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.

Bilal Khan Founder

Founder of Quwa, Bilal has been researching Pakistani defence industry and security issues for over 15 years. His work has been cited by Pakistan's National Defence University (NDU), the Council of Foreign Relations, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Centre of Airpower Studies and many others. He has a Hons. B.A in Political Science and Masters of Interntional Public Policy from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

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