ROKETSAN General Manager Murat İkinci said this week that GÖKBORA, an air-to-air missile built around a solid-fuel ramjet, will be Türkiye’s longest-range air-to-air missile. ROKETSAN first unveiled GÖKBORA at the International Defence Industry Fair (IDEF) 2025 with a stated range of more than 100 nautical miles, or about 185 km.
GÖKBORA is Türkiye’s first air-to-air missile powered by a solid-fuel ramjet, with ROKETSAN handling both the airframe and the propulsion. It is also ROKETSAN’s first air-to-air missile, designed with an emphasis on carriage by stealth aircraft.
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The missile is one of two ramjet-powered beyond-visual-range (BVR) air-to-air missiles Türkiye is developing in parallel, each from a different developer. Both missiles made their public debuts at IDEF 2025 as separate long-range programs.
The other is GÖKHAN, which the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye’s Defence Industries Research and Development Institute (TÜBİTAK SAGE) is developing for the F-16. GÖKHAN uses a liquid-fuel ramjet, while GÖKBORA is optimized for carriage inside the weapons bays of the KAAN fighter and the Kızılelma unmanned combat aircraft.
The missile measures 3.75 m in length and 180 mm in diameter, with a range of 185.2 km. Its folding fins allow the F-16 to carry GÖKBORA as well, extending the weapon beyond the two internal-bay platforms it was designed around.
GÖKBORA combines inertial navigation and a datalink for midcourse guidance with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radio frequency (RF) seeker for the terminal phase. The Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB), ASELSAN and ROKETSAN signed a contract at IDEF 2025 for the missile’s AESA seeker and datalink, with SSB President Haluk Görgün, ASELSAN General Manager Ahmet Akyol and İkinci signing.
Turkish coverage of the contract described GÖKBORA as a domestic counterpart to the European Meteor, the ramjet-powered missile used by several NATO air forces.
That seeker, ASELSAN’s AGRAS 3101/AA, is planned as Türkiye’s first AESA RF seeker. ASELSAN and ROKETSAN are also reported to be working on integration with the MURAD AESA radar, ASELSAN’s AESA fire-control radar for Turkish combat aircraft.
İkinci announced in December 2025 that “work on GÖKBORA BVRAAM’s solid fuel ramjet was completed”, speaking at an event at Ankara University Teknokent. Firing tests are scheduled to follow completion of the motor, with the missile described as a main weapon for Kızılelma.
In February 2026, İkinci estimated that GÖKBORA would be ready in about two years, with a possible slip of six months. He has named KAAN, Kızılelma, ANKA and Akıncı as intended GÖKBORA platforms, a list that spans a crewed fighter and three Turkish drones.
The February interview also listed the Eurofighter Typhoon among the integration targets, with ANKA-III mentioned as a potential platform. İkinci said at the time that ROKETSAN’s air-to-air missile trials would take place in 2026, putting this year on the company’s test calendar for the category.
The Ministry of National Defence’s 2025 report sets March 2031 as the target for qualifying GÖKBORA on the F-16. That F-16 target runs alongside integration work for KAAN, Kızılelma and the Eurofighter, the platforms ROKETSAN has named for the missile.
