SİPER Air Defence System Clears Live-Fire Test at Sinop With Top Brass Watching

Türkiye’s armed forces fired a live SİPER interceptor missile from an operational Air Force battery at the Sinop Test and Training Range on the Black Sea coast on October 21, destroying its target as the country’s top military and defence-industry leaders watched from the range. The Ministry of National Defence (MSB) confirmed the test in its weekly press briefing on October 22, describing it only as “successfully completed.”

What stood out was not the hardware but the audience. Chief of General Staff Gen. Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu and Air Force Commander Gen. Rafet Dalkıran attended in person, alongside ASELSAN General Manager Ahmet Akyol, ROKETSAN General Manager Murat İkinci and TÜBİTAK SAGE director Kemal Topalömer, according to Turkish defence outlets that covered the shoot. Turkish media reported the missile involved was a SİPER Ürün-1 (Block-1) round fired from a battery already assigned to the Air Force Command’s inventory, rather than a prototype round fired by the system’s developers. MSB’s own statement was narrower, confirming only that the firing activity at Sinop had been completed successfully.

From test campaign to operational unit

That distinction matters. Türkiye has run SİPER through a lengthy test campaign since its first publicized firing in November 2021, and the system was declared to have entered service in October 2024. Wednesday’s shoot is being read in Ankara as evidence that an Air Force unit, not just the SSB-ASELSAN-ROKETSAN-TÜBİTAK SAGE development team, can now load, aim and fire the system against a real target — the kind of operational validation that matters more to foreign observers than another headline-grabbing range figure.

SİPER is Türkiye’s indigenous long-range, high-altitude air and missile defence system, developed under a Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB) contract dating to 2018 and built jointly by ASELSAN, ROKETSAN and the TÜBİTAK Defence Industries Research and Development Institute (SAGE). It forms the top tier of Türkiye’s layered Çelik Kubbe (Steel Dome) air defence architecture, sitting above the medium-range HİSAR family and the short-range KORKUT and SUNGUR systems. Publicly disclosed range figures for the Block-1 variant vary by source, with multiple outlets citing intercept ranges in excess of 100 km; neither ASELSAN nor the SSB has published an official figure, and a second-generation Block-2 is reported to extend that envelope further, with a Block-3 programme already under development. The system’s ability to intercept ballistic, as opposed to aerodynamic, threats remains more limited than its air defence role, a distinction Turkish officials have not always drawn clearly in public remarks.

Why it matters beyond Türkiye

Long-range, radar-guided interceptor missiles sit at the top of a very short list of defence technologies that only a handful of states — the United States, Russia, China, Israel and now Türkiye — have developed domestically rather than importing. For Ankara, that has concrete industrial and diplomatic value: it reduces reliance on systems like the US Patriot or Russian S-400 for high-end air defence, and it gives Turkish industry a product to offer partners who face the same dependency. The Turkish Air Force has previously flagged interest from Gulf states in air defence cooperation, and a December 2025 report in The Week cited unnamed Pakistani defence analysts describing SİPER as an option Islamabad might consider after setbacks involving Chinese-made HQ-9B batteries — a claim that remains speculative and unconfirmed by either government, not a contract or formal request.

SİPER’s relevance is also regional. Türkiye operates it alongside NATO allies that still rely heavily on the US-made Patriot and the multinational SAMP/T, and an operational Turkish interceptor adds a second indigenous NATO air defence option to a market the alliance has been trying to diversify since the Ukraine war exposed how thin allied stockpiles of long-range interceptors had become. It also reduces the leverage Washington holds over Ankara’s air defence posture — a live issue since the 2017 purchase of Russia’s S-400 system cost Türkiye its place in the F-35 programme.

What is still unconfirmed

Beyond confirming the test was successful, the MSB has not released footage, an intercept altitude, a target type or a precise date for when a SİPER battery will be considered fully combat-ready across the Air Force’s order of battle. Sinop is one of several ranges Türkiye uses to qualify new weapons, and the format of this shoot — a live round fired by an operational unit rather than a staged demonstration — mirrors how ASELSAN’s GÜRZ air defence system passed its own first live-fire test earlier this year. Reports naming Gen. Bayraktaroğlu, Gen. Dalkıran and the three executives as witnesses come from Turkish outlets rather than the ministry’s own statement, and should be read as that: credible contemporaneous reporting, not an official MSB confirmation of attendance. Readers should also treat SİPER’s range and performance figures as reported rather than officially disclosed until ASELSAN, ROKETSAN or the SSB publish their own specifications.

What is confirmed is narrower but still significant: an operational Turkish Air Force unit fired a live SİPER round at Sinop on October 21 and hit its target, with the country’s senior military leadership present to see it. For a system Türkiye has spent nearly a decade developing, that is the kind of unglamorous, procedural milestone that turns a development programme into a fielded weapon.

Background: SİPER’s road to Sinop

• 2018 — SSB contracts ASELSAN, ROKETSAN and TÜBİTAK SAGE to develop SİPER.
• November 2021 — First publicized live-fire test of the system.
• October 2024 — SİPER Block-1 declared to have entered service.
• August 2025 — Reports describe the missile passing serial-production acceptance testing.
• October 21, 2026 — Live SİPER Block-1 round fired from an operational Air Force battery at Sinop, watched by the Chief of General Staff and Air Force Commander.

Sources: Turkish Ministry of National Defence weekly briefing, October 22, 2026; Turkish defence media reporting on the Sinop firing; The Week (December 2025) on reported Pakistani interest in SİPER.