Türkiye is developing a missile with a range of 2,000 km, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a televised speech on 6 January. This is twice the range he has previously given for his country's missile programme.
“We have decided to both strengthen our missile stock with a range of 800 km and above and to accelerate our missile development programme with a range of 2,000 km and above,” he said in a part of a speech listing major achievements made by the Turkish defence industry in 2024.
Erdoğan previously said Türkiye was working on a missile with a range of 1,000 km. “The range of the Tayfun missile was announced as 560 km; we do not find even 560 [km] sufficient. I had a meeting last week. I asked what the final situation was, [and] they said we will reach 1,000 km,” he said in an 18 December 2022 speech.
Erdoğan noted the previous month that the Tayfun ballistic missile being developed by Roketsan had achieved a range of 561 km and said a missile called the Cenk was being developed alongside the Gezgin, which is a long-range cruise missile.
A test of the Tayfun ballistic missile was publicised for the first time on 18 October 2022, when a video was released showing a twin launcher firing a missile westwards from Rize-Artvin Airport on Türkiye's Black Sea coast. Roketsan announced what it said was a second Tayfun test on 23 May 2023, releasing a video showing a missile being launched from the same location.
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