Παρασκευή 29.03.2024

Exocet vs Atmaca

The battle for dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea ranges on, and Greek Exocet 🇬🇷 anti-ship missiles (ASMs) are facing a new adversary, the Turkish-built Atmaca 🇹🇷 ASMs.

Designed and developed from the late-60s to mid-70s, the Exocet is a French-made ASM in service with multiple navies and air forces all around the world. Its latest version: the MM-40 Block 3C is the new missile the Hellenic Navy (HN) chose to use on its newest warships; the FDI HN and probably the Gowind 2500. The Exocet is no stranger to the HN, the 6 Super Vita class fast-attack boats of the HN use the Blk 3 version of the missile and also the Hellenic Air Force uses the air-launched version of the missile; the AM-39 Block II. The Exocet is one of the most battle proven missiles in the world, it became especially famous thanks to its operational use in the 1982 Falklands War. This acquisition will be detrimental to HN, because the newest version of the missile can resist electronic countermeasures, it has an improved range of 200+ km, it can coordinate an attack to a target with, and it can also identify the target and strike at the most vulnerable parts of the enemy vessel. Finally, it is worth mentioning that Exocet is an ASM which can be used in ground-strike operations and hit high-value land assets of the enemy.

Designed and developed by ROKETSAN in the 2010s, Atmaca is an ASM as well, it was designed to replace the retiring of Harpoon missiles, currently used by the Turkish Navy (TN). It has an effective range of more that 200 km and it can reach speeds up to 0.9 mach and it will be available to be launched be both the TN naval vessels and the Turkish UCAVs, especially the Akinci. Atmaca is not yet operational with the Turkish Armed Forces, although it is in the final stages of testing and is expected to be certified soon to the Ada-Class Corvettes. The main issue of the Atmaca in comparison to the Exocet, seems to be the fact that Atmaca has not yet been tested in any war zone or battlefield. ATMACA will be integrated in every modern ship of the Turkish Navy, beginning from the Ada Class Corvettes.