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LEVENT Missile’s First Guided Intercept Signals Türkiye’s Strategic Replacement of U.S. RAM Defense.
Roketsan confirmed that its LEVENT close-in air defense missile completed its first seeker-guided intercept against a live airborne target during a 20 November test. The milestone strengthens Türkiye's push for a sovereign naval protection layer suited for modern drone and cruise missile threats.
On 20 November 2025, Roketsan’s LEVENT close-in air-defence system was confirmed to have achieved its first seeker-guided live intercept against a real airborne target, as reported by Roketsan on X. The event is the latest step in Türkiye’s broader effort to build a fully sovereign, layered naval air-defence architecture for operations in the Black Sea, Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. By proving that LEVENT can detect, track and destroy a genuine air threat, the test moves the system from concept towards operational reality at sea. In an era of massed drone attacks and sea-skimming cruise missiles, a reliable indigenous close-in weapon is strategically significant both for the Turkish Navy and for potential export customers seeking alternatives to US or European systems.
Türkiye’s LEVENT close‑in missile system achieved its first guided intercept, marking a strategic step toward replacing U.S. RAM launchers with an indigenous naval air‑defense capability (Picture Source: Roketsan)
Developed by Roketsan as a shipborne close-in weapon system, LEVENT combines a trainable launcher carrying eleven missiles with an integrated radar and electro-optical sensor suite, allowing autonomous detection, tracking and engagement of targets around the ship’s full 360-degree arc. Each missile is 3.2 metres long, 128 mm in diameter and weighs around 75 kg, with an effective range of up to 11 km, and carries a 10 kg fragmentation warhead with a proximity fuze optimised to break apart incoming missiles and small unmanned systems. A hybrid seeker, combining imaging infrared with a passive radio-frequency channel, is designed to maintain lock-on in cluttered littoral environments and under electronic warfare, while high agility and rapid reaction time make the system suitable for intercepting sea-skimming anti-ship missiles, fast aircraft, helicopters, UAVs and loitering munitions in the terminal phase.
LEVENT’s development trajectory illustrates Türkiye’s strategic shift toward domestically produced close-in defense systems. First presented at IDEF 2023 in İstanbul and later showcased internationally at DIMDEX 2024, the system employs a naval variant of Roketsan’s SUNGUR short-range air defense missile, modified for shipborne launch and guidance. A successful land-based live firing in October 2024 verified the fundamental launch sequence and missile performance. By March 2025, the program advanced to sea trials aboard the Turkish Navy corvette TCG Beykoz in the Black Sea, confirming effective integration of the launcher, sensors, and ship combat system. The most recent seeker-guided live interception, reported in November 2025, validated the complete engagement chain, from detection to target destruction, under realistic operational conditions.
From a capability perspective, LEVENT offers Türkiye a modern alternative in a segment historically dominated by foreign systems such as the RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) and, at longer ranges, MBDA’s Sea Ceptor using the CAMM missile. RAM provides a comparable short-range envelope of around 9–10 km with a dual-mode RF/IR seeker, but it remains a US–German product with associated export controls and supply-chain dependencies. Sea Ceptor extends protection out beyond 25 km, forming more of an area-defence layer rather than a pure close-in system. LEVENT positions itself in between: its 11 km range and hybrid seeker give it reaction speed suitable for the inner defensive ring, while its missile architecture, derived from a national MANPADS/SHORAD family, simplifies logistics and training across services. Compared with earlier, gun-centric close-in weapon systems, LEVENT’s missile-based approach significantly increases defended footprint and engagement opportunities against agile, low-observable targets such as small UAVs and complex cruise-missile trajectories.
Strategically, the successful guided intercept reinforces Türkiye’s drive to establish a fully indigenous, layered naval air‑defense architecture, spanning long‑range systems such as SİPER and forthcoming area‑defense missiles to close‑in solutions including GÖKSUR, GÖKDENİZ, and now LEVENT. For the Turkish Navy, this development mitigates exposure to sanctions or export restrictions on Western missile inventories at a time of heightened operational tempo in the Black Sea, Eastern Mediterranean, and Red Sea, where air and missile threats are intensifying. The integration of LEVENT across platforms ranging from corvettes and frigates to potentially larger patrol vessels enhances protection of critical assets, including future amphibious and auxiliary ships, against saturation attacks and drone swarms. The program also carries notable export potential: many mid‑tier navies currently reliant on imported RAM launchers or legacy gun systems may view LEVENT as a competitively priced, sovereign‑friendly alternative compatible with modern combat management systems.
The first seeker-guided hit by LEVENT against a real airborne target therefore, goes beyond a single test event; it signals that Türkiye is close to fielding a domestically designed close-in missile shield for its surface fleet, with performance tailored to the drone-heavy, missile-dense maritime environment emerging in its surrounding seas. By adding a new indigenous layer to naval air defence, LEVENT reinforces Ankara’s drive for technological autonomy, offers partner navies an additional option in a constrained missile market and contributes to reshaping the balance of naval protection in contested regional waters.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.