The Hisar O+ Air Defense System Enters Into Service With the Turkish Armed Forces
The Presidency of Defense Industries announced on Thursday, January 20, that the Hisar O+ Air Defense System, developed in collaboration with ASELSAN and ROKETSAN, was delivered to the Turkish Armed Forces in a video posted on the official Twitter page to highlight the defense industry’s activities in 2021.
Before entering the armed services’ inventory, the HİSAR O+ Medium Altitude Air Defense System underwent its final acceptance test on December 24, 2021, at the Aksaray Firing Field, and the system successfully destroyed a high-speed target at high altitude.
“Our national air defense missile system HİSAR O+ destroyed the high-speed target at high altitude in the last acceptance test before entering the inventory (of the TAF),” Defense Industry President İsmail Demir said in a statement. “The HİSAR O+ is currently fully operational with all of its components. Best wishes to our army in advance.”
Apart from the HİSAR-O+, the Turkish Armed Forces, which received the HİSAR A+ Air Defense Missile System with all of its components in recent months, are now able to provide air defense in the low and medium altitude layers with their own means. SİPER, a long-range air defense system that is currently being tested for high altitude air defense, is anticipated to be operational in 2023.
HİSAR-O+ is an enhanced variant of the HİSAR O Air Defense System in terms of range and radar coverage, developed under the supervision of Aselsan and Roketsan to meet Turkey’s medium altitude air defense needs.
According to Roketsan, the Hisar O+ is capable of operating in all weather conditions, has full 360-degree defense capability, and can engage and fire against at least nine separate targets simultaneously. It can intercept targets at a range of 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) and is effective against fighters, helicopters, air-to-ground missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles.
A Fire Control Center, a Missile Launch System, a Medium Altitude Air Defense Radar, an Electro Optical System, and Infrared Seeker Missiles are among the components of the HİSAR O+ System, which has a distributed and flexible architecture and can be configured at a battery and battalion level.
Apart from the HİSAR O+, The Turkish Armed Forces also have the MIM-23 Hawk medium range air defense system, which was supplied by the United States in 2005, and the S-125-2D1 medium range air defense system, which it received from Ukraine in 2020. Turkey is also interested in the Italian-French collaboration’s SAMP-T defense system.