Turkey touts propellant breakthrough for Yıldırımhan long-range ballistic missile

ISTANBUL — The Turkish Ministry of National Defense (MND) unveiled details about the Yıldırımhan long-range ballistic missile during the SAHA Expo 2026 defense exhibition here this week.“We have elevated our work to a more advanced level through the technology base we established two years ago within our Ministry of National Defense R&D Center,” Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler said during a press conference on Thursday.“Our Yıldırımhan Long-Range Missile represents a significant technological milestone as Turkey’s first liquid-fueled rocket missile system, capable of hypersonic-speed flight and possessing the country’s longest range,” he added.According to information provided by the MND, the Yıldırımhan missile uses unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine as fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide as the oxidizer. The ministry stated that the missile is capable of carrying a 3-ton warhead to a range of 6,000 kilometers.The country has been working on hypersonic technologies and liquid-propellant propulsion systems for nearly a decade, the director-general of the Turkish Ministry of National Defence’s R&D Center, Nilüfer Kuzulu, told Turkish broadcaster NTV Türkiye.Kuzulu stated that after initially producing small quantities of the propellants in laboratory conditions, the ministry eventually transitioned to serial production and integrated the technology into the Yıldırımhan missile program.The development of the propellant technology represented a major technical challenge because the chemicals had not previously been produced domestically in Turkey.“Developing this fuel is extremely difficult, and it was not something previously manufactured in Turkey,” she said. “What began as small-scale laboratory work years ago has now been transformed into serial production. We now have both the production capability and the associated production facility.”MND sources said the Yıldırımhan Missile System has successfully completed laboratory testing and will enter field or ground testing