Ankara, Türkiye (Agencies): Türkiye is developing a missile with a range of 2,000 km, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an announced in a televised speech on January 6. This is twice the range he had previously given for the country’s missile programme.
“We have decided to both strengthen our missile stock with a range of 800 km and above and to accelerate our missile development programme with a range of 2,000 km and above,” Erdo?an said, highlighting major achievements made by the Turkish defence industry in 2024.
Erdo?an had previously stated that Türkiye was working on a missile with a range of 1,000 km. “The range of the Tayfun missile was announced as 560 km; we do not find even 560 km sufficient. I had a meeting last week. I asked what the final situation was, [and] they said we will reach 1,000 km,” he said in a speech on December 18, 2022.
In the previous month, Erdo?an noted that the Tayfun ballistic missile being developed by Roketsan had achieved a range of 561 km and mentioned that a missile called the Cenk was being developed alongside the Gezgin, a long-range cruise missile.
A test of the Tayfun ballistic missile was publicised for the first time on October 18, 2022, when a video was released showing a twin launcher firing a missile westwards from Rize-Artvin Airport on Türkiye’s Black Sea coast. Roketsan announced a second Tayfun test on May 23, 2023, releasing a video showing a missile being launched from the same location.