ASELSAN said on Monday it had signed contracts worth 2.46 billion euros with the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) for hybrid air defense systems, its third air defense announcement in five days.
“Contracts totaling 2,460,000,000 euros for the procurement of hybrid air defense systems have been signed between ASELSAN and the Presidency of Defense Industries of the Republic of Türkiye,” the company said in a filing to the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP).
The filing did not say which systems the contracts cover, how many units are involved or when they will be delivered. The “significant terms of the contract” section of the KAP form was left blank.
Three announcements, 3.957 billion euros
ASELSAN has now disclosed three air defense deals since October 1:
- October 1: additional contracts worth 1.0085 billion euros with the SSB for ongoing serial production of long-range air defense systems
- October 2: a 488.5 million euro air defense system export contract with an end user abroad, whose country the company did not disclose
- October 5: 2.46 billion euros in contracts with the SSB for hybrid air defense systems
Together the three are worth 3.957 billion euros.
GÜRZ is ASELSAN’s hybrid system
The KAP filing did not name a system. In ASELSAN’s product family, the platform described as a hybrid air defense system is GÜRZ.
GÜRZ puts a search and tracking radar, a command and control unit, a 35 mm air defense gun and missiles on a single 8×8 tactical wheeled vehicle. According to open-source information, it carries four very low altitude and four low altitude air defense missiles alongside the gun, which fires fragmentation ammunition.
The system draws on technologies developed in the HİSAR and KORKUT projects. It can detect, track and destroy a target without support from another vehicle or radar.
Its target set covers unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), cruise missiles, helicopters and low-flying aircraft. Choosing between gun and missile according to the threat limits missile expenditure against low-value targets.
ASELSAN unveiled GÜRZ at IDEF 2023 and showed a version mounted on an unmanned ground vehicle at IDEF 2025. The system completed its first live-fire field exercise in September.
October 1 contracts likely cover SİPER
The October 1 announcement did not name a system either. SİPER is Türkiye’s only domestically produced long-range air defense system in serial production, which makes it the likely subject of the additional contracts.
The SSB launched the Long-Range Regional Air and Missile Defense System project on January 15, 2018, with ASELSAN, ROKETSAN and TÜBİTAK SAGE. The parties signed the serial production contract for SİPER Product 1 in December 2023.
ASELSAN produces the search and fire control radars, the fleet control center and the communication systems. ROKETSAN is responsible for the missiles.
National Defense Minister Yaşar Güler has said SİPER Product 1, with a range of 100 kilometers, has entered service. Product 2 will have a range of 150 kilometers and Product 3 a range of 180 kilometers, he said.
The lower layer of the Steel Dome
GÜRZ belongs to the point defense layer of the Steel Dome, Türkiye’s layered air defense architecture, and was designed to protect critical facilities and mobile units. KORKUT and GÜRZ sit in the lower tier, HİSAR in the middle tier and SİPER in the upper tier, where it covers long range and high altitude.
ASELSAN delivered 47 vehicles carrying Steel Dome systems to the Turkish Armed Forces at a ceremony on August 27, 2025.
If the new contracts are for GÜRZ, they would move the lower layer of the Steel Dome into serial procurement. Systems that combine a gun and missiles on one vehicle are intended to lower the cost of each interception in point defense, as the threat from UAVs and cruise missiles grows.
