Türkiye tests Tayfun Block-3 ballistic missile

A still from the Tayfun Block-3 test video. (Savunma Sanayii Başkanlığı/Roketsan)

Türkiye announced for the first time on 4 July that the Tayfun Block-3 ballistic missile had been tested.

Dr Haluk Görgün, the secretary of Türkiye's Secretariat of Defence Industries (SSB), released a statement announcing the test and indicating it was not the first.

“The Tayfun Block-3 version, developed with national resources, once again proved its field success by accurately striking a moving target in a test launch that advances our long-range precision strike capability even further,” he said.

The missile's manufacturer Roketsan said “our Tayfun Block-3 missile … has for the first time at long range destroyed a moving surface target with surgical precision”.

The announcement was accompanied by a video showing a mobile launcher carrying two missile cannisters, one longer than the other, and setting up for a launch at Rize-Artvin Airport, which was built on reclaimed land on the Black Sea coast. A ballistic missile was launched from the longer cannister in a westwards direction along the Turkish coast before the video cut to a boat exploding.

The Block-3 version of the Tayfun has not been publicly mentioned before, although its existence was implied when the Block-4 was unveiled during the IDEF exhibition held in Istanbul in July 2025. When the Turkish Ministry of National Defence (MSB) announced in May that the Tayfun had entered service, it identified the version as the Block-2.

Roketsan says the Tayfun has a diameter of 610 mm, a length of 6.5 m, a launch weight of 2,300 kg, and a range of more than 280 km.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in December 2022 that the Tayfun had achieved a range of 560 km and this was being extended to 1,000 km.