Roketsan Test-Fires Çakır Cruise Missile From Ground Launcher
Roketsan has fired its Çakır cruise missile from a mobile ground launcher for the first time, the Turkish manufacturer disclosed on August 28, striking a land target and a maritime target in two separate trials. The tests add a road-mobile launch option to a missile that was originally built to fly off Turkish combat aircraft and unmanned platforms, and they mark Çakır’s move from an air- and sea-launched weapon toward a genuinely cross-domain one.
What was tested
Roketsan said two unarmed Çakır missiles were fired on separate days from a mobile land-based launcher, with each missile striking its designated target directly — one against a target on land, the other against a surface target. A new-generation imaging infrared seeker guided both missiles during the terminal phase of flight, and the company also evaluated a new fuel system intended to extend the weapon’s operational range.
In its ground-launched configuration, Çakır uses a solid-fuel booster to clear the launcher before the KTJ-1750 turbojet — developed jointly with Kale Arge — takes over for sustained cruise flight. Roketsan did not disclose the test location, engagement ranges, target specifics, flight profiles or telemetry, and it did not say whether the trials were part of a formal qualification campaign or a customer demonstration.
A compact missile built for multiple platforms
Roketsan unveiled the Çakır family in March 2022 at the opening of its Ankara Lalahan facility, pitching it as a modular, subsonic cruise missile for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, unmanned combat aerial vehicles, unmanned surface vessels, tactical wheeled vehicles and surface combatants. The missile’s first flight test came in May 2023, launched from a Bayraktar AKINCI UCAV at roughly 7,000 meters altitude.
According to Roketsan’s own published specifications, Çakır weighs about 275 kilograms without its booster (330 kilograms with it) and has a range exceeding 150 kilometers, cruising at high subsonic speed around Mach 0.75–0.85. It carries a 70-kilogram warhead, offered in high-explosive semi-armor-piercing blast-fragmentation or thermobaric variants. Mid-course guidance combines inertial navigation, anti-jam GNSS and terrain referencing, while terminal guidance can use an imaging infrared seeker, a radio-frequency seeker, or a hybrid of the two. A two-way datalink allows in-flight retargeting and is designed to support coordinated attacks by multiple missiles.
That puts Çakır well below Roketsan’s larger SOM-family stand-off missiles — roughly 600 kilograms and rated for 250-plus kilometers, but built for air launch only — in a smaller, lighter class intended from the outset to move between services rather than stay tied to one type of launch platform.
Why a ground launcher matters
A validated land-launched mode changes what Çakır can offer a customer. Instead of depending on aircraft or ship availability, army units could field mobile Çakır batteries as an organic precision-strike capability, extending land forces into the kind of stand-off strike role usually associated with naval or air platforms — a similar logic to how ground-launched anti-ship and land-attack missile variants have expanded strike options for other militaries in recent years. For the Turkish Armed Forces, it also means land, air and naval units could eventually draw on a single missile family rather than separate munitions for each domain, simplifying logistics and stockpiling.
Roketsan has not said when a ground-launched Çakır variant might enter service or how many launchers a full battery would require, and the absence of released telemetry means independent verification of the reported hits is not possible at this stage — this was Roketsan’s own account of the trial, and no government body has yet confirmed the results.
Export interest already in place
Çakır already has confirmed international customers. Qatar and Indonesia have both procured the missile, according to Indonesian Ambassador Achmad Rizal Purnama, who has also pointed to plans for local co-production of Çakır in Indonesia — a pattern consistent with how Türkiye has increasingly paired weapons exports with technology transfer and in-country manufacturing for major buyers. A validated ground-launch mode, once qualified, would give Roketsan an additional configuration to offer those and future customers within the same missile family.
Sources: Naval News, Roketsan official product specifications, Daily Sabah.
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