Turkey’s TUBITAK SAGE to Develop Air-to-Air Missiles for Akinci UCAV

Turkey’s TUBITAK Defense Industries Research and Development Institute (TUBITAK SAGE) is working with team that developed Turkey's Akıncı combat drone for air-to-air missiles.

“There may be other platforms for the future, works are continuing with this regard… Air-to-Air missiles are very critical and they are defined as the ‘sword’ of aircraft," its General Director Gürcan Okumuş told Anadolu Agency (AA) during the MMG-EURITECH Eurasia R&D, Innovation & Technology Summit and Exhibition held in the IT Valley in northwestern Kocaeli province’s Gebze district.

He added, “With these missiles, we aim to see without being seen, and to be able to hit from far away. It will be much easier for us to do this with our own missiles. High technology is not easily shared between countries, or even not shared at all. It is not possible to easily acquire these from abroad through technology transfer. Therefore, the output of every project here is a new achievement.”

Turkey has already started mass-production of Bozok laser-guided miniature munition for UAVs. Its firing tests saw it being integrated into the Bayraktar TB2.

Bozok is smaller and has a light compact structure in comparison to the MAM-L, which has been actively used by Turkey’s drones. MAM-L is part of the family of domestically developed smart micro munitions (MAM), including MAM-C and MAM-T.