Turkey Successfully Test-Fires Home-made Atmaca Anti-Ship Missile

Turkey’s home-made Atmaca anti-ship missile (AShM) successfully completed a test to check the flight characteristics and or the range, the Turkish Navy’s technical head Admiral Ahmet Çakır said.

“We are all closely following the Atmaca project and the first shots are being made and next year we will be shooting on the ship’s platform and we aim to make the Atmaca guided missile we plan to replace Harpoon as a [missile] with superior capability, long range, superior capabilities than Harpoon,” said Çakır at the 8th Marine Systems Seminar, according to a local media report of TRT Haber cited by quwa.org.

Atmaca missile had undergone the first test firing conducted on a terrestrial shooting range last year.

The serial production of the Atmaca is scheduled to begin in 2018 and will be deployed from the Navy’s MILGEM Ada-class corvettes and G-Class frigates, according to the media report. The initial production is estimated to be between 64 and 100 units.

According to Turkish Navy blog, the main wing of the Turkish missile is larger than its US counterpart. There are two hinges on the main wing of Atmaca compared to one on Harpoon wings; hence, the wing span of Atmaca is greater than Harpoons. This change was obviously made to improve the flight performance of the missile. The control fins of the Turkish missile are considerably smaller than the US missile. The air intake of Atmaca is place between the wings and fins while the air intake of Harpoon is placed between the wings.

Turkey intends to supplant the Microturbo TRI 40 miniature turbojet engine powering the Atmaca and Stand-off Missile (SOM) air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) with the domestically developed Kale 3500.