Turkey’s ATMACA Anti-Ship Missile aces latest tests, achieves IOC

Atmaca was unveiled for the first time by Turkish missile systems company Roketsan during IDEF 2019 defense exhibition in Istanbul. According to our colleagues at turkishnavy.net, its development started about 10 years ago, with Undersecreteriat For Defence industries (UDI) signing a contract for the R&D phase with Roketsan as main contractor, in 2009. Live firing of Atmaca started from 2016.

The serial production contract of Atmaca anti-ship missile was signed between the Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) and Roketsan on November 2nd, 2018.

According to Roketsan, Atmaca is a subsonic, sea-skimming anti-ship missile with a range of over 220km featuring a 250kg-class high explosive fragmentation warhead. It features high resistance to countermeasures, all-weather capability, a target updating/mission termination facility and a comprehensive mission planning system with 3D routing. The missile is effective against sea targets in open or coastal waters, as well as against shore-based targets.

Atmaca is set to become the Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW) weapon of choice aboard Turkish Navy modern surface combatants: It will be fitted aboard the Ada-class corvettes, the future Istanbul-class frigates and the future TF2000-class anti-air warfare destroyers.

A future evolution of the missile includes the replacement of the engine (currently supplied by Microturbo of France) with a local turbojet engine currently under development in Turkey. Other major upgrades on which Roketsan is working are an Imaging Infra Red seeker (similar to what the Naval Strike Missile is using) as well as a hybrid guidance system. 

Turkey’s Defense Industries Presidency (SSB) shared a video of one of the launch. Both launches took place from Turkish Navy (Türk Deniz Kuvvetleri) Ada-class corvette TCG Kınalıada, the last ship-in-class.

According to our information, the first test too place on 3 February 2021 and consisted in a telemetry test, without the warhead. The next day, an ATMACA with a live warhead was tested. Both tests were successful meaning the missile has now reached IOC with the Turkish Navy.

The test shots were watched by Naval Forces Commander Admiral Adnan Özbal. Speaking after the test shots, Admiral Özbal said “Our indigenous missile Atmaca will give trust to friends and fear to the enemy”.

For the record, the first at-sea test of ATMACA took place in November 2019 from the same corvette. TCG Kınalıada is currently the only Ada-class corvette equipped with ATMACA launchers, and therefore this corvette was used for the development of the missile.