It’ll be cool to see how Pakistan can network it into the existing C&C infrastructure. Wonder if AWACs will serve as control node directly or they’ll use a two seater (F-16 or JF-17).
Turkey Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
It’ll be cool to see how Pakistan can network it into the existing C&C infrastructure. Wonder if AWACs will serve as control node directly or they’ll use a two seater (F-16 or JF-17).
Added a bit about a possible issue for near-term deliveries to Pakistan:
Another reported issue with Baykar is that they insist on using a separate UAV infrastructure from Turkey’s primary aircraft manufacturer Turkish Aerospace, the producer of the flying wing Anka-III drone and the Kaan, which makes integration with the entire Air Force fleet (including AEW&C aircraft), difficult without their products (Which affects Pakistan too since they operate both TAI and Baykar-made drones).The only issue regarding supply lies with Baykar’s stock of Ukrainian engines, which I suspect are reserved exclusively for Turkey’s immediate aircraft needs. While certification for unmanned aircraft is generally less demanding than for manned platforms, the earliest projected production date for the TF6000/TF10000 engines is 2028. Therefore, as mentioned, the existing Ukrainian engines are most likely being prioritized for Turkey’s own near-term requirements.
They’ve got to be reined in a bit, but İbrahim Sünnetçi mentioned that they’ve finally started working with Turkish Aerospace on integration with the Kaan, albeit a bit late.
Last edited:
China’s at the cusp of an explosion in low thrust engines for drones/trainers. If Pakistan needs something to fallback on something might be negotiable.
- You really expect China to supply 45 kN-class engines for the product of a NATO member?
- Integrating a different engine would take just as long for production aircraft anyway.
- If Baykar ever needs an alternative engine in the meantime, they’d most likely knock on RR’s door first.
Even in its current form, Kızılelma is quite underpowered to the extent that, even with all the composites Baykar specializes in using for their aircraft, it is still literally the size of an F-16.
|
|
Even with all that fancy GaN-radar and IRST/EOTS/whatever else they've integrated, it's still got a cruise-speed of 0.6 Mach/top-speed of 0.9 Mach and is therefore rubbish in BVR against capable aircraft.
 |
|
Baykar even canned its supersonic twin-engine version in favor of a single 89 kN-class (i.e., an F404-equivalent) engined one and has begun preparing to develop and produce it in-house (since TEI is entirely focused on delivering the TF35K and TF6K/10K). They aim to vertically develop everything, much like Chinese tech companies do, they’re called Baykar Tech for a reason.
Last edited: