Advancing Türkiye’s Air Defense: The Importance of Target Aircraft in the Development and Testing Processes of Modern Air and Missile Defense SystemsAdvancing Türkiye’s Air Defense: The Importance of Target Aircraft in the Development and Testing Processes of Modern Air and Missile Defense Systems

The development of modern air and missile defense systems is not determined solely by the missile’s kinematic performance or the radar’s detection range. What ultimately defines combat credibility is the system’s ability to detect, classify, track, engage, and destroy representative targets under realistic operational conditions. For this reason, target aircraft and target drones occupy a central place in the development, qualification, and acceptance processes of layered air defense architectures. They provide the practical bridge between design assumptions and verified battlefield performance by allowing engineers, operators, and decision-makers to observe how a complete kill chain behaves against controlled but operationally relevant aerial threats.

For countries seeking to establish an indigenous and layered air defense architecture, the availability of suitable target aircraft is therefore not a secondary issue but a strategic enabler. Radar performance, seeker sensitivity, command-and-control logic, datalink robustness, fuze timing, and interceptor guidance laws can only be fully validated through repeated trials against targets that replicate different flight envelopes, radar cross-sections, infrared signatures, speeds, altitudes, and maneuver patterns. In this sense, target drones are not merely expendable flying objects used to “present a target”; they are essential test assets that make it possible to mature subsystems, reduce technical risk, verify engagement algorithms, and refine doctrine before a system enters operational service.

This requirement becomes even more critical in the case of contemporary air defense, where the threat set has expanded far beyond conventional fixed-wing aircraft. Today’s layered networks must be prepared to counter UAVs of different classes, helicopters, low-flying aircraft, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, anti-radiation missiles, and, increasingly, highly maneuverable and low-observable air-breathing threats. A credible development campaign must therefore expose the air defense system to a progressively broader family of target profiles, starting with relatively simple subsonic targets and moving toward faster, lower, more maneuverable, and more complex scenarios. The quality and diversity of available target aircraft directly affect how thoroughly a system’s real operational envelope can be demonstrated.

Türkiye’s ongoing efforts in air defense illustrate this relationship clearly. Indigenous systems such as HİSAR and SİPER have been developed to provide layered protection against a wide range of aerial threats, while the parallel use of target drones has enabled the verification of tracking, fire-control, and interception performance at different stages of system maturity. HİSAR system, which includes HİSAR-A (short-range, up to 15+ km) and HİSAR-O/RF (medium-range, up to 45+ km) variants, addresses low to medium-altitude threats such as helicopters, aircraft, cruise missiles, and UAVs, while SİPER represents the upper tier of Türkiye’s indigenous long-range (up to 150+ km) and high-altitude (up to 20+ km) air defense architecture. SİPER Product-1 entered the Turkish Armed Forces inventory in October 2024, and subsequent acceptance activity reported in 2025 and early 2026.

The technological depth of these programs also underlines why target aircraft remain indispensable throughout development. Aselsan’s radar, fire-control, command-and-control, and datalink solutions, together with Roketsan’s missile design and launch-systems, must function not in isolation but as an integrated combat system. Only realistic target presentations can reveal how effectively these elements operate together under time pressure, target maneuver, airspace congestion, and electronic or kinematic stress. In practical terms, every successful interception against a representative target helps convert a promising missile-defense architecture into a field-proven capability.

Recent Test Campaigns

In the naval domain, the first publicly reported shipboard launch of the HİSAR-D RF missile from the indigenous MİDLAS vertical launch system aboard the TCG İstanbul took place in March 2024, marking the first time a Turkish air defense missile was fired from a naval platform using a national launcher. The most important publicly reported follow-on milestone came on 15 August 2025, when the Turkish Navy conducted a live-fire engagement from TCG İstanbul and successfully destroyed a Banshee 80+ high-speed target drone. Based on publicly available reporting, this was at least the second major HİSAR-D RF firing from the frigate and the first openly reported live-target intercept in the program’s shipboard configuration.

For SİPER, based on a briefing given to Minister of National Defense Yaşar Güler, stated that more than 100 firing tests had already been conducted for SİPER Product-1. Before that milestone, the system had passed a final long-range test in May 2023, and SİPER Product-1 officially entered the Turkish Armed Forces inventory on 28 October 2024. Reporting in July 2025 further indicated that serial-production acceptance tests had been completed, while Aselsan reported in early 2026 that the battery-delivery acceptance firing for SİPER 1 had been successfully conducted at the Sinop Test Center under a complex air picture involving maneuvering friendly and hostile aircraft. 

These tests have progressively incorporated advanced components, including the integration of Aselsan’s AGRAS-400SA RF seeker in the SİPER Product-2 variant, designed to improve the system's long-range engagement capabilities up to a range of 150km and altitude of 20km. Within a few years, it is expected that SIPER Block-2 development will be completed and delivered to the Turkish Air Force.

