Turkey’s Electronic Warfare Systems: Koral, Hava SOJ and Vural

Turkey has built a full family of electronic warfare systems at home: truck-mounted radar and communications jammers, jamming pods for drones and, from this year, a dedicated jamming aircraft. The best known, the Koral radar jammer, was credited with blinding Syrian air defences in 2020.

This guide sets out the main systems, what each one does and how much of the claimed performance is documented.

What electronic warfare systems does Turkey have?

Electronic warfare has two halves. Electronic support listens: it detects, identifies and locates enemy radars and radios. Electronic attack jams or deceives them. Turkish systems are usually built to do both, and they are divided by target, radar or communications, and by the platform that carries them. Almost all come from one company, Aselsan.

Koral: the radar jammer that made the reputation

Koral grew out of a project called Kara SOJ, the land-based stand-off jammer, which began in 2009. The first system was delivered to the air force on 23 February 2016. It consists of two shelters on 8×8 trucks. One carries the electronic support equipment that finds and classifies radars, the other the electronic attack equipment that jams and deceives them, and the two can sit up to 500 metres apart. Three operators run it.

Aselsan has never published a range. Outside estimates cluster at 150 to 200 km, which would let a unit in southern Turkey reach radars deep inside Syria. That is how it was used. During Operation Spring Shield in Idlib in early 2020, Turkish drones destroyed Syrian Pantsir air defence vehicles that did not appear to see them coming, and Turkey’s communications director confirmed that Koral had played an important role. A Koral was also reported at al-Watiya air base in Libya later that year.

The successor has gone through several names. Aselsan showed Koral II in 2023 and a production-ready Koral 200 at the IDEF exhibition in July 2025, and the head of the defence industry agency, Haluk Görgün, said in February 2026 that it would enter the inventory this year. No delivery had been confirmed by late August. The original has been modernised as Koral 100 with electronic beam steering and tied into the Steel Dome network. Morocco is the only confirmed export customer, in a 2021 deal worth $50.7 million.

Hava SOJ: a jamming aircraft of its own

The step from trucks to aircraft took far longer. Turkey first tried to put a stand-off jammer on a C-160 transport in the 2000s and gave up. The present programme dates from a contract signed on 9 August 2018. It covers four Bombardier Global 6000 business jets, modified by Turkish Aerospace and fitted with Aselsan equipment, together with hangars, a squadron building and a mission planning centre.

The first aircraft was photographed on a test flight with its mission equipment on 1 March 2026 and appeared in a Defence Ministry video in June, still unpainted. Full operational status is targeted for the end of 2026. Reported figures give it a jamming range of more than 500 km and an endurance of 8 to 11 hours at altitudes up to 51,000 feet. Aselsan has not confirmed those numbers.

Its job is to stand outside the reach of enemy missiles and open a corridor for the aircraft that go in: jam the search radars, disrupt the command links and show the fighters which emitters are still switched on. Few air forces have an aircraft built purely for that mission. The American equivalent is the EA-37B Compass Call. Turkey’s will fly in support of F-16s now and of KAAN and combat drones later.

Tactical jammers: Ilgar, Milkar and Vural

The army’s jammers are smaller and far more numerous. Milkar-3A3 attacks V/UHF radio links and Milkar-4A2 covers HF. Ilgar, delivered in upgraded form in December 2021, adds reactive jamming: it listens for a transmission and answers within the same burst, which is the practical way to stop frequency-hopping radios. A new Ilgar shown at the SAHA 2026 exhibition extends into part of the SHF band. Vural, in service since 2022, and the related REDET do the same work against radar signals. Two REDET and seven PUHU direction-finding vehicles were in the first Steel Dome delivery in August 2025.

Their presence is occasionally noticed abroad. In March 2025 a Greek Cypriot newspaper reported that a Vural in the mountains of northern Cyprus was interfering with radar and communications in the south. The claim has not been verified.

Jamming from drones

The newest idea is to move the jammer onto an unmanned aircraft. In trials at Konya in September 2026, one Bayraktar TB2 carried two Aselsan Antidot pods. The first detected a real air defence radar and fixed its position, and the second jammed it. A second TB2 with a Fulmar radar pod then imaged another emitter site. Delegations from more than 15 countries watched. Aselsan has also shown a jamming fit for the larger Akıncı. A drone can fly closer to a radar than a manned jet would risk, which makes up for its smaller transmitter.

Electronic weapons against drones

The same engineering has been turned on small drones. İhtar jams their control and navigation links. Ejderha goes further and burns out their electronics with high-power microwaves, and the version shown in May 2026 has its own radar and is designed to engage swarms autonomously. Gökberk is a 10 kW laser for the close-range defence of bases and power plants. All three are counted as layers of the Steel Dome.

How good is it?

Electronic warfare is the hardest military capability to judge from outside, because performance depends on a library of enemy signals that nobody publishes. Three things can be said. Turkish systems have been used in combat in Syria and Libya, against Russian-made radars. A NATO member has paid for them: Poland signed a $410 million electronic warfare contract with Aselsan on 19 December 2025. And the gap at the top, a stand-off jamming aircraft, is being closed this year.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Koral electronic warfare system?

A truck-mounted Turkish system built by Aselsan that detects, jams and deceives enemy radars. It has been in service since 2016.

What is the range of the Koral jammer?

Aselsan has not published one. Independent estimates put it at 150 to 200 km.

What is Hava SOJ?

A stand-off jamming aircraft based on the Bombardier Global 6000 business jet. Four are on order and the first is in flight test, with full service targeted for the end of 2026.

Has Turkish electronic warfare been used in combat?

Yes. Koral was used during Operation Spring Shield in Syria in 2020 and was reported in Libya the same year.

Who makes Turkey’s electronic warfare systems?

Aselsan builds almost all of them. Turkish Aerospace modifies the Hava SOJ aircraft.

Which countries have bought Turkish electronic warfare systems?

Morocco bought Koral in 2021, and Poland signed a $410 million electronic warfare contract with Aselsan in December 2025.