ANKARA, April 4. /TASS/. It will take Turkey an estimated five to six years to bring the domestically developed Siper air defense system to the level of Patriot or C-400 missile defense systems, Ismail Demir, the head of Turkey's Defense Industries, said on Tuesday.
"We are already competitive with the SAMP-T systems (produced by Eurosam - TASS). They are slightly better in some respects, but our Siper system is close to that level. Also, we are getting closer to Patriot. As far as the Patriot and S-400 are concerned, give us another five to six years, and we will have similar systems," Demir said on the TRT channel.
He said research into the Siper system continued without interruptions, with numerous tests and trials being made at the current stage. The system has various modifications. The first one "may soon be handed over to the army."
"The systems are equipped with anti-air threat systems. Our goal is to make the main modification of the system capable of hitting targets at a long range. We have ambitious goals and deadlines," Demir said.
The Siper (Turkish for "trench") is a long-range surface-to-air missile designed to engage any airborne targets. Its development began in 2018. Aselsan and Roketsan companies and the SAGE (Defense Industries Research and Development Institute) are pushing ahead with research under the project. The first tests were conducted in December 2022. The system is capable of detecting, tracking and hitting high-speed targets at a range of more than 100 kilometers. Both the manufacturers and the army plan to put these systems on combat duty in 2023.
Turkey purchased four battalions of S-400 air defense systems from Russia for $2.5 billion. In October 2019, Rosoboronexport reported that the contract to supply the systems had been fulfilled. At that time, Turkey had no air defense systems identical to the S-400.