Once again, I am convinced that comments on individual articles published in Voennoye Obozreniye can be an inexhaustible source of inspiration. The statements of some visitors on some issues are so "masterpiece" that sometimes there is a desire to tell more about it. The only pity is that the readers who are constantly “grazing” in the “News” section often do not consider it necessary to get acquainted with what is published in the “Armament” section, and continue to heap one absurdity on top of another in their posts. So this time, I suspect, this publication, addressed primarily to fans of shouting, will shoot empty, and a very modest circle of readers interested in air defense issues will once again get acquainted with it.
In the recent past, Voennoye Obozreniye published several articles on the delivery of Russian S-400 long-range anti-aircraft missile systems to Turkey and how this affected Russian-Turkish and Turkish-American relations. The opinion was expressed that the deployment of the S-400 on Turkish territory would put an end to military cooperation between Ankara and Washington, which in the long term could lead to Turkey's withdrawal from NATO. Some readers even stated that only now Turkey has become a truly independent state, since before that Ankara had no air defense at all and the country was completely defenseless from air strikes. Is this really so and what was the Turkish air defense system before that? We will talk about this today.
Turkey's Role during the Cold War
During the Cold War, Turkey was the closest ally of the United States and occupied the most important positions on the southern flank of NATO, controlling the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. The Turkish armed forces have always been one of the most numerous in NATO and were equipped with fairly modern technology. As a member of the North Atlantic Alliance since 1952, Turkey maintained an armed force of more than 700 thousand people (now the Turkish army has about 500 thousand people).
Military cooperation between Ankara and Washington was very close, as evidenced by the deployment of medium-range ballistic missiles on Turkish territory. In 1961, in the vicinity of the Turkish city of Izmir, 5 positions were prepared for 15 MRBMs PGM-19 Jupiter. The deployment of Jupiter missiles in Turkey was one of the reasons for the Cuban missile crisis, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster. In addition, in the village of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey, an AN / FPS-17 over-the-horizon radar with a range of 1,600 km was built, designed to track test launches of Soviet missiles at the Kapustin Yar range. American specialists took part in the creation of a Turkish radar network for monitoring the air situation. Particular attention was paid to the areas adjacent to the Turkish-Bulgarian and Turkish-Soviet borders.
American reconnaissance aircraft operated from Turkish air bases, and bombers with nuclear weapons on board could also use them as jump airfields. Moreover, at the Turkish Incirlik airbase, highly protected "nuclear bunkers" were built, where approximately 50 free-fall B61 thermonuclear bombs are still stored. According to the plans of the NATO command, in the event of a full-scale military conflict with the Warsaw Pact countries, Turkish fighter-bombers could be involved in nuclear strikes. From the beginning of 1950 to the second half of the 1980s, Turkish aircraft regularly made reconnaissance flights over the Black Sea, and there were also violations of the state border with the USSR and Bulgaria.
During the Cold War, Turkey, which had a common border with the USSR and Bulgaria, was considered a probable enemy of the Warsaw Pact countries, while Iraq and Syria were not friendly neighbors to the south. Taking this into account, the Turkish top military-political leadership paid great attention to improving air defense, in order to prevent the breakthrough of air attack weapons to important administrative-political, industrial and military facilities. Very significant by the standards of a poor Turkey, resources were invested in the development of a radar network, the construction of air bases with capital runways and concrete shelters, the purchase of jet attack aircraft, fighter-interceptors and anti-aircraft missile systems. The Turkish Navy was entrusted with the task of countering the combined fleets of the USSR, Bulgaria and Romania in the Black Sea, as well as preventing the breakthrough of enemy warships through the straits.
Ground-based radar stations for airspace control
As in other NATO countries, control of the airspace of Turkey and the border areas of other states is carried out using radar posts organizationally subordinate to the Air Force command. In the past, the Turkish armed forces were mainly equipped with American-made radars. Since the second half of the 1960s, the AN / TPS-44 radars operating in the frequency range 1.25 to 1.35 GHz have been operating in Turkey. These two-dimensional radars are usually paired with an AN / MPS-14 radio altimeter, and are capable of monitoring airspace at ranges of up to 270 km. Currently, the AN / TPS-44 and AN / MPS-14 radars are considered obsolete and are being decommissioned as new equipment arrives.
