Bursting Pantsirs, Falling Bayraktars: Turkish-Russian Virtual War

Submitted by South Front,

On April 22nd, Turkish defense company Roketsan released a video hyping up its Akıncı UAV.

The video shows the drone use a MAM-T smart bomb, which hits a Russian Pantsir-S1 in a desert setting and destroys it .

Apparently, this is a response to a video report on Russian TV, in which Russian “Lancets” destroy Turkish drones.

On April 18^th, The Turkish media drew attention to the fact that in a report on military developments aired on the state Russian TV channel, an animated video was presented in which Russian “Lancets” destroy Turkish UAVs Bayraktar TB-2.

Still, Selcuk Bayraktar, CEO of Baykar, the maker of the TB2 and Akinci UCAV has stated that it is NOT an Animation and more like reality. More advertisement videos of the MAM-T were released.

SİHA’larımızın yeni vurucu gücü MAM-T

Daha yüksek harp başlığı etkinliği ve daha uzun menzil için geliştirilen MAM-T mühimmatımızın ilk test atışı AKINCI TİHA’dan başarıyla gerçekleştirildi.🚀✈️🇹🇷

➡️@roketsan
➡️@Baykar_Savunma pic.twitter.com/Dcq9mp8PZq

— Ismail Demir (@IsmailDemirSSB) April 22, 2021

According to the Twitter post, the first test firing of the Turkish MAM-T ammunition, which was developed for higher warhead efficiency and longer range, was successfully carried out from AKINCI TİHA.

The first flight under the ammunition flight test campaign at Akıncı PT-3 took place on 17 April. On April 21, a second test flight with ammunition took place, and today the first firing has taken place. In a test led by the head of Baykar Technology Selcuk Bayraktar at the Akıncı Flight Training and Testing Center in наorlu, northwestern Turkey, all three test ammunition without warheads that were fired from Akinci TİHA through laser aiming were able to accurately hit targets.

Baykar Makina issued a press bulletin and said that Akıncı PT-3 UCAV took off for its first use of weapon campaign. The UCAV carried Roketsan’s MAM-L, MAM-C and MAM-T ammunitions.

It is known that the first two ammunition are converted from Roketsan’s Umtas Long-Range Anti-Tank Missile and Cirit Missile. The third missile, however, is new to the public. The press released stated that Akıncı used all three ammunition and hit the target successfully.

Smart Micro Munition MAM-T has been developed for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and light attack aircraft.

The ammunition can engage both stationary and moving targets like armoured vehicles or buildings and naval targets with high precision, thanks to its semi-active laser seeker.

The MAM-T Block-1 has a 30+ km range capability in UAVs. It weighs 94kg. Thanks to its semi-active laser homing and wings, the MAM-T has a 30 km range when released from UAV, 60 km range when released from light aircraft and 80 km range when released from a fighter jet.