MERSIN, Turkey — Turkey’s leading defense company Aselsan delivered a next-generation electronic countermeasure system to the Turkish Armed Forces, the country’s top defense procurement official said.
“We have delivered the Next Generation Electronic Attack System SANCAK to the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF), which will provide a significant advantage in the field by neutralizing strategic communication systems,” Ismail Demir announced on Twitter.
Sancak is the nickname of Aselsan’s MILKAR-4A2 high-frequency jamming system. It has been developed for electronic attack operations against high-frequency band (the part of the electromagnetic spectrum between frequencies 3 and 30 MHz) communication systems located on different platforms in the field. The system aims to harm or completely block target HF communications and/or cause incorrect data transmission, ensuring an advantage for friendly troops in the tactical field.
According to the company, the system can apply effective jamming against the targets communicating through the ground wave, skywave and near vertical incidence skywave, or NVIS, in the HF communication band. For these abilities, the system includes ground wave and skywave/NVIS jamming antennas.
Sancak has a basic electronic support capability to support electronic attack operations and uses receivers with high sensitivity for detecting and analyzing feeble signals. In addition, the system has a tool that helps the operator plan the details of an upcoming mission. The planning tool offers the RF propagation analysis on terrain as well.
Sancak electronic countermeasure system components, the dual power generator, air conditioners, ground-wave antenna, and the system shelter are integrated on a high-mobile sheltered 10-tone vehicle platform. Since all the system equipment has been carried on a single vehicle, the system has high mobility on a rough tactical area. The system could be deployed on different platforms.
Sancak is considered a key asset to distort and interrupt adversary communication on the battlefield for the TAF that used electronic warfare intensively during operations in Syria and Libya. The TAF, which actively operated armed unmanned aerial vehicles in these operations, owes its success in this area to coordinating the unmanned combat air vehicles and electronic warfare systems. When added to the TAF’s current EW capabilities, Sancak fills a gap to attack the opponent’s long-range communication systems in a network-centric environment.
Aselsan has previously introduced a land-based radar electronic warfare system, Koral, supporting suppression of enemy air defense operations.
Tayfun Ozberk is a Turkey correspondent for Defense News.
