Turkey’s pedestal-mounted low-altitude air defense system Sungur completed a test with pinpoint firing accuracy against a moving target at maximum range and altitude. Sungur was domestically developed by leading military contractor Roketsan, strengthened its role in the layered air defense system. The air defense system has the capability of shooting while moving and it has effective target detection, diagnosis, identification, tracking and it can fire 360-degrees in day and night. The firing test was conducted against a Banshee Target Drone System. Sungur is seen mounted on top of a Vuran 4×4 armored vehicle that was produced by Turkish land vehicles manufacturer BMC.
Sungur is ahead of its class with its effectiveness, high manoeuvrability, high target-hit capacity and countermeasures, titanium warheads and sighting that allows the target to be viewed from long-range. The air defense system is and will be a layered one and that the systems being developed within the country will significantly contribute to this. Developed by Roketsan, the SUNGUR Air Defence System can be integrated into land, air, and naval platforms with its portable feature. It was announced back in July 2020 that the system was ready to enter the Turkish Armed Forces’ (Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri, TSK) inventory.
The self-propelled surface-to-air missile system provides mobile, short-range air defense protection for ground units against cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), low-flying fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. The Roketsan system has two missile launcher pods, each capable of firing two fire-and-forget infrared-guided (IR) missiles. The system is expected to replace the Stinger POST (FIM-92B) and Stinger RMP (FIM-92C) MANPADS in the inventory of the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF). The Project was later handed over to the Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) on November 28, 2016.
Dubbed as PORSAV, the National MANPADS is a fully autonomous “fire and forget” missile equipped with a two-stage (booster and sustainer) solid-propellant rocket motor and features Aselsan’s cooled Imaging Infrared (IIR) seeker. Armed with the PORSAV missile, the SUNGUR Mobile Low-Altitude Short-Range Air Defence System provides short-range air defence protection for ground units against cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, low-flying fixed-wing aircraft, and helicopters. Under the PHSFS/MANPADS Project, the first firing tests with the Ballistic Test Missile, Controlled Test Missile, unarmed Seeker-Guided Test Missiles took place in 2018 and 2019 at the Sinop Missile Test Range.