Turkey to develop ICBM -wait -WTF?

[Viking]

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-begins-work-on-icbm-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=26211&NewsCatID=338

Turkey begins work on ICBM

The Turkish Armed Forces have begun working on a project to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), broadcaster NTV reported on its website today.

A decision to launch the project was made in a July 17 meeting of the Defense Industry Executive Board, headed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel. Erdoğan had previously requested that the military develop missiles with a 2,500-kilometer range.

The board decided to form a satellite launch center that would have a two-fold effect on Turkey's aerospace and military endeavors. First, the center will enable Turkey to place its own satellites in orbit, and second, the center will allow the Turkish military to launch missiles that can navigate outside of the Earth's atmosphere. Attaining an ICBM launch capability is reportedly the chief aim of the satellite launch center.

The Turkish Defense Ministry, the Defense Industry Undersecretariat and the Scientific and Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), have been jointly working on the project for some time.

The report said Ankara could cooperate with an undisclosed Eastern European country to develop the satellite launch center.

The ICBM project, meanwhile, has sought to improve on the SOM cruise missile developed by TÜBİTAK. The SOM cruise missile has a current range of 300 kilometers. The range would first be increased to 1,500 and later to 2,500 kilometers within the project, according to the report.

The report did not elaborate on whether the SOM's planned 2,500-kilometer range would be increased even further or whether its increased range would be utilized to develop an ICBM separately, as missiles with ranges under 5,500 kilometers are not considered "intercontinental."

The countries known to currently have ICBMs in their military arsenal are Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China and India.

This has got to be the nuttiest thing I have seen for some time. I know there are good things, bad things and ugly things to spend money on. This has got to be the nuttiest thing I have seen since Stalin's Chimpanzee Army. Ottoman delusions of grandeur are returning it seems. This has got to be a project for local consumption more than anything else.

[The Brain]

Well it is exactly rocket science.

[Drakken]

Allah-arming.

[Tamas]

I was told on this forum that Erdogan is not a religious populist, but an enligthened liberal, so what could go wrong with Turkey openly pursuing very unneeded and very agressive weaponry?

[Tamas]

So will they have to develop the nuclear warheads as well, or do they already have a NATO stockpile they can use?

I would so love to rub this under the nose of the "why couldn't we let Iran become a nuclear power?" crowd. "that's why you mofo. It is called escalation".

[FunkMonk]

Allah-arming.

[grumbler]

Sounds like a scheme to employ otherwise-unemployable nephews and maybe scam a few tens of millions of dollars.

[Razgovory]

I was told on this forum that Erdogan is not a religious populist, but an enligthened liberal, so what could go wrong with Turkey openly pursuing very unneeded and very agressive weaponry?

Who told you that?

[Viking]

I was told on this forum that Erdogan is not a religious populist, but an enligthened liberal, so what could go wrong with Turkey openly pursuing very unneeded and very agressive weaponry?

Who told you that?

Sheilbh iirc

[Razgovory]

That wasn't what shelf actually said.  Or even that close.

[Tamas]

He and a few argued that Erdogan's move from forbidden open expression of religiousness to mild-ish allowances to hard core-er islamists was a modern liberal policy, showcasing a distinct failure to understand how modernizational liberal thought works in this part of the world. 

[Admiral Yi]

So will they have to develop the nuclear warheads as well, or do they already have a NATO stockpile they can use?

There are no NATO stockpiles.  There are NATO members who have stockpiles.

[Razgovory]

He and a few argued that Erdogan's move from forbidden open expression of religiousness to mild-ish allowances to hard core-er islamists was a modern liberal policy, showcasing a distinct failure to understand how modernizational liberal thought works in this part of the world. 

I'll let him speak for himself, but I don't recall him ever saying that he wasn't religious or a populist.  I do wonder how building the capability to shoot satellites into orbit undermines this, though.

[Siege]

I was told on this forum that Erdogan is not a religious populist, but an enligthened liberal, so what could go wrong with Turkey openly pursuing very unneeded and very agressive weaponry?

Who told you that?

Sheilbh iirc

Sheilbh? The nuttiest left wing puss in this forum?
You are crazy if you listen to him.

[katmai]

I was told on this forum that Erdogan is not a religious populist, but an enligthened liberal, so what could go wrong with Turkey openly pursuing very unneeded and very agressive weaponry?

Who told you that?

Sheilbh iirc

Sheilbh? The nuttiest left wing puss in this forum?
You are crazy if you listen to him.

You are confusing the ghey English castle living soon to be lawyer with the South Carolinian soon to be lawyer.