The launcher of the Tayfun short-range ballistic missile. Screengrab.
On October 18, Turkey test-fired a locally-made short-range ballistic missile dubbed the Tayfun [Turkish for Typhoon] over the Black Sea.
The missile, which was developed by Turkey’s defense giant Roketsan, was launched from an airport in the Black Sea coastal city of Rize. The missile flew 561 kilometers before falling off the coast of the port of Sinop. Though not yet confirmed, the test shows the missile has double the range of the country’s first domestic missile system, the Bora-1.
Roketsan unveiled the Bora-1 ballistic missile, which has a range of 280 kilometers only, in 2017. The missile is armed with a 470-kilogram warhead and guided by a GPS-aided inertial navigation system. It is said to have a circular error probable of less than 50 meters.
A leaked video of the Tayfun test, which was not announced at the time, shows the missile being fired from a dual mobile launcher that is very similar to that of the Bora-1.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed the successful test of the new ballistic missile on October 21, calling it “a message.”
Turkey has been actively working to strengthen its offensive military capabilities by developing its domestic industry in cooperation with world’s leading weapons manufacturers, including companies from the United States and Russia, for years now.
The test of the Tayfun ballistic missile was likely meant as a message to Greece. In the last few months, Ankara escalated its rhetoric against Athena.
