ROKETSAN has unveiled its solid fuel ramjet-powered GÖKBORA as its first air-to-air missile at IDEF25 defence exhibition, making a grand entry into the market.
Due to ROKETSAN not having developed an air-to-air missile before and the presence of folding fins, the ramjet-powered missile from the teaser was thought to be a surface-launched missile. However, the unveiling ceremony has taken a twist with the missile turning out to be a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM).
During the exhibition, a deal was signed to develop the AGRAS 3101/AA AESA RF seeker for the missile between ASELSAN, ROKETSAN, and SSB. This marks the first AESA seeker to be developed in Türkiye.
AESA seekers on air-to-air missiles were first implemented by Japan on the AAM-4 BVRAAM. They saw their first action during the brief conflict between Pakistan and India, by Pakistan utilising the Chinese PL-15 BVRAAMs..
TurDef learned during the exhibition that the missile would be fire tested after IDEF25, and ROKETSAN has been working on the boron-based solid fuel ramjet technology at least since 2009. Thus, despite the sudden appearance of GÖKBORA, this could be said to have been a work of a long term.
GÖKBORA has been unveiled as a solid fuel ramjet-powered BVRAAM, capable of reaching a range of 100 nautical miles or 185 km. The missile, measuring 3.75 meters in length and using folding fins, can be said to be very friendly with internal bay carriage conditions, which require munitions to have a small cross-section for maximum missile count. In fact, internal carriage requirements are among the reasons for the delays in the European counterpart Meteor’s integration to F-35, which has led to a clipped-down fin design. Thus, folding the fins down can potentially increase the number of missiles that can be carried in internal bays of combat aircraft like KAAN and KIZILELMA by one or two missiles.
Another important feature of GÖKBORA is its AESA RF seeker, which gives improved effectiveness against more agile targets at shorter ranges thanks to beam steering capabilities. The beam steering widens the field of view, giving a wider searching sector and reacting more quickly to sudden manoeuvres.
It is noteworthy that GÖKBORA not only have potential for domestic use but also in the export market, as its only competitor would be MBDA’s Meteor BVRAAAM. Considering the fact that some of Turkiye’s or its allies’ adversaries are users of the missile, a counter likely will not be late to spark interest from allied non-Meteor user countries.
Author: Kaan Azman
Editor:Özgür Ekşi
