Turkey produces first missile fuel of country

Meltem Özgenç ANKARA - Hürriyet

The local missile fuel has one of the strongest propulsion powers in the world, and is good for use in the newturbojet engine missiles, the minister has said.

The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) has succeeded in producing the first local missile fuel in the country. 

“Missile fuel, which is strategically very important, is produced only by a number of developed countries. The seller nations may impose several limitations or set conditions. Therefore, it is of great importance for us to be able to produce it,” said Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Nihat Ergün. 

TÜBİTAK has managed to develop many significant projects in the defense industry so far, offering the Turkish Army a national cruise missile, smart bomb, and a laser-guided missile detector, among others. Now the organization has produced missile fuel by using local means. 

The missile fuel was developed over two years by the researchers from TÜBİTAK’s National Metrology Institute (UME), and has started to be produced in a mini pilot facility by using the institute’s infrastructural means. The fuel was able to gain an internationally-recognized quality standard. 

The local missile fuel has one of the strongest propulsion powers in the world, and is also suitable for use in the newly developed turbojet engine missiles, said Ergün.

“Such products are of real importance for us to reduce the dependency in defense industry abroad,” he noted, adding that they were very expensive. 

“More importantly than other facts, we could not supply this product whenever we want. A number of nations sell this product and they may put several limitations and this is very normal. We’ll fortunately be free of such limitations in time,” he said. 

The mini facility has the capacity of 10 liters of daily production. TÜBİTAK UME aims to increase this amount up to 100 liters when the planned facility goes online.