Turkish navy much stronger with indigenous anti-ship missile

By Goksel Yildirim

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish defense industry took another important step to meet the needs of the armed forces with domestic and national products with the Atmaca anti-ship missile.

According to information obtained by Anadolu Agency, the missile, one of the most important weapons in surface warfare, was produced to decrease Turkey's dependence on foreign sources, meet the needs of the Naval Forces Command and develop a deterrent weapon with national resources.

Atmaca, which has a range of 220 kilometers (137 miles) on paper, proved that it can reach 250 kilometers (155 miles) in shooting tests.

It has the ability to update targets and cancel missions with a data link. It can change the target after being thrown and can be directed at another target.

Due to its advanced 3D route planning feature, different actions such as passing over islands and circling them can be performed in a complex area.

It can carry out different time over target, simultaneous time over target and target firing (salvo).

Atmaca can meet multiple missiles at the same time as it can perform autonomous speed control.

It has an important ability to navigate from the water surface. It sails at an altitude of 5 meters (26 feet) in many flights and shots below 3 meters (10 feet).

More than 20 shootings have been carried out by Atmaca. Continuous improvement has been achieved in testing since November 2016.

Turkish weapons manufacturer, Roketsan, touts Atmaca as a high-precision, long-range, surface-to-surface, precision strike anti-ship missile which can be integrated with patrol boats, frigates and corvettes and is expected to replace the US-made Harpoon missile.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar