The renowned American defense outlet National Interest, in a new article, analyzes the capabilities of the Turkish ballistic missile Tayfun, which is under development and testing. The American publication describes the weapon as "hypersonic."
Is Tayfun a hypersonic missile?
Specifically, in the aforementioned article, National Interest indeed describes the Turkish Tayfun as a hypersonic ballistic missile with a maximum firing range of 560 kilometers.
The American article inevitably brings to mind the propaganda publications of the pro-government Turkish press.
“The Tayfun missile will offer the Turkish military new capabilities that many of its regional adversaries, and even the United States, currently do not possess,” the article states.
Since Turkey accidentally revealed Tayfun in 2022, no official announcement from the Turkish Ministry of Defense or the manufacturer Roketsan has confirmed reports suggesting that Tayfun will fly at hypersonic speeds. Given this, such claims remain unverified rumors.
It should be noted that in its publication, National Interest cited the Turkish website Turkishminute, which revealed that the Tayfun missile program began in the 1990s in cooperation with China, following technology transfers from Western allies.
Tayfun will be Turkey’s first domestically produced ballistic missile, making it nearly impossible for it to simultaneously be the first hypersonic missile of the Turkish defense industry.
It is important to remember that for a weapon to be classified as hypersonic, it must travel at a speed greater than Mach 5, meaning five times the speed of sound. Flight speeds between Mach 1 and Mach 5 are referred to as supersonic.
Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that a future version of Tayfun may be developed specifically for hypersonic flights. On January 6 of this year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that a domestically developed hypersonic weapon would be created, which would significantly enhance the capabilities of Turkey’s arsenal.
Nevertheless, the most likely scenario is that Turkey will launch a completely new hypersonic missile development program, in which it may seek the assistance of a foreign country that has made progress in this technological field (e.g., Russia or China).