Testing and Evaluation Process

To validate performance, HİSAR and SİPER systems have been tested primarily against low subsonic targets, including jet-powered Simşek (from TUSAŞ) and Banshee 40+/80+ (from QinetiQ) target drones. These tests are crucial to ensure baseline tracking, targeting, and interception capabilities. Target drones simulate conventional air threats such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), small aircraft, fighter aircraft, and cruise missiles.

However, modern air defense requires a broader spectrum of engagement scenarios. Effective systems must demonstrate the ability to counter fast-moving, high-subsonic, and supersonic threats, including cruise missiles like Tomahawk, Scalp/Storm Shadow, or anti-ship missiles like Exocet, Harpoon, or supersonic anti-ship missiles like Russia's P-800 Oniks, as well as anti-radiation missiles such as HARM.

Accordingly, prospective operators generally do not evaluate an air defense system on brochure specifications alone; they want evidence that it has been exercised against relevant threat surrogates and under realistic scenarios. For that reason, the depth, diversity, and sophistication of target-drone campaigns are among the most important indicators of how mature a modern air and missile defense system really is.

Importance of Diverse Target Profiles

During the development phase of these systems, test firings against low subsonic target drones provide an initial assessment and demonstration of the systems, subsystems (radar, guidance, algorithms, command systems, etc.), but comprehensive performance verification requires engagements across multiple threat profiles that can be listed below:

Low-speed air-breathing targets: Tactical/MALE/HALE UAVs, light aircraft, helicopters, and loitering drones in different sizes.

Subsonic cruise missiles or anti-ship missiles: ScalpNG, Storm Shadow, Tomahawk, Kh-101, Exocet, Harpoon.

High-subsonic and supersonic missiles: P-800 Oniks, BrahMos.

4th or 5th gen high performance aircraft: F-16, F-15, F-35m Rafale, Mirage-2000, EF-2000, Su-27/30/34/35 etc.

Anti-radiation missiles: AGM-88 HARM, Kh-31, and similar anti-radiation missiles.

effectiveness across multiple layers and scenarios, which is critical for both domestic security and potential export markets. In fact, most times, the buyers ask producers to demonstrate their system performance under certain scenarios, depending on the buyer country’s threat perception. These demonstrations are usually done by inviting military/civilian delegations of the prospective buyer countries to test firings of the air defense system in the local test facilities. Additionally, after the system delivery and necessary personal training, the system’s acceptance test firings are accomplished under certain threat simulations.

International Offerings of Target Drones

Several countries have established benchmarks for testing air defense systems against high-subsonic and supersonic threats. We will briefly survey available target drones from a few selected countries.

United States: The US companies are leading the target drone sector by offering a wide range of target drone solutions for the needs of the defense industry or armed forces from around the world.

Kratos’s BQM-167 is a high-performance jet system optimized for threat aircraft replication but designed to represent either aircraft or missile threats, based on its basic aerodynamic performance; Mach 0.91 speed, 9g maneuvering, 50,000-foot ceiling, and down to 50-foot low-level flight. Threat augmentation includes radio frequency (RF) systems, infrared (IR) systems, traditional countermeasures, towed targets, and visual systems. The BQM-167 can also carry substantial payload volume and weight while maintaining fighter-like performance at typical engagement altitudes.

Northrop's GMQ-163A “Coyote” is a threat representative target vehicle used to support the critical mission of testing anti-ship missile defenses for the U.S. and allied navies, as well as simulating high altitude launched anti-ration missiles. The Coyote is the only ramjet-powered supersonic sea-skimming target produced in the U.S., providing a cost-effective target to simulate advanced supersonic anti-ship cruise missile threats. Supersonic target drones to simulate a wide range of fast targets.

Northrop’s BQM-34 Firebee simulates tactical threats by enemy aircraft and missiles for defense readiness training, air-to-air combat training, and the development and evaluation of weapons systems. It can fly as fast as Mach 0.97, at levels as low as 10 ft. above the sea surface, or at altitudes as high as 60,000 ft. It is capable of performing seven-g turns while maintaining high airspeeds for realistic threat presentations.

Northrop’s BQM-74F Chukar drone is especially developed to simulate low-altitude anti-ship and cruise missiles. The BQM-74F improves speed, range, maneuverability, and endurance, increases the payload capability, modernizes the support equipment, and retains the utility of previous versions of the drone. Mission planning capability integrated into the PC based support equipment provides detailed mission plans verified with embedded 6-DOF (Degrees of Freedom) simulation capability for pre-flight verification. Six missions of up to 70 waypoints are pre-programmable and selected both pre and post-launch. Mission profile may be adjusted via the command-and-control data link. The weave capability includes pre-programmed fixed circular and flat weave maneuvers and user-programmable weaves. PC based field test equipment provides real-time simulation of programmable weaves prior to downloading into the air vehicle avionics, and pre-loaded weave maneuvers may be selected after launch. All these features make the BQM-74F the foremost cruise missile replicator available on the market.

