Steel Dome Built to Meet Turkey's Air Defense Needs

JAKARTA - Turkey's domestically produced comprehensive air defense system, Steel Dome, is being built with new capabilities to meet all the country's security needs, according to the chief executive of the giant defense company Roketsan, one of the developers of the system.

Speaking recently to Anadolu Agency, Roketsan CEO Murat Ikinci said Steel Dome represents an evolving air defense architecture and will continue to be upgraded with new capabilities and technologies to address emerging threats.

"This represents the infrastructure that we will continue to add to its capabilities, integrate new technologies, and develop measures to combat new threats," he said, as reported by Daily Sabah (16/4).

"I can say that we are working on making this system meet all the needs of our country's air defense," he said.

Furthermore, Ikinci explained, Roketsan continues to encourage mass production in various systems, ranging from anti-tank missiles to cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, ballistic missiles and air defense missiles.

He underlined that ballistic missiles play an important role in the company's portfolio, noting that the production and delivery of the Tayfun ballistic missile and the SOM cruise missile are underway.

"We work tirelessly. Production activities at Roketsan continue without slowing down," he said.

Ikinci explained that the company is working to quickly expand its existing production capacity through new investments, and said that the current regional conditions make these efforts necessary.

"We are trying our best to strengthen our country's defense and accelerate production in this field," Ikinci explained.

"The domestically developed air defense systems by the countries themselves are very valuable," he said, describing the Steel Dome as one of Turkey's most important defense projects.

"Steel Dome is a system that we have developed ourselves. This system was jointly developed by Aselsan, Roketsan, and TÜBITAK SAGE," he said, referring to the Institute for Research and Development of the Defense Industry of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.

"The fact that we produce all the components of the Steel Dome ourselves gives us the ability to produce as many missiles, radar systems, and battery systems as we need, whenever we need them," he added.

Viewed from that perspective, Ikinci said, the Steel Dome is among Turkey's most important defense programs, and its production volume and capacity need to be increased quickly.

"We are making serious efforts to accelerate production," he said.

Ikinci also pointed out that air defense is a very difficult field, saying no country can claim to have built the best system and completed the job.

"We continue to add new capabilities and features in accordance with the changing characteristics and threat profiles," he said.

He also noted that Roketsan has a large number of ongoing projects and said many systems, from air defense missiles to new air-to-air and ballistic missiles, will be introduced gradually in 2026 and beyond.

It is known that Steel Dome is Turkey's integrated layered air defense architecture, which combines domestically developed radars, missiles, electronic warfare and command systems to protect the airspace from threats at various altitudes and distances.