turki_de

Roketsan of Turkey is reportedly working on an improved version of J-600T missile, details of which are highly speculative for the moment. Given that the system was first revealed to the public more than 7 years of its introduction to service, it can be expected that information about this improved version, if there is any, is going to remain secret for some time.

Project J: J-600T Yildirim (Thunderbolt)


Without doubt, Project J is the most speculative and controversial weapon system project of Turkey, causing much stir in both internal and international military circles. This effect can be linked to the strategic nature of the weapon system in focus and the mystery surrounded it for years, coupled with an effective disinformation campaign.

The story of Project J, as well as Project Kasirga, goes back to the first half 1990's, when negotiations for the joint production and technology transfer of M-270 MLRS artillery rocket system were failed. After the shelving of the project, Turkey started to seek other alternatives, mainly focused on full sovereignty over critical technologies in order to establish self sufficient missile and guidance technology capability infrastructure. After signing of a contract for the licensed production of WS-1 under the name of Kasirga in 1997, a similar contract was signed with CPMIEC (Chinese Precision Machinery Import and Export Corporation) for the B-611 SRBM system in late 1998 covering licensed production of a battery of B-611 with more than 200 missiles, for a reported cost of USD 300,000,000.

An extremely interesting feature of Project J is the associated disinformation campaign conducted throughout the project. J-600T Yildirim was thought to be aredivative of Chines M-7 (CSS-8) surface to surface inertial guided missile which itself was a derivative of HQ-2 SAM system, the CHinese copy of Russian SA-2 Guideline SAM. The main source of this disinformation was an article published in Milliyet newspaper on 14 January 2002. According to this article, The 150km "J" missile, which was produced by the transfer of technology from China was test fired from Sile in 2001. Based on the information provided by "anonymous experts", the article claimed that the missile was very similar to Chinese M-7. The article was supported by a photo of an unknown missile and a drawingof a SA-2 / HQ-2 missile.

For years to come, this article was the main source for claims, analysis and speculations about Project J. The speculations varied widely, ranging from estimates that (although M-7 was an inertial guided missile) Project J incorporated radar, GPS/INS technology to wild guesses about ranges; from 150km to as high as 1,000km. But the truth came to the surface in 2007.

The J-600T was first revealed to the public on 30 August 2007, during Victory Day parade in Ankara. The TRT (Turkiye Radyo Televizyon Kurumu; Turkish Radio and Television Corporation) commentator announced the system as "Yildirim missile system". During this parade and following two ones in the same year, both launcher and reloading vehicles were shown to the public. Yildirim system was also reported to United Nations Register of Conventional Arms by Turkey in March 2007.


Like Kasirga, Project J from the very start was protected with the highest security measures available. Thus, still few details are known about the project. Even the correct name was not known until very recently. It is now positively known that, from the start, "J" was the code name of the project, which led to unofficial nick-name "Jaguar". The official designation of the missile system is "J-600T" and Yildirim is the late official name of the system. When first appeared, most defence media, such as Greek defence publication ΣΤΡΑΤΗΓΙΚΗ (Stratigiki; Strategy), misidentified the system as "F-600T" hence the code name of the launcher vehicle visible on a plate during the system's first revelation at 30 August Victory Day parade in 2007.

J-600T Yildirim is a conventional battlefield missile system providing high mobility, designed to attack high value targets such as enemy air defence installations, C3I centers, logistics and infrastructure facilities as well as providing fire support to friendly artillery by expanding the area of effect.

Although there is still much confusion on the subject, CPMIEC officials confirmed in IDEF 2007 that B-611M, the improved version of B-611 was not part of the cooperation program under Project J. Roketsan is reportedly working to improve the performance and design of J-600T, alternatives of which could be sealed pod-launcher box design, improved propellant and increased range, and / or different warhead configurations. Improved or different GCUis also a possibility, though there is minimal -if not zero- information or clue on the subject, hence the top secret nature of the system.

See: Jane's Missiles and Rockets

Savunma ve Havacilik (Defence and Aerospace) Magazine
.: TÜBÝTAK-SAGE/Proje-Ürünler :.
MKEK
http://www.roketsan.com.tr/defaulteng.htm
Missile Technology Control Regime
Savunma ve Strateji • Ana sayfa
SinoDefence.com - Leading online source of information on China's military power
Federation of American Scientists
Orduya ‘J’ dopingi (Milliyet Gazetesi 14/01/2002)
Turkish Surface to Surface Rocket and Missile Systems - III - acig.org

RustyBattleship

I see three trucks but only one "bird".

Also, in your title of the thread, you forgot an apostrophe which confused me a bit. Turkeys are now arming themselves with missiles? Well, there goes the traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

__________________
Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

Ucar

The systems capabilities are classified. I have serious doubts that the existence of this system violates several chapters of agreements Turkey is party to.

You can check waht we discussed about this issue here

Hellenic Navy

turki_de

(1) I can find alot of punctuation errors in alot of posts here. But the main thing that matters is that you understand what is conveyed. Unless ofcourse, you are trying to mock me.

(2) The two "trucks" are support vehicles required to launch such missile. Obviously, at a Military parade, there is no need to display the whole inventory of missiles. By the way the yellow stripes on the missile also indicate that it is a training mock up. The actual missile was not displayed.

(3) The United Nations and also the People's Republic of China can both confirm the existence of such co-operation between the Turkish Republic and China, regarding SRBM's and MRBM's.

(4) Again according to the United Nations Register for Conventional Arms as at 2006, Turkey (ROKETSAN) produced 97 J-600T Yildirim Missiles and 6 launchers. Please refer to page 87 of the UN General Assembly Report of the Secretary-General, 2007 (UN Document Number: A/62/170). The Report does not specify the actual range of the missile, how Military professionals estimate that it is between 350km and 1000km.

The report can be found at
http://disarmament.un.org/Library.ns...E/a-62-170.pdf

(5) Heres some more pictures:

RustyBattleship

(1) I can find alot of punctuation errors in alot of posts here. But the main thing that matters is that you understand what is conveyed. Unless ofcourse, you are trying to mock me.

No, I wasn't trying to mock you. I make plenty of grammarical errors myself (usually because my 72 year old fingers are not as accurate as they used to by on a typewriter). It's just that the way the title of your thread was cut short in the forum list made it an unusual eye-catcher.

In a way, that was good (though it also triggered my sometimes morbid sense of humor) because I found the thread very interesting and you last post highly informative.

Most military parades with missiles only use the trucks that actually carry the missiles. The support vehicles are usually not paraded as they don't look very "ferocious". However, your method of display of having the support vehicles flanking the launcher vehicle is really a more accurate way of showing your advancement in technology.

And thank you for providing such detailed information and some terrific pictures.

GeneralElectric

i heard the CEP ratio of turkish missiles are much better than those from iranian craps?!