Sierra Technical is offering a unique solution to simulate 5th-gen targets with its twin J85 turbojet-powered 5GAT drone. The 5GAT is a high-performance, unmanned, fighter-size aircraft that will be utilized for Air-to-Air and Surface-To-Air weapons evaluation, pilot training, and ground forces training when translated into production as the Next Generation Aerial Target (NGAT).

United Kingdom:

Banshee Series Target Drones: The Banshee series, developed by QinetiQ, is a prominent line of target drones utilized in various military training exercises worldwide. Specifically, the Banshee Jet 40+ and 80+ variants have been employed in testing the HİSAR and SİPER systems. Fitted with twin 40 kg thrust gas turbine engines, the Banshee Jet 80+ has an 80 kg static thrust, attributed to the impressive 200 m/s (Mach 0.6) airspeed achieved when flying straight and level (ISA Standard). Adding an auxiliary fuel tank guarantees the velocity is matched with stamina, generating a typical mixed throttle mission time of over 45 minutes. It can simulate high-subsonic threats such as cruise missiles or aircraft. Its versatility allows for both land and sea launching, aligning with the operational requirements of the development of Türkiye’s air defense systems.

QinetiQ’s Rattler ST, powered by a solid-propellant rocket motor, is highly effective in operational training and can achieve air launch speeds over Mach 2.5. The Rattler supports corkscrew and weave maneuvers and is available as a mounted payload option on the Banshee Jet 80+ Platform.

Türkiye’s Target Drones:

Şimşek High-Speed Target Drone: Developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ), the Şimşek high-speed target drone was conceived in the late 2000s to provide the Turkish Armed Forces with a realistic and versatile aerial target for the testing and training of air defense systems. First flown in 2012, Şimşek can be catapult-launched from land or naval platforms and recovered by parachute, while it can also be deployed from UAVs such as ANKA and AKSUNGUR. The platform is capable of speeds exceeding 350 knots (up to 400 knots in some trials) with an operational ceiling above 15,000 feet, and it can sustain flight for around 45 minutes. Equipped with radar and infrared signature enhancers, smoke generators, miss-distance indicators, and expendable countermeasures, Şimşek provides realistic target profiles for both gun and missile systems. In recent years, the system has been adapted for operational use as a loitering munition, with a range of 100–200 kilometers and a 5 kg warhead, giving it a secondary role as a low-cost kamikaze drone and decoy in contested environments.

Super Şimşek Multi-Role Drone: Building on the success of Şimşek, TUSAŞ unveiled the Super Şimşek as a jet-powered, multi-role system designed to meet operational requirements well beyond training. With a maximum speed approaching Mach 0.85 and a range of up to 700 kilometers, the Super Şimşek offers significant endurance and reach for both offensive and defensive missions. The platform weighs around 200 kg and can carry payloads of 35–50 kg, including explosive warheads or modular mission systems such as electronic warfare suites, chaff/flare dispensers, radar signature augmenters, and EO/IR payloads. Its flexible architecture allows it to serve as a decoy, reconnaissance drone, electronic attack platform, or precision strike asset. Demonstrated in 2025 when launched mid-flight from the stealth UCAV ANKA III, Super Şimşek forms a key element of Türkiye’s manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) and “Autonomous Wingman” concepts. By imitating high-performance aircraft signatures and conducting complex suppression missions, Super Şimşek represents a new generation of expendable, multi-purpose drones that enhance the survivability and effectiveness.

Conclusion

HİSAR and SİPER both exemplify Türkiye’s desire to develop an indigenous and layered air defense solution that will play a critical role in the air defense of Türkiye and bring an integrated and layered air defense capability that has been missing for many years. While current testing focuses on low subsonic speed (below Mach 0.6) targets, future developments and testing should incorporate higher-speed and more complex threat simulations to fully validate system capabilities. Expanded performance envelopes could include engagement scenarios against supersonic cruise, anti-ship, and anti-radiation missiles to ensure readiness against advanced threats that Türkiye (or any other end user) would probably be facing in real war conditions. One option could be collaborating with international partners to obtain sea-skimming (or capable of high altitude), supersonic, and high-G capable maneuver target drones to test the systems under realistic threat scenarios. Developing and proving the engagement capability of HİSAR and SIPER systems, under a real-world threat complexity, will provide operational confidence for the operators, deterrence to aggressors, and position the systems as fully capable, versatile, and export-ready air defense solutions.