True to its word, Turkey's largest defense firm, ASELSAN, has revealed a scale model of its electromagnetic (EM) railgun it hopes will one day arm warships of the Turkish Navy and artillery units of the Turkish Army.

Given the name "Tufan" (Turkish for "storm"), ASELSAN's railgun is the second domestically engineered railgun produced by a Turkish entity. Turkey's first railgun, which is named "TÜBITAK SAPAN," is a 14 megajoule (MJ) weapon developed by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.

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Turkey released the first photos of TÜBITAK SAPAN in October 2016. This weapon will arm the Turkish Navy's TF-2000-class anti-air warfare frigates currently undergoing development by the Turkish Naval Institute.

Military railguns rely on electromagnetic forces to generate very high kinetic energies that fire specially-made projectiles towards targets at speeds of up to 3,500 meters per second.

A good-looking model of ASELSAN's Tufan is currently on display at the ongoing IDEF 2017 (International Defense Industry Fair 2017) being held at Ankara from May 9 to 12.

ASELSAN said Tufan can be integrated onto several platforms, including warships and armored vehicles. Tufan can also be deployed as a static land weapon system, and can be used for both indirect fire and direct fire missions against ground, naval and aerial targets.

ASELSAN, however, admitted that Tufan is still in the research and development stage.

"The current launcher we have is small, but we are developing bigger launchers to get more muzzle velocity," said a company spokesman.

ASELSAN designs, develops and manufactures modern electronic systems for military and industrial customers. ASELSAN is the largest in its industry.

Turkish media said the development of two railguns is a sign of Turkey's growing technological capability and places the country on the level of BAE Systems and General Atomics, which are developing very advanced railguns for the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Army.

ASELSAN wants a railgun that fire a projectile to over 300 kilometers at a speed ranging from 2,000 to 2,500 meters per second. The railgun can also be deployed as an air defense weapon "with high efficiency against current threats."

TagsTurkey, ASELSAN, electromagnetic railgun, Turfan railgun, TÜBITAK SAPAN