Turkey conducts first successful test of its locally produced turbojet engine

Europe, Middle East, News March 14, 2024 , by IRIA No Comments

Turkey has announced the first successful test of its maritime missile equipped with the nation’s first indigenous turbojet engine KTJ-3200, developed by Kale Arge and Roketsan, the country’s leading aerospace engineering and defense manufacturing firms.

According to the statement released by the Turkish Defense Industry Agency (SSB), an Atmaca missile successfully destroyed the target, while it was being powered by the locally manufactured turbojet engine. The statement added that the firing test was carried out to verify the subsystems and components developed with national resources within the scope of the Atmaca project.

A video shared by the SSB showed the Atmaca missile being fired from a mobile launcher in Turkey’s northernmost province, Sinop, before hitting a target in the Black Sea.

Developed to meet the operational needs of surface warfare, Atmaca is a high-precision anti-ship missile that can be integrated into assault boats, frigates, and corvettes. The main feature of the missile is its domestically produced turbojet engine, that had been under development for quite some time.

“Listen to the sound that leads us to the future; that sound will propel us forward,” President of the Defense Industry Agency Prof. Dr. Haluk Gorgun on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “Our national platforms strengthened by our national engines accelerate our defense industry’s goal of complete independence and change the games on the field,” he added.

Turkiye tested its maritime missile equipped with indigenous turbojet engine KTJ-3200 — *^{Turkiye tested its maritime missile equipped with an indigenous turbojet engine KTJ-3200. (Image Credit: Twitter/@avionot/videograb by IRIA)}*

Major breakthrough

Most of Turkey’s current naval arsenal is made up of U.S.-manufactured Harpoon anti-ship missiles. Turkey strives to substitute its American-made arsenal with locally produced missiles and Atmaca, a completely locally manufactured naval strike missile, is set to play a major role in the replacement process.

Atmaca missiles are expected to be used on corvettes built under Turkey’s National Ship (MILGEM) project, along with other vessels and submarines that are currently using Harpoon missiles.

Atmaca missile features a range exceeding 250 kilometers thereby presenting a threat to targets well beyond visual range. The missile is highly effective against both stationary and mobile targets due to its resilience against countermeasures, capabilities for target updates, re-attacks, task cancellation, and an advanced 3D routing system.

The launch of the Atmaca missile occurred only one day after Turkey successfully tested another military turbofan engine, TF6000, marking a significant breakthrough in the nation’s efforts to rely on indigenous technologies, thereby reducing external dependency on crucial equipment.

*^{Turkiye successfully test fired a missile from the MIDLAS vertical rocket launch system manufactured by Roketsan. (Image Credit: Twitter/@halukgorgun)}*

The TF6000 engine has been designed to enhance capabilities and technology to develop a power unit for its first fifth-generation fighter jet, KAAN, which recently performed its inaugural flight.

Developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries, the TF6000 engine is expected to power the unmanned fighter jet, Kizilelma, and Anka-3, the country’s first flying-wing, deep-strike unmanned aerial vehicle.