Türkiye, surrounded by seas on three sides, is rising its competence within the maritime area with the idea of the “Blue Homeland” and the event of indigenous and nationwide protection industries. A current contract signed between STM and Roketsan, which entails integrating ATMACA missiles into 11 platforms beneath the command of the Naval Forces Command, is likely one of the steps taken on this path.
For a drive just like the Turkish Naval Forces, which isn’t solely the facility of its area but additionally one in every of NATO’s and consequently a major geographical space, the choice to go for a domestically produced missile as an alternative of a U.S.-made one is crucial. This is as a result of extremely superior and particular product teams are required in these fields. The Turkish Navy just isn’t able to decide on a missile household solely as a result of it’s native and nationwide. After all, each the nation’s safety and the destiny of billions of {dollars} value of naval components are at stake.
Defense Industry Researcher Anıl Şahin mentioned the main points of the ATMACA contract and attainable future developments on this discipline. While describing the method, Şahin makes use of a really clear assertion: “This contract is an indication that the transformation of the Turkish Naval Forces to ATMACA has begun.” He elaborates additional, stating that decision-makers within the Turkish Navy are assured that ATMACA meets all the required standards; in any other case, they’d not make such a transfer.
Although the contract between STM and Roketsan is a major step in a significant transformation, Şahin believes that the expectation that each one ships will likely be loaded with ATMACA missiles without delay just isn’t sensible.
He shares the knowledge that there are U.S.-made Harpoon missiles with shelf life left within the stock and means that the Naval Forces would wish to use them not directly.
However, regardless of the present scenario, Anıl Şahin emphasizes that change is inevitable within the close to future. He states that ATMACA can have the primary ship-to-ship guided missile in opposition to ship threats for the Turkish Navy within the close to future.
“ATMACA would not have been adopted by the Naval Forces if it didn’t have better or equivalent features compared to its counterparts,” he provides and continues:
“The stock Harpoon missiles have a spread of roughly 140 kilometers, whereas ATMACA has a spread of 250 kilometers. This alone is a major benefit.
Anti-ship missile know-how is sort of difficult as a result of these missiles have to fly very low, even 2-3 meters above the ocean floor, to keep away from being intercepted by the goal platform. This is known as ‘Sea-Skimming’ know-how.
ATMACA has the aptitude to fly even decrease with ‘Super Sea-Skimming,’ which is a step past. It just about skims the ocean’s floor. This makes it rather more troublesome for the goal ship to detect and intercept.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
