TR UAV/UCAV Programs | Anka - series | Kızılelma | TB - series

Best picture i got from anka 3
Never mind i thought maybe third prototype but its the first

Sanchez said:

Kızılelma S5 from today. Production is moving ahead.

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Will those screws stay visible in serial production? I expected them to hide these after S1.

Pokemonte13 said:

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Best picture i got from anka 3
Never mind i thought maybe third prototype but its the first

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2074531641725255789

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Hopefully, those pitot tubes will also be concealed for stealth appearance.

fushkee said:

Hopefully, those pitot tubes will also be concealed for stealth appearance

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Prototypes fly with pitot tubes; serial production units without. It is pretty easy to remove since it doesn't provide anything besides more telemetry data for testing

Pokemonte13 said:

View attachment 81354
Best picture i got from anka 3
Never mind i thought maybe third prototype but its the first

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2074531641725255789

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First prototype is in air, 3rd on the ground, second is still missing.

130th Anka UAV with Aselflir-500 on display at NATO defence industry day

Four Horsemen! Hürjet, Kaan, Kızılelma, and Anka-3. The grandeur of the photograph is undeniable, but one can't help but wonder: I wish we had included an unmanned variant of the Hürkuş in this ecosystem.

Our classic turboprop/diesel MALE UAV family (Akıncı, TB3, Aksungur etc.) already carries air-to-air capable missiles, and Akıncı even scored a kill in Sudan, so I'm not disputing that. But the physics of these platforms is what it is: optimized for long endurance, low power-to-weight, modest climb and acceleration performance. Open-source figures for this class generally sit in the 700-1400 ft/min climb band. Hürkuş, according to TAI's own data, climbs at close to 4000 ft/min, roughly a three to four times difference. That tells me where the real gap is: not a slow, patiently loitering sentry, but an intercept asset that can react quickly to a threat that suddenly appears. Against a helicopter, an enemy UAV, a target maneuvering at low altitude, none of our current MALE family has this physical edge in a detect-close-neutralize scenario.

The nice part is this concept isn't purely hypothetical. Hürkuş-C already flies with UMTAS, Cirit, and laser-guided bombs, and on top of that there's the SAR 127 MT Air pod jointly developed by TAI and Sarsılmaz, a 12.7mm system capable of firing over a thousand rounds a minute, already tested and cleared for flight. So the airframe's structural maturity to absorb gun recoil is already proven. Add a short-range, IIR-guided air-to-air missile on top of that (a far more sensible choice than radar-guided BVR given the weight and power budget) and you get a genuinely reasonable kinetic option against low-RCS, heat-signature targets like helicopters and UAVs.

Of course the weight freed up by removing the pilot and cockpit systems isn't enough on its own. If it's all routed into the internal tank alone, endurance comes out to roughly 6 hours, better than the manned version's four-plus hours but still limited for loitering. If you add an external tank without sacrificing any payload, that seems to stretch to around the 7+ hour range, which is the threshold that actually makes a difference. Short/medium runway operation is a bonus too; the existing Hürkuş already takes off and lands in the 500-600 meter band, and there's no reason to expect that to change dramatically in a UCAV variant, meaning a hybrid close air support/anti-helicopter/anti-UAV platform that could operate from a forward base or an unpaved strip close to ground forces.

Cost is where this actually has to earn its place next to the rest of the diesel/turboprop UCAV class, though maybe not in the direction people assume. TAI itself put trainer-class turboprops like this in the 12 million dollar band years ago, before any weapons integration, and Akıncı, by Haluk Bayraktar's own account, costs roughly 4 times what TB2 does. Put those next to each other and a Hürkuş-derived UCAV probably ends up somewhere in a similar cost bracket to Akıncı rather than meaningfully cheaper, once you account for the sensor suite, autonomy stack, and weapons integration this concept would need. And that's fine, honestly, because the case here was never "same price, better platform." It's two airframes built on entirely different design philosophies landing in a comparable cost range, one optimized for 24-hour persistence and stand-off strike, the other for reaction speed and close-in engagement. If the numbers really do converge like that, the argument isn't which one is cheaper, it's that the mission set splits cleanly enough to justify having both.

