Cumhurbaşkanlığı Savunma Sanayi Başkanlığı bünyesinde çalışmalarına devam eden Aselsan önemli çalışmalara imza atıyor. Aselsan Genel Müdürü Ahmet Akyol; “Aselsan AESA radarı İHA’larımıza entegre edilmiş durumda. MURAD AESA radarının entegrasyonu sayesinde Akıncı, hava-hava füzelerini (GÖKDOĞAN...
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Aselsan General Manager Ahmet Akyol "With the integration of MURAD AESA radar, Akıncı now has the ability to shoot AAM missiles like Gökdoğan and Bozdoğan."
Finally a piece of good news on Murad! but….
Can somebody explain why on earth you would want a top of the range GaN based expensive Aesa radar on a slow relatively cheap and presumably expendable drone?
I wouldn‘t be surprised if Murad costs more than a third of the value of the Akinci that is carrying it.
GaAs based An/Apg-82 on the new F15-EX costs more than 5.5 million dollars a piece. The hybrid GaN/GaAs based ECRS-Mk2 radar being fitted to all 107 UK Tranche 2 and 3 Typhoons costing 870 million pounds; albeit with upgraded ancillary electronics kits.
The Gokdogan and Bozdogan missiles aren’t cheap either. Also why would you need a WVR a2a missile on a slow drone? If you want to hit other drones, surely, it would be more economical to use Sungur.
It would have made more sense if the Aselsan official had said that;
“The Murad was integrated on to Akinci to test it before fitting it on the F16 Ozgur jets. With this radar the Akinci Drone too, can now launch a series of BVR Stand-off missiles including Gokdogan , SOM-J , KGK. We will be able to use Akinci to direct other drones and target enemy positions and valuable assets by relaying the necessary data to those drones in the field.“
That is where Akinci will be most effective if it has an Aesa radar. To be able to hit moving sea targets with SOM-J from a stand-off distance of 250+ km. It will perform precision strikes on Land targets from a distance of 110km with KGK smart bombs. It can fire BVR Gokdogan to eliminate air targets 100+ km away. And most importantly, it can give very valuable data about battlefield to the control centre.
It is still arguable, if the use of an Aesa radar on a drone like Akinci being an overkill or not . Yet there is an advantage to be had. But with such valuable equipment and ammo on board, it has to stay away from enemy line of fire. I am sure the Turkish armed forces know what they are doing!
We mustn’t, however as the proverb go, behave like “an ignorant man who can’t appreciate good fortune”. (Görmemişin oğlu olmuş, tutmuş…..)