TR Turkish Air Forces|News & Discussion

[IC3M@N FX]

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/29/us/f-35-fighter-jet-crash-hnk/index.html

Another crash to the F-35 and to be honest I don't think much of the F-35 either, the plane is simply over engineered and permanently flawed.

 

[IC3M@N FX]

Glorified 4. gen jet is not going to beat F35 block 4, But It will outperform other 4. gen jets, Im pretty sure It will outperform any russian jet in existence but not F35

Has any Turkish official ever claimed otherwise? They have all said that it will still be inferior to F-22/F-35 in some areas. They have even confirmed that this aircraft as a first block will not deliver the performance they are aiming for but will at least be superior to the GEN 4.5 aircraft.
So what do they want? That Turkey should fly with paper airplanes?
The TAI KAAN project is not a superiority fighter that should outperform all others, but a price-performance stealth fighter that can be exported everywhere!

Edit: The admin was quicker, the troll was banned

 

[AlperTunga]

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/29/us/f-35-fighter-jet-crash-hnk/index.html

Another crash to the F-35 and to be honest I don't think much of the F-35 either, the plane is simply over engineered and permanently flawed.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/29/us/f-35-fighter-jet-crash-hnk/index.html

Another crash to the F-35 and to be honest I don't think much of the F-35 either, the plane is simply over engineered and permanently flawed.

We are missing a crucial point here in these discussions. We have only old F16s no Rafael, no EF, and no F35 or F15. f35 may have some problems but still certainly not worse than old f16s. We could have learned a lot from f35s to improve our Kaan. It was one of the largest strategic mistakes in this century for us not to have a good backup plan for our air force. Same people also damaged the Altay project.

 

[Saithan]

I saw a tweet that pointed out that aprox 1100 F35 was made (not sure that is true), and that they've accumulated a lot of flight hours, so the few that crashed are very little percentage.

And I think what's important is that you can eject safely and land safely when such technical errors occur. We will see such accidents with our own products as well. The only question is, will we be open about these accidents or hide them.

e.g. Hürjet had a dangerous dive stunt close to people last year. can't hide that kind of stuff because of many people with smart phones and recordings.

 

[Sanchez]

I saw a tweet that pointed out that aprox 1100 F35 was made (not sure that is true), and that they've accumulated a lot of flight hours, so the few that crashed are very little percentage.

Bashing on F-35 is pretty expected nowadays, especially in Turkey, but by what's available, F-35 is the fighter aircraft with the best safety record in the planet in history. 1100 airframes, nearly a million flight hours and only 15 class A mishaps(requiring substantial repairs, involving loss of life or serious injuries) so far. It's nearly impeccable actually.

F-35's case stems from it being very expensive to develop in total and it being the first aircraft to be developed during the height of social media.

Hürjet had a dangerous dive stunt close to people last year

I think you're referring to Solotürk F-16?

 

[uçuyorum]

Bashing on F-35 is pretty expected nowadays, especially in Turkey, but by what's available, F-35 is the fighter aircraft with the best safety record in the planet in history. 1100 airframes, nearly a million flight hours and only 15 class A mishaps(requiring substantial repairs, involving loss of life or serious injuries) so far. It's nearly impeccable actually.

F-35's case stems from it being very expensive to develop in total and it being the first aircraft to be developed during the height of social media.

I think you're referring to Solotürk F-16?

F35 does have really bad management though. They produced 1000 without getting it to a baseline quality and performance and now they all need very expensive upgrades and non US customers decided to not go for the upgrade, creating a mess of variances. Plus the integration of european munitions like Meteor to F35 was supposed to be with new software upgrade but new software upgrade requires the electronics upgrade which requires the engine upgrade and they only realized that after testing on F35 because they retired the testbed early...

 

[Strong AI]

The Pentagon has identified significant challenges with the F-35 stealth strike fighter jets, critical to Israel’s Air Force operations, according to a classified 382-page report.

