1- Good reminder amidst the 'hot' #nuclear warhead-tipped missiles debates revolving around #Turkey. In brief, @EdamOrg EDAM Security and Defense Program Director Dr. Can Kasapoglu argues:
2- "From a military standpoint, the #Bora tactical ballistic missile could offer robust war-fighting capabilities for the #Turkish Armed Forces. The missile is road-mobile, carried by a TELAR (transporter-erector-launcher).
3- Road-mobile missiles are more survivable on the battlefield, as they can be deployed to different launch positions flexibly. While fixed launch sites could come under adversaries’ preventive strikes, locating and targeting TELARs necessitates a consuming intelligence effort.
4- Secondly, #Bora is a solid-propellant missile. Thereby, it has a shorter launch cycle compared to liquid-propellant missiles (i.e. the #Scud family of ballistic missiles) and requires less personnel to operate.
5- Third, thanks to its low CEP and some 450-kg warhead, it can eliminate a broad array of targets in the battlefield, ranging from bases to troop concentrations and even critical infrastructure that falls within its range.
6- Such a firepower, coupled with pinpoint accuracy, provides #Turkey with many options. In fact, armed conflicts in Yemen and #Ukraine showed that even the Cold War-remnant, inaccurate Tochka (SS-21 Scarab) missiles with a great CEP can inflict massive damage.
7- Thus, new generation ballistic missiles with more unpredictable terminal homing paths and small CEP can really register game-changer results".
8- "Relatively shorter-range tactical ballistic missiles (known as battlefield ballistic missiles, generally considered to have less than a 300-km range) are force-multipliers, especially when equipped with high precision.
9- At the time being, #Bora is such an asset with a newly gained combat record. Besides, #Turkey’s transparent test-launching policy also shows the confidence backing the Bora line’s development.
10- More complex terminal homing performance or improved warhead design could be the next targets, although there is no open-source clue about the roadmap.
11- Yet, TR officials voiced the idea of Bora-2 in the past, without elaborating what the second batch could bring about. In the meanwhile, Ankara would explore lucrative markets for the export variant in line with the growing arms sales performance of the Turkish defense sector.
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