The beginning of the process of building medium-range missiles was reported quite recently, by some members of the Turkish government. According to these statements, missiles with a range of 2.5 thousand kilometers will be created in Turkey in the near future. Some Turkish arms experts consider this decision irrational, but the ballistic missile program has already begun, and no amount of criticism will help stop it.
Professor Y. Altinbasakas from the state research institute TUBITAK considers this decision to be a necessary and correct decision. However, Turkey's ability to build up its potential and achieve the set goal looks uncertain. He also notes that this decision - the design and production of its own missiles capable of reaching a target at a distance of up to 2.5 thousand kilometers, was made at the request of Turkish Prime Minister R. Erdogan at a recent meeting of the Supreme Council on Technology. The professor told reporters that the Turkish designers have successfully designed and built a BRMD up to 500 kilometers, which successfully passed tests at the test site and showed an average air defense ratio of 5 meters. The next stage is the creation and production of MRBMs up to 1,500 kilometers, which is almost completed, it remains only to conduct field tests in 2012. After the tests, we can talk about the continuation of the program and the creation of an MRBM up to 2500 kilometers. And although the professor confidently declares the continuation of the program, many analysts are skeptical about this statement.
TUBITAK is Turkey's main design center for ballistic missiles. The first ballistic missile created by TUBITAK is the J-600T Yildirim I. It has a range of 150-185 kilometers. The next missile, Yildirim 2, had a range of up to 300 kilometers. Now, the missile's range of 500 kilometers may have been achieved due to the smaller mass of the BG or other insignificant modifications. In reality, a fundamentally new rocket has not been created, and therefore the declared range of 2.5 thousand kilometers causes similar skepticism. And the conducted tests of the BRMD at a distance of 500 kilometers, for some reason, turned out to be invisible and not illuminated. Most likely, these statements on the creation of an MRBM are a response to the current situation in the region. This is despite the fact that Turkey is striving for the possession of an ultra-modern air force, investing a lot of efforts to build up the air force. In addition, since 97, Turkey has been a member of the MTCR, the missile technology regulatory authority. It was founded in 87 by the United States, France, Italy, Britain, Canada, Germany, and Japan as an unofficial and voluntary organization. The purpose of the creation is the non-proliferation of unmanned aerial systems as a means of delivering weapons of mass destruction over long distances. It was the creation of the MTCR that became the main brake on the creation of such unmanned systems - Iraq, Argentina and Egypt at one time stopped developing their ballistic missile programs, South Africa, Taiwan, Brazil and South Korea postponed or terminated their space and missile programs. And the Czech Republic and Poland, to demonstrate their readiness to join NATO and the MTCR, simply eliminated their arsenal of ballistic missiles. But this community also has weak links. Pakistan and India, North Korea and Iran, despite opposition from the MTCR members, are successfully developing this direction. Today these states have MRBMs with a range of at least one thousand kilometers, and are developing them further. Iran, which has an agreement with Syria on mutual military assistance, supplies some of the components of such missiles to her.
Therefore, this statement is most likely a kind of challenge to Iran and Syria. The countries of the region have to react to the situation and statements of neighbors as the situation becomes more complicated. The statements of the Iranian authorities provoke Turkey, whose behavior has recently become more and more aggressive. The MTCR community is likely to start actively blocking Turkey's access to the procurement of essential components, and it will be difficult for Turkey to achieve its MRBM goals.