In the end I don't see this as replacing Akıncı or TB3, they're already doing their own jobs well. But in the time-critical intercept scenario where they're physically ill-suited, there seems to be a calculated gap to fill with a low hourly-cost turboprop architecture. All of this is concept-level, of course; without a real technical data package and engine performance map, some of these numbers remain engineering estimates.

dBSPL said:

View attachment 81359

Four Horsemen! Hürjet, Kaan, Kızılelma, and Anka-3. The grandeur of the photograph is undeniable, but one can't help but wonder: I wish we had included an unmanned variant of the Hürkuş in this ecosystem.

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Cool to see Kızılelma next to Kaan and Anka 3.

Kızılelma variants:
- A
- B
- CA
- CB
- O

There is various speculation regarding the power output and flight envelopes between the variants. We can gues over A, B, and C from older brochures, but the current plan includes a total of five variants. My humble opinion is that C represents the twin-engine threshold, and A and B might relate to the total installed power and supersonic capability. The variant coded 'O' is a complete mystery; perhaps the biggest important milestone in the Bayraktar brothers' vision for the next 30 years: Highly maneuverable, fully autonomous 'air superiority' jet. 'O' could refer to a medium-class (orta sınıf) fighter. Like, Kaan is an optionally manned heavy-class heavy combatant while Kızılelma(O) is a fully autonomous unmanned medium-class combatant.

In my opinion, O may refer to Otonom (Autonomous) which it will be full capable of doing air superiority without operator control.

dBSPL said:

Kızılelma variants:
- A
- B
- CA
- CB
- O

There is various speculation regarding the power output and flight envelopes between the variants. We can gues over A, B, and C from older brochures, but the current plan includes a total of five variants. My humble opinion is that C represents the twin-engine threshold, and A and B might relate to the total installed power and supersonic capability. The variant coded 'O' is a complete mystery; perhaps the biggest important milestone in the Bayraktar brothers' vision for the next 30 years: Highly maneuverable, fully autonomous 'air superiority' jet. 'O' could refer to a medium-class (orta sınıf) fighter. Like, Kaan is an optionally manned heavy-class heavy combatant while Kızılelma(O) is a fully autonomous unmanned medium-class combatant.

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I miss the smooth fillet between wings and fuselage (wing root/fairing) without these hard edges.

fushkee said:

In my opinion, O may refer to Otonom (Autonomous) which it will be full capable of doing air superiority without operator control.

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It's highly probable.

The Baykar Group challenges traditional understanding with a fundamentally different concept and discourse, and therefore its activities reflect this. Some consider these views overly idealistic( and unrealistic), while others tend to see Baykar's current position as a point of achieving a result. However, they are talking about a 30-year perspective. I believe that many Baykar initiatives that currently seem separate are, in the long term, part of this vision. I am preparing a short forum article where I will present my humble opinions on this matter.

More TB-3 for land forces. Where is TB-2AI and when will Navy start to recieve TB-3's are good questions at this point.

Kızılelma goes Denizli, it is middle of eagea/adalar region.

The Çardak Airfield Command in Denizli has been restructured as the "19th Combat Unmanned Aircraft System Base and Flight Training School Command".

Kızılelma fleet daily schedule:

1. Maintenance
2. Harass Greeks over Sea of Islands lol
3. Refuel
4. Harass cypriot greek administration
5. Tea break
6. Buzz some westoid ship in mediterranean
7. Refuel
8. Do acrobatics for foreign dignitary visit
9. Refuel
10. Some NATO patrol stuff in the Black Sea
11. Refuel
12. Bomb PKK because peace process is broken again
13. Refuel and rearm
14. Get software update
15. Goodnight sweet prince

Total number of international news caused during the day: 6

I love these machines

Another CH-95 kill by Sudan army AKINCI. This is the 5th confirmed air to air engagement by Akıncı


Edit: it also destroyed another CH-95 which was on the ground, probably the one that crashed on its own

IHA 230 from Kizilelma
Max range 200km+

i wonder if they could integrate an RF or IIR seeker

kücük tayfun

Pokemonte13 said:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2076718303549034964

IHA 230 from Kizilelma
Max range 200km+

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Nice but we need more range, 500KM+