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Turkey To Outfit Drones with Local Mini Rocket

️Burak Ege Bekdil
️Sun May 17 2015

Turkish national flag is displayed at the Turkish embassy in Berlin on May 11, 2013 where Turkish Foreign Minister meet with relatives of alleged victims murdered by German National Socialist Underground (NSU) neo-Nazi network at the Turkish embassy in Berlin on May 11, 2013 during his visit in Germany. The meeting with Ahmet Davutoglu comes few days after the start of the trial of Beate Zschaepe, who is charged with complicity in the murders of eight ethnic Turks, a Greek immigrant and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007 as a founding member and sole survivor of the far-right gang dubbed NSU. AFP PHOTO / ADAM BERRY (Photo credit should read ADAM BERRY/AFP/Getty Images)

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey will outfit its locally-built drones with a new mini laser-guided rocket, the Bozok.

Officials said they plan serial production of the Bozok soon. The rocket was designed and developed by Tubitak SAGE, a government-controlled defense industry research and development institute.

"With this program we aim to earn our drones attack capabilities," Turkish Science, Industry and Technology Minister Fikri Isik told reporters. "The Bozok is an ideal solution especially in asymmetrical war."

The 79-centimeter Bozok ("white arrow" in Turkish) weighs 16 kilograms. It can hit targets at a maximum distance of six kilometers.

Procurement officials say the Bozok can be an ideal attack asset for the Anka S, Turkey's first indigenous drone, built by Tusas Turkish Aerospace Industries. Tusas plans to move forward to serial production phase of the program.

Burak Ege Bekdil was the Turkey correspondent for Defense News.