Anka-3 should have at least 10 years newer technology on board. A lot of F35 fuselage manufacturing know-how gained over the last decade by Tusas may have gone in to the Anka’s fuselage as well. Anka-3 quite likely consists mostly of lighter composite parts. Hence the lighter empty weight. Therefore can carry more payload and still be lighter than Neuron.
The Neuron was in development since 1999. First technology demonstrator prototype flew in 2012. The whole project was set up as a technology demonstrator to provide technical information for a probable future stealth UAV.
There is a saying in English ; Two is company three is a crowd. The consortium responsible for the Neuron UAV included;
France,
Greece,
Italy,
Spain,
Sweden and
Switzerland. They are a mis-match of countries, where you have to have cohesion in a partnership such as this. France didn‘t really need any others to make the project work. With Dassault’s leadership the project was concluded. As per the initial agreement, no serial production of the UAV was programmed and hence none was produced. What they have gained as technical know-how, through the project, was shared among the participant countries to be utilised for future development of a stealth UAV if they ever choose to go that route..
We are in Turkey today, looking at a prototype Anka-3 getting ready for its first flight. The specifications being shared above are not written in stone. Due to the fact that our indigenous engine not being ready, we are having to make do with a lesser engine to fly this plane. But in the course of the programmed development stages of the plane, we will have TF6000 being integrated and achieving much better values than what has been shared here. Range, altitude and speed specs will definitely be improved.
Our Anka-3 is being developed for potential serial production. It is not a technology demonstrator.
What needs to be remembered here is the fact that this plane is being designed and developed as a stealthy deep strike UAV. Hence high speed and high altitudes are secondary points to be worried about.
Any delta wing aircraft is inherently stealthier than conventional winged planes. A flying winged aircraft is even stealthier than a delta wing. So the design of the flying wing concept makes the work of the engineers trying to produce a stealthy aircraft, much easier.
The Vulcan Bomber was one of the stealthiest planes ever built. This was due to it’s delta wing design. Both Rafale and Typhoon have very low RCS values thanks to their delta wing constructions.
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