The HISAR O+ missile defense system has successfully hit target aircraft in test firing, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced Sunday.
In a statement posted on Twitter, the ministry said that the test-fire was carried out at the Aksaray Shooting Range on Dec. 24, 2021, from an Autonomous Missile Launching System.
The Defense Ministry also said that the HISAR O+, which reached the stage of mass production in July, is ready for use.
According to Sabah daily, the Hisar-O+ short-range air defense system has full 360-degree defense capability and can simultaneously engage and fire against at least nine different targets. Effective against warplanes, helicopters, air-to-land missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, it can also intercept targets at a range of 25 kilometers (15.5 miles).
Turkish defense firms, Aselsan and Roketsan, partnered in the development of the Hisar air defense system.
Aselsan is developing long-range missile defense system SIPER which is expected to be ready by 2023.
The Hisar-O+ system, which is developed with local resources, will be part of the country's layered air defense. It will particularly provide protection for stationary forces and critical assets.
The state-of-the-art technology has the capability to detect targets, track, identify and perform command and control, and fire control functions autonomously, Sabah said.
Faruk YiÄŸit, Roketsan's chairperson said last February that the defense company "will speed up the ballistic missile defense system works," a move that bears importance given Turkey's goal of making the products and parts for the defense industry as domestic as possible in a bid to reduce outside dependency. Turkey, to date, has been depending on purchases from abroad for such systems.
"In addition to our Hisar and Siper air defense systems, we will speed up our design and technology development studies for the development of missile defense systems that will eliminate ballistic missiles by engaging in the upper layer," YiÄŸit noted.
The Turkish armament industry on the fast track to autonomy
According to Carnegie Endowment, Turkey's defense industry has boomed in the last decade. In 2010, Turkey had one company on the list of Top 100 Global Defense Companies. Presently it has seven more companies than Israel, Russia, Sweden and Japan combined. Turkey's share of arms imports from 2015 to 2019 decreased by 48% compared to the preceding five-year period.
The country has transitioned from importing 70 percent of its military hardware to 30 percent. Concurrently, the Turkish arms industry grew from $1 billion in 2002 to $11 billion in 2020, more than $3 billion of which were exports, making Turkey the fourteenth largest global defense exporter.
From 2010 to 2019 the country sold war material to 28 nations. During that period, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan accounted for 50% of Turkish exports.
"We are one of the ten countries capable of designing, building and maintaining their own warships," President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan said on January 23, 2021, at the launching of the destroyer TCG Istanbul.
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