Screengrab. Source: Baykar Defense.
On December 14, Turkey’s drone manufacturer Baykar Defense announced that its jet-powered combat drone Kızılelma [Red Apple in English] has successfully completed its maiden flight.
The company shared footage from the flight, which reportedly took place from the Akinci Flight Training and Test Center in northwestern Turkey.
The Kızılelma, also known as Project MIUS [Muharip İnsansız Uçak Sistemi in Turkish – Combatant Unmanned Aircraft System in English] is a low-observable combat drone with a design that mimics traditional manned fighter jets. The advanced drone has been in development since 2013.
“We could not keep it anymore on the ground. It flew! Thanks to our Lord,” Bayraktar said on Twitter on Wednesday.
The first version of the drone, the Kızılelma-A, will be powered by a Ukrainian-made Ivchenko-Progress AI-25TLT turbofan engine and will have a subsonic speed of Mach 0.9. This version is expected to be officially introduced in 2023.
Baykar is also working on a supersonic version, the Kızılelma-B, that will be powered by the more powerful Ivchenko-Progress AI-322F turbofan engine.
The drone is expected to have an endurance of five to six hours, and will be able to reach a maximum altitude of 14,000 meters.
Kızılelma has a wingspan of ten meters and a takeoff weight of 6,000 kg. It will be able to carry a 1,500-kg payload, including a verity of Turkish-made precision-guided air-to-ground and air-to-air munitions. The drone will reportedly be equipped with a locally-developed active electronically scanned array radar, an optical targeting system, an electronic warfare suite and a signal intelligence module.
In addition, the combat drone is designed in a way that makes it capable to take off and land on an amphibious assault ship, such as TCG Anadolu, without any need for a catapult system.
In the last few years, Turkey rose to become one of the leading countries in drone technology. Ankara is now trying to capitalize on this success by focusing on the development of more advanced drones, with the aim of strengthening its military capabilities as well as its defense exports.
Ivchenko-Progress engines………. I guess that Baykar will need new partners for this project
Hindustan_Aeronautics_Limited to the rescue .. LoL
Turkish domestic and more powerful alternative almost complete LOL. Read other news not just SF.
Looks kind of similar to the Boeing MQ28 Ghost Bat and Chinese equivalent FH97-A.
Hopefully the don’t get into a court battle over the similarities..
It’ll kick far more asses than those insha Allah.
“Baykar came about thanks to god.”
How stupid can you be. Is there no limit.
“God chosen people”, “God bless the USA”, bla bla bla Turk-isis can’t suck their own dick?
If the miserable Muslims score a goal, they scream allah, allah and give the ghost credit. Shows how degenerate they are.
Yes, Allah made this possible. Because of Allah, empires were ended in the Middle East and Islam established till date. Crusaders were exterminated and Islam restored. Allah made the Ottomans rule for some 6 centuries. The west hasn’t ruled for more than three centuries yet and is already in rapid decline.
Whenever we give Allah credit for our progress, He makes us more successful. This is why Bayrak does that. The more grateful he is to Allah, the more tech breakthroughs Allah grants him and Turkey. It is a sign the Muslims are learning to rely on Allah. And this mean their victory is fast approaching.
You are an idiot. I can smell you even if you’re drenched in cheap perfume.
Looks too big & expensive for the role it is intended to fulfill
Don’t worry. It’ll start dropping bombs on soviet junk one day and we’ll know for sure.
Great news from Bayrak. The domestic version of the engine is almost complete and will be more powerful than the Ukrainian versions used temporarily. Anyone still doubts Turkey will fly a domestic fifth-gen? Erdogan is truly a strong leader. Kudos to him and his team and fuck those who hate him. We don’t give a shit.
turkkkey is 3rd rate at best,presently their national aspiration is to regress to the times of ataturk,though progressive for his day is still retrograde,its industrial capacity is limited by backwardness domesticly and revanchist/imperialist policies,turks best wise up of they gone be out in the cold,like the ukrop