In the late 1980s, at the disposal of the Turkish military, American stationary long-range radars Hughes HR-3000 with a phased antenna array measuring 4, 8 by 6 m appeared at the disposal of the Turkish military. The radar operating in the frequency range of 3 to 3.5 GHz is capable of detecting large high-altitude air targets at a distance up to 500 km. To protect against adverse weather factors, the antenna post is covered with a 12 m diameter plastic dome.
To replace obsolete American-made radars, the Turkish state corporation Havelsan in the past carried out a licensed assembly of three-dimensional radar TRS 2215 Parasol.
A stationary radar operating in the frequency range 2-2.5 GHz is capable of monitoring airspace within a radius of 500 km. It is based on the French SATRAPE radar developed by Thomson-CSF in the early 1980s, and has been in operation since the mid-1990s.
The mobile version is TRS 2230 with a detection range of about 350 km. The TRS 2215 and TRS 2230 radars have the same transceiver systems, data processing facilities and antenna system components, and their difference lies in the size of the antenna arrays. This unification makes it possible to increase the flexibility of the material and technical support of the stations and the quality of their service.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Turkish Air Force received AN / FPS-117 radars and mobile versions of AN / TPS-77 from the United States. Three-coordinate radar with a phased antenna array operate in the frequency range in the frequency range 1215-1400 MHz and can see high-altitude aerial targets at a distance of up to 470 km.
Mobile radars AN / TPS-77 are usually located in the vicinity of air bases, stationary AN / FPS-117 are installed at key points on the heights, and are protected by a radio-transparent dome.
The most modern of the stationary ones are two Selex RAT-31DL radars from the British-Italian consortium Leonardo SpA. These are the latest three-coordinate radar stations operating in the frequency band 1, 2 to 1, 4 GHz, with an active phased array and a detection range for high-altitude targets of more than 500 km. In addition to Turkey, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland became the buyers of these powerful modern radars capable of detecting ballistic targets.
For tracking low-altitude targets, issuing target designation of short-range air defense systems and anti-aircraft artillery, the AN / MPQ-64F1 radar is intended. This station was developed by Hughes Aircraft and is currently manufactured by the Raytheon Corporation.
The modernized three-coordinate pulse-Doppler radar AN / MPQ-64F1 with a phased antenna array operating in the 8-9 GHz range provides detection of targets such as a bomber at a range of up to 75 km, a fighter - up to 40 km, a cruise missile - up to 30 km. To transport the antenna post of the AN / MPQ-64F1 radar, an army off-road vehicle is usually used. The operator's station is located inside the machine. The modernized low-altitude station is capable of seeing air targets at an altitude of up to 12,000 m, and by plotting a trajectory to pinpoint the coordinates of artillery and mortar positions. The AN / MPQ-64F1 radars are usually not on constant alert, some of them are on alert at large military bases and in the vicinity of airfields.
AN / TPY-2 ballistic missile detection radar
The AN / TPY-2 radar located at a military base located 5 km south-west of the village of Durulov in the Malatya province deserves a separate mention. The AN / TPY-2 radar deployed in southeastern Turkey is designed to track missile launches from Iran and is serviced by the American contingent. However, according to an agreement concluded in 2011 between the United States and Turkey, the facility is operated by the Turkish military, who are also responsible for security.
Radar information received from the anti-missile radar is broadcast in real time via satellite channels to the regional NATO air defense / missile defense command posts, and to the Turkish command center located at the Diyarbakir airbase. A number of sources say that the Israeli military also has access to radar data in Malatya province, but the parties do not comment on this issue in any way.
The AN / TPY-2 mobile early warning radar deployed in Turkey is located at an altitude of 2000 m above sea level, and about 700 km from the border with Iran. According to information published by the Raytheon corporation, the radar operating in the frequency range 8, 55-10 GHz is capable of fixing ballistic targets over the horizon at a distance of up to 4700 km.
