Khan_Han

The Chief of the General Staff has stated that it will use Turkish made guided balistic and quasi-balistic missiles against PKK terrorists, whereever they are in Iraq. The statement released by Turkey's Military headquarters today states that this would minimize Turkish Marine casualties and also enhance the effectiveness in destroying terrorist training camps.

What is interesting is that this statement by the Armed Forces confirms the existence of Turkey's Project J.

Project J

Class: SRBM
Basing: Surface based
Length: 6.0 m
Diameter: 0.4 m
Launch Weight: 1200 kg
Payload: Single warhead
Warhead: 150 kg; HE
Propulsion: Single-stage solid
Range: 150 km
Status: Unknown
In Service: ~2002

Details

Project J is a short-range, ground-based, solid propellant missile system. It is a joint venture between the Turkish firm Roketsan and CPMIEC of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The system is believed to be based upon the PRC WS-1 unguided rocket system. It is presumed that like the WS-1, the Project J is road mobile and deployed in a battery.

The Project J is likely to be deployed as a tactical weapon. Its warhead is insufficient against strategic or hardened targets, even with its high accuracy. Project J is based upon the WS-1 missile which was designed to be deployed in volume from rocket batteries. This will probably be the case for the Project J, and it will likely be used as a support weapon against military targets. The addition of a relatively advanced guidance system by Turkey will increase the effectiveness of the weapon, but is unlikely to be sufficient for use against individual or moving military targets. However, it will likely be able to bombard a military column, airfield or base with a high degree of effectiveness.

The Project J is reported to have a 150 km range, with a length of 6.0 m, a diameter of 0.4 m and a launch weight of 1,200 kg. It has a combination of inertial guidance and a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system equipped on its control fins. This likely gives the missile an accuracy of 75 m CEP. There is probably a decrease in the payload to get such a significant increase in range.

The Project J missile was first reported in Turkey in 2002. Turkey purchased five WS-1 rocket batteries in 1997, which it likely reverse engineered with the collaboration of CPMIEC to develop the Project J missile. The first flight test of the Project J occurred in December 2001.(1)


Footnotes
Utku Çakirözer, “Turkey tests ‘Project J’ missile,” Jane’s Missiles and Rockets, 1 February 2002; Duncan Lennox, Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems 46 (Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, January 2007), 173.