All About Tayfun Block-4, Turkey's 1st Hypersonic Ballistic Missile
Amid Turkey's growing political, ideological and defence ties with Pakistan, Ankara has unveiled its first hypersonic ballistic missile. The Tayfun Block-4 missile was launched on Tuesday at the International Defence Industry Fair (IDEF) 2025 in Istanbul. The new missile is developed by Turkish defence giant Roketsan and is the hypersonic version of the Tayfun missile, Turkey's indigenously produced longest-range ballistic missile.
The Tayfun Block 4 measures 6.5 meters in length, weighs 2,300 kilograms, and boasts a range of 800 kilometres, according to a report by Turkey Today.
"The Tayfun Block-4 achieves long ranges, setting another record for the Turkish defence industry. Weighing over 7 tons, this new version of the Tayfun, with its multi-purpose warhead, will be capable of destroying numerous strategic targets, such as air defence systems, command and control centres, military hangars, and critical military facilities, from kilometres away," Roketsan said in a statement.
On the first day of #IDEF2025, we unveiled six new systems that will further strengthen the power of our defense industry.
Each system, developed through national engineering and indigenous capabilities, reflects the level we have reached in generating advanced technologies and… pic.twitter.com/bPEI5QBQFK
— ROKETSAN (@roketsan) July 22, 2025
What's A Hypersonic Missile?
The term "hypersonic" is often used to refer to hypersonic glide vehicles and hypersonic cruise missiles. They are highly advanced weapons and can manoeuvre mid-flight at hypersonic speed inside Earth's atmosphere, which makes it very hard to track and intercept.
Hypersonic missiles travel at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound (about 3,800 miles per hour, 6,100 kilometres per hour). But experts believe that almost all ballistic missiles reach hypersonic speed during their flights, especially as they dive towards their targets.
Turkey-Pakistan Ties
As military tensions rose between India and Pakistan following the deadly Pahalgam terror attack, Islamabad's growing defence ties with Turkey came under the spotlight. Though both Ankara and Islamabad denied any arms transfer, the Indian Army later said Pakistan used Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones to attack India.
"Turkey... played an important role in providing the type of support it did; they gave Bayraktar. We saw numerous other drones also coming in during the war," Deputy Chief of Army Staff (capability development and sustenance), Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh said earlier this month.
Ankara has also expressed solidarity with Islamabad during the military conflict with India in May. With its growing defence industry, Turkey has become Pakistan's reliable defence partner, already supplying drones and naval assets to Islamabad.
The shifting regional dynamics were also visible when Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan visited Islamabad earlier this month to intensify cooperation in sectors including defence, economy, culture, and education.
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