Erdogan unveils Turkey's long-range missile defence system project

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaking at the opening ceremony for National Technology Development and Infrastructure in Ankara unveiled Turkey's National Long Range Regional Air Missile Defense System (SIPER) project on Wednesday.

Erdogan said the need for a long-range air missile defence system for the security of the country is very clear.

"This project in time will take Turkey to a whole other level, and we are taking the first steps towards that goal today," Erdogan said.

"The manufacturing for this system has been started by TUBITAK, SAGE, ASELSAN and ROKETSAN under the leadership of the undersecretariat for Defence Industries," Erdogan added.

OPMER

President Erdogan also unveiled Turkey's first Optical Systems Research Laboratory (OPMER) and added that Turkey is rapidly becoming a country that is a player in defence industry, aviation and space technology.

Erdogan said that OPMER will be established under TUBITAK's Space Technologies Research Institute for the purpose of making even further progress in developing communication satellites and subsystems, satellite ejection systems and satellite data processing.

"Thanks to the OPMER project we can now develop optical components which require precision technology with our own capabilities," Erdogan said.

He stated that this way Turkey ensures critical designs and the know-how will be developed in-house.

"OPMER is one of the few laboratories in the world to carry out R & D activities on this field," Erdogan added.

HABRAS 

The president also said TUBITAK's Defense Industry Research and Development Institute (SAGE) provides significant contributions to the Turkish defence industry with its high technology weapon systems.

Adding that the newly unveiled Warhead Rail System Dynamic Test Infrastructure (HABRAS), is one of these contributions.

HABRAS will be used to test the efficiency of domestically developed weapons systems, acceptance tests of mass-produced ammunitions and weapons systems purchased from abroad.

"With the launch of HABRAS, our defence industry has acquired an important capability and infrastructure that is limited to a number of countries such as America, England, France, Germany, Russia and China," Erdogan said.

He also added that the domestic technologies developed by Turkey in the defence industry were extremely vital during recent anti-terror operations.

Also introduced at the ceremony was PULAT, a system developed by TUBITAK SAGE and ASELSAN that protects tanks against threats on the battlefield by using a "static resistance technique."

The system terminates the threat in the air before it has a chance to reach the tank.