The F-35, known as "Adir" in Israel, faces issues with stealth reliability, maintenance systems and operational efficiency, raising questions about the world’s most expensive weapons system, which has cost $1.8 trillion to develop.
The report revealed recurring malfunctions in the jet's prognostic health management system, designed to detect issues automatically. High false alarm rates—averaging one per hour instead of the standard one per 50 hours—have complicated maintenance and delayed missions. The report also noted problems with the F-35’s lethality due to design flaws in its gun systems and challenges maintaining its low-observability signature, a cornerstone of its stealth capabilities.
Operational availability is another concern, with repair times twice as long as required, limiting the aircraft's mission readiness. Despite its advanced design to counter threats from adversaries like China and Russia, the F-35 has undergone only one relevant test to evaluate this capability.

Cyber vulnerabilities also emerged as a critical issue, with the Pentagon urging Lockheed Martin to enhance defenses against digital threats. The company responded, citing significant investments in cybersecurity.

Scathing Pentagon report raises concerns over F-35 fighter jets, despite operational success

Israel relies on F-35 for deep strikes and air defense, but concerns growing over operational reliability, technological superiority and high maintenance costs, raising doubts about the fighter jet’s ability to meet strategic and financial expectations

www.ynetnews.com

 

[Sanchez]

Let's remain on the general topic regardless, as TurAF is no longer an F-35 user.

 

[Oublious]

According to Greeks we are planning to but 300 Meteor missiles, i could not find something like that.

Are the neighbours spreading lies?

 

[Yasar_TR]

According to Greeks we are planning to but 300 Meteor missiles, i could not find something like that.

Are the neighbours spreading lies?

You should be able to make the math yourself; Typhoon’s maximum meteor number is 8.
4 under fuselage and 2 under each wing. But in air superiority set up, it has 6 meteors and 2 WVR missiles.

40 planes will need 240 meteors if you set them up as air superiority fighters. There should be a good number of spares and test and practice missiles too.
In normal runs it should carry 4 meteors. That alone makes 160 missiles. A complete set of spares will bring the tally above 300.

 

[Hannibal]

Has any Turkish official ever claimed otherwise? They have all said that it will still be inferior to F-22/F-35 in some areas. They have even confirmed that this aircraft as a first block will not deliver the performance they are aiming for but will at least be superior to the GEN 4.5 aircraft.
So what do they want? That Turkey should fly with paper airplanes?
The TAI KAAN project is not a superiority fighter that should outperform all others, but a price-performance stealth fighter that can be exported everywhere!

Edit: The admin was quicker, the troll was banned

No, actually it was said that Kaan would be better than the F-35.
The only special thing about the F-35 is the stealth coating, and maybe the sensor fusion. In all other aspects, Kaan will be superior:

• It will carry more A2A missiles
• Supercruise capability
• More maneuverability
• More electricity generation
• More powerful radars

The RAM paint and sensor fusion are the most critical parts that TAI needs to get right (for operational capability).

Contrary to what others think, they can probably force an engine, that isn't as reliable as Western engines but gets the job done in terms of TVC and reduced IR signature. Similar to what the Chinese did with the WS-15.

 

[Turkic]

You should be able to make the math yourself; Typhoon’s maximum meteor number is 8.
4 under fuselage and 2 under each wing. But in air superiority set up, it has 6 meteors and 2 WVR missiles.

40 planes will need 240 meteors if you set them up as air superiority fighters. There should be a good number of spares and test and practice missiles too.
In normal runs it should carry 4 meteors. That alone makes 160 missiles. A complete set of spares will bring the tally above 300.

I think we need more. Kamikaze drones share a great piece from the cake of modern war doctrine. We can add cruise missiles to this. When Iran attacked Israel, we saw Isreali, British and US air forces shooting those with A2A missiles. And since these missiles and drones are being launched in large numbers at wars, we would need a lot of A2A missiles. I'm aware that Gökdoğan would be a better choice in matter of price but it wouldn't be bad if we got some extra Meteor's too.

 

[Sanchez]

and maybe the sensor fusion

Literally the hardest thing to achieve for a next gen fighter aircraft. It deserves a bit more than "maybe".