What’s the role of this drone in Turkish military?Air supremacy on its own or more of a loyal wingman?New render of the "rainbow"
According to various sources, the TB3 has an endurance of more than 50 hours.
Turkey Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
It is basically a small unmanned multi-role fighter jet. The first variant will be more for land-attack in the contested environment because it will be subsonic only. The second variant will have a much more powerful engine with an afterburner (my interpretation because they talk about a 2.5x thrust increase over the first variant). It will be supersonic capable and it will be able to take-off from LHDs at full payload. That one should have a very significant air superiority capability.
Why there is such a weird project? We don't know but Turkey has two problems:
1- A lot of countries are buying 5th gen fighters. The Turkish air force needs VLO platforms too but we are far away from developing and manufacturing a fleet of full-sized and manned 5th gens. A mini 5th gen fighter is a good interim solution. I would prefer this to any non-stealthy foreign aircraft. Maybe except the F-16V since we already have the logistics system for it. Being unmanned removes the cockpit and life support from the aircraft which makes the small aircraft much less compromised. A jet aircraft of this size (5.5 ton MTOW) wouldn't have a useful payload and range if it was manned.
2- TCG Anadolu was left without an aircraft after Turkey was kicked out of the F-35 program. We would like to have a VTOL 5th gen fighter but we will definitely not develop such an aircraft for 1-2 LHDs. We will just load the ships with overpowered low-RCS drones.
For 5.5ton MTOW, AL-222 series engine I guess?
I dug the project a little bit more. They plan to use the Al-25TLT for the subsonic variant and the Al-322F for the supersonic variant. And I was right, the Al-322F has an afterburner.
I mean it wasn't like that was a secret, right? They literally had a public signature ceremony.
By the way, you can see details about the wing pylons at the background illustrations.
Canard sweep in the PowerPoint appears different from that of other artwork. Also, is it confirmed to use CARET style side intakes? I could’ve sworn that I saw DSI before but now I can’t seem to find that image!
I've never seen a DSI intake, maybe you thought that because it looks a lot like J-20
Two important interviews today with TAI, one with the deputy manager of the TF-X program in 45 min and the other starting at 22:00 Turkish time with the CEO of TAI:
Last edited:
The pics speak for themselves...
Original source(s):
Original source(s):
Last edited: