Turkey Completes HİSAR-A Surface-to-Air Missile Tests

Turkey’s Defence Industry President (SSB) İsmail Demir announced that Roketsan and Aselsan completed the development of the HİSAR-A low-altitude surface-to-air missile (SAM) system. According to the SSB, the HİSAR-A will enter mass production, with deliveries to the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) slated in 2020.

Through social media, İsmail Demir stated that the HİSAR-A “successfully destroyed the target with 100% success in its final system tests. Mass production started.”

The HİSAR-A is a short-range SAM system with a maximum range of 15 km. It relies on a dual-pulse rocket motor (DPMR) with a data-link-based mid-course guidance system and imaging infrared (IIR) seeker.

The TSK will deploy the HİSAR-A as a fixed and mobile short-range air defence (SHORAD) system alongside the Aselsan Korkut self-propelled anti-air gun (SPAAG) system.

Development of the HİSAR began in 2011, following a tender in 2008 from Turkey’s Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM). The SSM awarded Aselsan, Roketsan, and TÜBİTAK SAGE a $413.27 million US contract to develop the HİSAR-A as well as its medium-range variant the HİSAR-O.

The HİSAR-O is expected to enter service in 2021.

Turkey is also developing a long-range variant, which it designated the HİSAR-U. Turkey has not released the official range of the forthcoming HİSAR-U, though one could expect it to be in the area of 90-120 km, i.e., in line with contemporary long-range SAMs such as the FD-2000 and S-350.