The Turkish state-affiliated Andalou Agency reported that Turkey’s first locally produced maritime missile successfully hit its target in its final test firing. In the test, an Atmaca missile that came off a production line hit a real surface target. Also present for the historic test in the Black Sea province of Sinop were National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and top commanders. Roketsan touts Atmaca as a high-precision, long-range, surface-to-surface, precision strike anti-ship missile which can be integrated with patrol boats, frigates, and corvettes.
ATMACA (Accipiter) is an all weather, long range, precision strike, anti-ship cruise missile, developed by Turkish missile manufacturer ROKETSAN. The program was initiated in 2009 when Turkey’s Undersecretary For Defense Industries (SSM) signed a contract with Roketsan for designing a surface-to-surface cruise missile for the requirements of the Turkish Naval Forces. The Atmaca will enter service with the Turkish Navy to gradually replace the country’s existing inventory of Harpoon missiles.
The missile is planned to be developed for multiplatforms, capable of launching not only from warships but also from submarines, aircraft, coastal batteries, including land-attack operations. After completing various tests, first land-based firing of the Atmaca took place in March 2017. The serial production contract for Atmaca was signed between Roketsan and the Presidency of Defense Industry on 29 October 2018. The missile will be deployed to Turkish Navy’s Ada-class corvettes, Istanbul-class frigates, G-class frigates and planned TF-2000 class destroyers.
The missile makes use of its global positioning system (GPS), inertial navigation system, barometric altimeter and radar altimeter to navigate towards its target, while its active radar seeker pinpoints the target with high precision. With a range of more than 200 kilometres (120 mi), this guided missile poses a major threat for targets situated beyond the line of sight due to its high explosive fragmentation warhead. Its modern data-link provides ATMACA with the ability to 3D mission planning, update targets, reattack and terminate the mission.
