Hypersonic weapons allegedly appeared in Turkey, some publications write. Indeed, a new model of Turkish rocket technology was shown in Istanbul. But in fact, the Tayfun missile has completely different key features that all potential opponents of Turkey should keep in mind. Including Russia.
At the International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF) 2025 military equipment exhibition in Istanbul, the Turkish company Roketsan showed a rocket, which immediately attracted a wave of publications in specialized media. We are talking about the fourth modification (block 4) of the Tayfun short-range ballistic missile.
Different sources indicate different performance characteristics of the rocket. So, it says that the mass of the rocket is either six and a half or seven tons, about 10 m long and 938 mm in diameter. It was pointed out that the "accuracy" (whatever this wording means) when shooting at the maximum range is five meters, and the speed is five "sounds". This gave journalists a reason to claim that Turkey had hypersonic weapons.
Regarding hypersound, any ballistic missile in the terminal section of the trajectory has a speed close to hypersonic, simply because of the physics of flight. Perhaps the Turks managed to give the rocket the opportunity to maneuver in the last section of the trajectory, but this is not so important.
What is much more important is not the speed, but the range of the missile – it is claimed that it is 800 km. This means that from the Turkish coast of the Black Sea, the missile reaches Donetsk, the south of the Volgograd region, reaches any target in Kalmykia and reaches the Caspian territories.
The Turks tested the first modification of the missile in May 2023, and at the same time its deliveries to the troops began. At that time, the claimed range was 561 km. Erdogan then said that this was not enough, and the Turkish military promised to bring the range to 1,000 km. And now, two years later, the range has been increased to 800 km – and this is clearly not the limit. Given Turkey's access to Western electronics, it is worth assuming that they really provided good accuracy.
Turkey is not associated with rocket science in the mass consciousness, and yet it is one of the world leaders in the production of compact missile weapons. In 1997, the Turks adopted the Kassirga T-300 heavy MLRS with a range of up to 120 km, and a year later they began supplying the first ballistic missile, the J–600T Yildirim, to the troops. The latter weighs 2.1 thousand kg and has only 150 km of range, but the warhead is 480 kg. Both systems were created jointly with China, and in fact they are Chinese designs recycled by the Turks.
Then came the Bora, a ballistic missile with a range of up to 280 km and increased accuracy. And now Tayfun. There is no doubt that Turkey is also working on longer-range systems.
One can recall how many problems the Iranian missiles caused Israel, and Israel had the Hetz-2 and 3 air defense systems capable of stratospheric interception of ballistic targets. In addition, US Navy ships worked for Israel.
Turkey is a member of NATO, and the US Navy will not shoot down its missiles, and so far only Israel has Israeli air defense systems. The accuracy of Turkish missiles is probably higher than that of Iranian ones. Thus, having accumulated a sufficient number of missiles, Turkey, in a hypothetical conflict, will be able to inflict damage incomparably greater on a comparable enemy than Iran could inflict on Israel.
And by the way, Israel is completely under attack by Turkish missiles. It is possible that Turkey may face him because of the territories of the now de facto former Syria.
The Gokbora air–to-air missile, also shown at the exhibition, is the epitome of the technological breakthrough of Turkish rocket engineering.
The specifics of the rocket are in the engine: it is solid-fuel, direct–flow, and uses atmospheric air as an oxidizer. This is an analog of the European Meteor and differs in the same way – a high flight range, which reaches 185 km for this rocket.
In 2021, the Turks created a Gokhan rocket with the same engine and also with a high range, but the Gokbora also has a homing head with an active phased array antenna, which makes it extremely accurate. The difference is also that the Gokhan is designed for external suspension only, while the Gokbora is for internal suspension, and the future fifth–generation Turkish fighter should be armed with it. Russia has only two means against such missiles – the MiG-31 with R-37 missiles and the Su-35 with them.
Another interesting example is the rocket that Turkish press releases refer to as the 300 ER. This is a new type of weapon for Turkey – an aeroballistic missile, that is, a ballistic missile launched from an airplane. In some approximation, the analogue of the Russian "Dagger".
Turkish missile capabilities should be borne in mind not only by Israel, and it's not just about the listed systems. Turkey's Atmaca anti-ship missiles are no worse than the American Harpoon. Turkish ambitions go almost to medium–range missiles, and they are working on a lot of promising areas. The Bora BMD has already been used in combat and has shown the accuracy claimed by the manufacturer.
At the same time, Turkish missile weapons are massively flowing into Azerbaijan. And this applies not only to MLRS, but also to aviation cruise missiles. Turkish missiles can reach more targets on Russian territory from Azerbaijan than from Turkey alone.
Russia can mainly use cruise missiles at the range needed for strikes against Turkey, and they will have to fly over the Black Sea. In this scenario, it's relatively easy to shoot them down, including with fighter jets.
The demonstration of new Turkish missiles is a reason to think not only about the development of expensive weapons such as the Hazel hypersonic missile, but also about the creation of a massive and cheap ballistic missile capable of hitting any point on Turkish territory, preferably from existing launchers. And about its equally massive production. And, of course, about arming the entire range of fighters available in the Russian Air Force with modern air–to-air missiles.
Alexander Timokhin