Turkish long-range radar patrol aircraft
Taking into account the fact that part of the territory of Turkey and neighboring states has a mountainous terrain, ground-based radars do not provide a view of the airspace at low altitudes. For complete control of the adjacent airspace, guidance of the actions of combat aviation and the issuance of target designation of air defense systems, the Turkish military decided to purchase AWACS aircraft. In July 2003, a $ 1.385 billion contract was signed with Boeing for the delivery of four Boeing 737 AEW & C Peace Eagles. During the negotiations preceding the conclusion of the contract, the Turkish side managed to achieve the transfer of critical technologies and participation in the construction of AWACS aircraft to the national aircraft building corporation Turkish Aerospace Industries. Another Turkish subcontractor, Havelsan, is responsible for data processing hardware and software. Havelsan Corporation became the only foreign contractor to which the American company Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems transferred the initial software for the control system of the radar and the equipment for analyzing the initial radar information.
The AWACS aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight of 77,600 kg has a cruising speed of 850 km / h, and can be on patrol without refueling in the air for 7, 5 hours. Crew: 6-9 people. A radar with a fixed flat active phased antenna array located above the fuselage has a detection range of large high-altitude targets of more than 600 km. Side viewing zones are 120 °, front and back - 60 °. Equipment for processing primary radar information and a central computer are installed directly under the antenna. The maximum detection range of aircraft against the background of the earth is 370 km. Sea targets - 250 km. The onboard computer complex allows simultaneous tracking of 180 targets and target acquisition for 24 targets. It is reported that on the next three aircraft, specialists from the Turkish Havelsan corporation installed Israeli-made electronic equipment, which should improve the capabilities of the number of simultaneously tracked targets and fighters aimed at them. It also became possible to classify and determine the coordinates of ground-based sources of high-frequency radiation.
The first Turkish long-range radar patrol aircraft was handed over to the Air Force in February 2014. Based on satellite imagery, all aircraft reached operational readiness in 2016. They are currently permanently stationed at the Konya airbase in the southwestern part of the country. AWACS aircraft of the Turkish Air Force are quite intensively exploited, making patrol flights along the border with Syria, Iraq and Iran, and over the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.
In addition to Turkish AWACS aircraft, 1-2 American E-3C Sentry aircraft, AWACS systems, are constantly present at the Konya airbase. US Air Force long-range radar patrol aircraft mainly patrol the southern direction, coordinating the actions of American combat aircraft over Syria, and control the Mediterranean Sea.
Status and capabilities of Turkish radar airspace control
On the territory of Turkey, 9 stationary radar posts are currently deployed, integrated into the NATO air defense information system, the command post of which is located at the Ramstein airbase in Germany.
In total, the Turkish Air Force command has more than 40 stationary and mobile radars, of which about half are on constant combat duty. The average operating time for stationary radars is 16-18 hours per day. Turkish radars are on duty around the clock and provide a continuous radar field over the entire territory of the country. Powerful radar stations located on the coast and in the border areas provide detection of aircraft at medium and high altitudes outside Turkey at a distance of 350-400 km. Thanks to the use of AWACS aircraft patrolling over neutral waters, it becomes possible to fix low-altitude targets at a distance of more than 1000 km from the Turkish border.
In addition to monitoring the air situation, radio engineering units are responsible for interaction with civil air traffic controllers in terms of air traffic regulation. The existing stationary radar posts are connected into a single network by digital cable communication channels; a radio network is used for duplication. The central air control point is located in the vicinity of Ankara.
From all of the above, we can conclude that Turkey has a developed network of radar stations, which allows to monitor the airspace over the entire territory of the country around the clock, timely issue target designations to ground air defense systems and direct fighters to violators of the air border. In addition to numerous radars for detecting air targets, the Turkish military has supersonic fighter-interceptors and anti-aircraft missile systems at its disposal. But we will talk about them in the next part of the review.
