Electronic Warfare Capability of Turkey
Turkey was able to create a lethal fusion of its electronic warfare systems. Turkey has been projecting its power recently by showing its indigenous and cost-effective military developments. This fusion secured a strategic edge for Turkey in many of its engagements in the past few years. The countries which bought these systems from Turkey have also seen to tilt the scales towards their side with the help of the systems in warfare. This fusion of EW systems included the KORAL electronic warfare system, ANKA-I UAV, and BAYRATKAR TB2 UAV and micro smart munition.
KORAL is a land-based portable electronic warfare system, it was developed to jam and deceive hostile radars of enemy nations. This system was developed under the land-based jammer systems project. The integration of KORAL, Bayaraktar TB2 and smart micro-munitions lead to the lethal fusion of systems. The Armed Unmanned Areal Vehicles (AUAVs) Bayataktar TB2 received the spotlight recently because of their lethality. Koral did not get much credit in this fusion because it plays a silent role in it. but it is one of the important elements in Turkey's EW. It comes with an effective range of 150-200 km. it can contribute to the Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (SEAD) operations.
Turkey also received the updated ILGAR system last year from the Turkish defence giant Aselsan. These systems are developed for electronic attacks on communication systems which are communicating in different frequency bands. This system would be used by the military to delay and prevent communication in targeted bands and transmit false information to give the tactical upper hand to their troops. The ILGAR comes with advanced mission planning software, mobile using the concept, and high output power compared to MILKAR-A42 high-frequency systems. The ILGAR systems are developed for jamming V/UHF ( Very / Ultra High Frequency). ASELSAN is Turkey’s leading defence company, it specializes in electronic technologies and system integration.
The Turkish Air Force's large fleet of small, unmanned aircraft, which can be used for surveillance and combat, are called "baktar drones" (literally "battle tanks"). The Turkish Army uses a variety of Bayraktar drones in its mission to detect, target, and destroy enemy positions.In 2016, the Turkish military deployed Bayraktar drones against Kurdish separatists in the southeast of Turkey. The drones were also used to patrol the Turkish-Syrian border and to search for Syrian refugees crossing into Turkey.
The Bayraktar drone is an unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that has been developed by TAI, a Turkish company that specializes in aviation technology. It was developed primarily as a reconnaissance tool but has since been adapted to carry weapons systems as well. It is one of the most advanced UAVs in service today and provides many advantages over its competitors.
The Bayraktar is a long-range, maritime surveillance drone with an endurance of 24 hours. It is equipped with a synthetic aperture radar and electro-optical sensors for intelligence gathering and reconnaissance. They also use smart micro munitions MAM-L(Thermobaric variant) and MAM-C (high explosive variant). they are from the family of Laser guided and GPS/INS-guided bombs. These are produced by Turkish defence industry manufacturer Roketsan. It is also equipped with Aselsan’s CATS EO/IR vision system. These drones are exported more than Chianese and US MALE (Medium altitude long endurance drones). The performance of the TB2 Bayraktar drone against Russian artillery systems and armoured vehicles got the attention of the world. Turkey and Lithuania agreed to the donation of Tb2 UAV drones to Ukraine in June 2022.
The larger and more capable drones of Turkish Aerospace are Anka-S & Aksungur are capable of ASW (Anti Submarine Warfare) missions. A new Baykar drone Akinci has set an endurance record by plying for nearly 26 hours at 38,000 feet. It is capable of carrying 1400 kgs of Payload, it will deploy Bozdogan and Gokdogan WVRAAMs (Within Visual Range Air to Air Missiles) and BVRAAM (Beyond Visual Range Air to Air missiles).
It is unclear how many baktar drones the Turkish military has in its inventory. However, Turkey is believed to be one of the world's leading drone producers, with a large domestic drone industry that employs thousands of people. Turkey may also be exporting its drones abroad, where they could be used for intelligence gathering and combat missions.
Currently, there is a huge demand in Africa for Turkey’s weapons, especially drones and aircraft. According to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, In Africa, wherever they went, they asked for unarmed and armed drones. He gave this statement after returning from his trip to the African continent in 2021, he emphasized the demand for Turkey’s military hardware in Africa after this trip. The defence exports from Turkey to Africa in 2021 grew to $460.6 million from $82.9 million in 2020. this is more than 5 times growth in 1 year. In 2021 October Algeria announced its intentions to buy 10 units of Anka S drones which are produced by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI). Algeria’s Rival Morocco also ordered 13 Bayratkar TB2 drones from Turkey. Chad and Libya also bought training aircraft from Turkey. Ethiopia also acquired TB2 drones and used them in the Tigray war.
Turkey also broke new ground by launching MARLIN S?DA, an unmanned surface vessel, Turkey is going to use this vessel under its classification of operations and support for amphibious operations in NATO exercises. This vessel is capable of intelligence gathering, electronic warfare, target detection, identification and surface & underwater reconnaissance and surveillance. This is a great addition to Turkey’s market for autonomous systems. Many unmanned surface vessels were launched around the world but the Marlin has the ability to, not only track the ships of adversaries but also to jam their radars. The Marlin SIDA can be configured with “Kuzgun” (Raven) an air-launched munition, which can work from sea to land and sea to sea configurations.
Coming to the Armed Unmanned Surface Vehicles (AUSV), Salvo developed by Turkish shipyard DEARSAN is being tested, it has recently fired the ROKETSAN CIRIT 70 MM laser-guided missile and hit the bull's eye. These missiles are developed for the Turkish Army's T-129 Atak, AH-1P Cobra and AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters.
KORAL systems played a key role in Turkey’s Operation Spring Sheild. Ankara’s drones were able to conduct their attacks with less interference because of the KORAL systems. KORAL was able to disable the air defence systems (ADSs) of Russia which were designed to counter drone threats. This led to massive losses for the Bashar al-Assad regime. Turkey is also working on portable electronic warfare systems, The MERT and Merter portable electronic warfare systems are being developed by Meteksan Defence. Meteksan defence is within the scope of the project initiated by the Presidency of Defence industries in Turkey. It is a portable electronic attack system, this will be used to prevent long-range communications of targeted elements in V/UHF frequency band. This can be used for the protection of fixed facilities or the protection of moving convoys from IEDs. This portable system can be carried by one person and under this project, mobile units are being developed that can be mounted to vehicles and attached to fixed facilities. With a distributed broadband receiver structure so they detect targets simultaneously across the entire operating frequency band.
With all the engagements Turkey was involved in the last two decades and with a defence budget of $20 billion. What Turkey achieved is remarkable. Even though Turkey is a member of NATO, it had difficulty in obtaining critical technologies because of the sanctions from allied nations. But this hardship lead to innovation, Turkey developed its concepts and made investments in critical areas like EW. Turkey is currently pursuing more than 700 defence projects across the domains. Turkey is also working on unmanned gunship helicopters, the Sapan Hypersonic EM gun, a railgun that will be able to shoot projectiles at hypersonic speed, the drone-carried Baykar Mach 1 capable drones and more. Turkey has become a key player in the defence market specialising in EW. With the induction of all these new electronic warfare systems, Turkey might become the single-stop point for the EW needs of many countries in the Middle East and Africa region.
Pic Courtsey-Federico Beccari at unsplash.com
(The views expressed are those of the author and do noT represent views of CESCUBE.)
