Turkish SİHAs, which are the world’s most proving platforms in the war field, are also at the top with the variety of ammunition they can carry. With the new ammunition to come, the possibilities and capabilities of domestic and national SİHAs will increase even more.
Turkey’s domestic and national SİHA journey has been positioned in a very different place with the successes achieved. Turkish SİHAs, which are one of the most popular platforms in the world in this field with their performance in Syria, Libya, Karabakh and most recently in Ukraine, are at the top in ammunition diversity.
Although the SİHAs of other countries can also throw very different ammunition at the target, most of them have not had field experience. The ammunition variety of Turkish SİHAs has proven its worth in operations in different geographies of the world, and this makes our SİHAs special in many ways.
What ammunition can Turkish SİHAs fire?
One of the most critical issues for countries like Turkey, which carries out internal security operations on the one hand, and cross-border operations in countries such as Syria and Iraq on the other, and needs a serious observation in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, is to reduce the load on the air forces as much as possible. Another sensitive part of the process is not to cause any security vulnerabilities while reducing the load.
At this point, the fact that the tasks that SİHAs can undertake is not limited to destroying targets only, and that they can play a role in a much wider perspective comes to the fore.
Well, which ammunition can be fired by armed drones produced by different institutions in Turkey? What ammunition is planned to be launched from these platforms in the near future?
MAM-L and MAM-C are the secret heroes of the process
It is useful to open a small parenthesis before moving on to the subject of ammunition. It is very important that Turkey produces not only the SİHAs but also the ammunition on it with domestic means. Developing these products with the national defense industry move, Ankara actually used these products in the field.
Usage in many different fields brought with it critical experiences. As it was used, its deficiencies were seen, it was worked on, it was developed and even then perfected. Now let’s close the parenthesis and take a closer look at the ammunition used by Turkish SİHAs.
It would not be wrong to say that the most used ammunition for both Bayraktar TB-2 and ANKA are MAM-L and MAM-C. Turkey has a strong hand in this category, which is accepted as the Mini Intelligent Ammunition (MAM) family.
Developed by Roketsan, the MAM-L stands out as Turkey’s first SİHA ammunition. Working on higher versions of the ammunition with a maximum range of 15 km. Currently, MAM-L can be kicked from both Bayraktar TB-2 and ANKA class and Akinci-Aksungur class.
MAM-C, on the other hand, is a product developed over the CİRİT missile. With a weight of about 6.5 kilograms, it gives successful exams especially in anti-personnel missions. Bayraktar TB-2, ANKA, Akinci and Aksungur are among the platforms where the MAM-C, Turkey’s lightest SİHA ammunition, is launched.
The last and most advanced member of the family is the MAM-T. With a weight of approximately 94 kilograms, the MAM-T was developed especially for heavily armored targets. As it will be remembered, Akıncı’s first shooting attempt was made with the MAM-T and was successful. MAM-T can only be kicked from Akıncı for now.
The association of TB-2 and Bozok is remarkable
Although Bayraktar TB-2 is identified with MAM-L and MAM-C, this picture is expected to take a different form with BOZOK. BOZOK Laser Guided Miniature SİHA Ammunition, developed by TÜBİTAK-SAGE, is expected to have a range of 15 km. For now, only TB-2 can shoot BOZOK, which started mass production after the test shots.
TEBER is on the body of both Akıncı and Aksungur
As we mentioned at the beginning, the ammunition variety of Turkish SİHAs is quite high. We continue to see domestic and national munitions on the platforms called ‘Attack UAV‘, which follow Bayraktar TB-2 and ANKA.
TEBER guidance kit is one of them… TEBER is basically a laser guidance kit integrated into MK-81 and MK-82 General Purpose Grenades to increase their striking capability. It does this using the Inertial Measurement Unit (ICU), the Global Positioning System (GPS) and the semi-active Laser Seeker Head (LAB).
It is possible to shoot TEBER from both Akinci and Aksungur.
Şimşek and UPS also enter the equation
Another ammunition currently used by Turkish SİHAs is ŞİMŞEK. ŞİMŞEK is defined as High Speed Target Aircraft System in the simplest terms. Following the studies carried out by TAI, ŞİMŞEK became a GPS-guided missile that could fly autonomously and hit targets at long distances. For now, he can only be kicked out of ANKA.
One of the munitions fired from SİHAs is the family, which we can define as the Winged Guidance Kit. The MK series bombs are made smart, and the UPSs are produced with domestic and national means. The ammunition that is attached to the UPS is sent to the target via AKSUNGUR.
What ammunition will be added soon?
What we have counted so far are the ammunition used by the Turkish SİHAs and used in the field, whose test firings have been completed. There is also a large number of high-level ammunition that will be integrated into SİHAs in the near future. When these are used in the field, the SİHAs produced by Turkey will not only be among the best in the world with the variety of ammunition they have, but will play directly to the top.
KUZGUN will be thrown from AKSUNGUR with ANKA. NEB-84, Çakır, SOM-J, Sungur, Gokdogan and Bozdogan shootings from Akinci are some of the developments that the industry is eagerly waiting for.
Although it is not clear, there are comments that TRG-122 and TRG-230 guided artillery rockets will be integrated into SİHAs. In addition, it is considered that Turkey can use options such as Cirit L-UMTAS, if needed, via TİHAs.
Source : TRT Haber
