (radars, command control, missile launch system, communication systems) as Product-1 but is more effective at longer ranges. These developments demonstrate that the Turkish defense industry has strong potential to ensure national security and make its mark on the international stage.
Source: DefenceTurk