Türkiye’s Black Arrow anti-tank missile successfully intercepted drones and has anti-drone potential

The picture shows the "KARAOK" anti-tank missile mounted on a remote-controlled turret. (Picture taken from X@Drone_Wars_)

[Reporter Wu Zheyu/Comprehensive Report] Anti-tank missiles can also be transformed into hunting drones. Roketsan, a major Turkish missile manufacturer, announced that its "KARAOK" anti-tank missile successfully intercepted an air target for the first time. It tested mounting the missile originally launched from the infantry shoulder onto a light tactical vehicle turret and successfully hit a target drone that simulated the "Shahed" series of one-way attack drones, demonstrating the potential of converting existing anti-armor weapons for anti-drone missions.

The military news website "Defence Blog" reported that Rocktesan released a test video on the 23rd. It can be seen that the "Black Arrow" lifted off from a turret-type launcher mounted on a pickup truck and then intercepted an aerial target drone. The company claims that this is the first time that the Black Arrow has hit an aerial target, but it has not yet stated whether this vehicle-mounted anti-drone configuration will become an official product or may still be experimental.

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"Black Arrow" was originally a man-portable "fire and forget" anti-tank missile. It weighs less than 16 kilograms including the launch tube, has a projectile diameter of 125 millimeters, and an effective range of more than 2,500 meters. It adopts an imaging infrared (IIR) seeker and can track targets on its own in day and night environments. The Turkish Army has been operating the "Black Arrow" since 2022. In the past, it was mainly used to attack ground armored targets.

The biggest change in this test is to convert the shoulder-fired weapon into a vehicle-mounted turret. The operator can complete aiming and shooting without having to carry the launcher, making its use closer to a dedicated short-range air defense system. It can also improve the vehicle crew's ability to quickly engage air targets.

This concept of "anti-tank missiles and drones" has appeared many times on the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield. The 1021st Air Defense Artillery Regiment of Ukraine only demonstrated the use of Stugna-P anti-tank missiles to shoot down Russian drones on September 13; the Ukrainian army also built a simple "STASH" air defense system that integrated the US-made AGM-114 "Hellfire" missiles with RADA radar to intercept faster jet-powered "Witness" drones.

The reason why anti-tank missiles can be used in air defense is that many models have sensors and terminal guidance capabilities for tracking moving targets. The US-made "Javelin" has been capable of attacking low-speed and low-altitude aircraft to a certain extent from the design stage. The "Hellfire" has also been used by the AH-64 "Apache" attack helicopter to deal with aerial drones.

"Black Arrow" has also received its first export order, and Malaysia has become the first overseas customer. It plans to replace the Russian-made Metis-M with this Turkish missile. After successfully intercepting the drone this time, if the "Black Arrow" officially develops a vehicle-mounted air defense configuration in the future, it will further enable the originally pure anti-armor weapon to be used for anti-drone purposes.