TR Air-Force TF-X KAAN Fighter Jet

[Sanchez]

Kotil was at least “closer” to being a man of his word

Not at all, his timelines moved like lines in the sand all the time.

There is a delay, there will be many more delays. We should accept that there will be delays and also demand explanation for the delays. It is billions of our taxpayer money and the most important and hardest undertaking of this country since 1922.

 

[Fairon]

Postponing previously given first flight dates without explanation is totally unprofessional.

Remember Mahmut Aksit, when TF6000 was delayed by 6 months he came clean and stated that a simple part that was available normally, was made unavailable. So they had to produce it in house, causing the delay.

Mr Demiroglu initially had given a First flight date of last quarter of 2025. Then he postponed it to beginning of April 2026, without any reasons. That was 3 months to 6 months delay at best and at worst over the previously given date. Now another couple of months delay! No explanation again. This is becoming the norm and a joke!

In production delays may occur. In development work they may be even more frequent. But there is always an explainable reason. For a program like KAAN, that is being followed by everyone in close scrutiny, to just postpone is wrong.

We have a saying in Turkish ; (Gelen gldeni arattırır) . I guess the closest translation is “the better the devil you know”.
Kotil was at least “closer” to being a man of his word.

Sadly, Mahmut Aksit is alone in this regard.

I don't remember any other company as open as TEI regarding the problems during the processes. We only pick something might going wrong when there is concurrent delays or some abnormality during the development progress.(And usually had to pick up from parts of the statements or the published tests videos for the tests that should've been done years ago)

 

[Yasar_TR]

Not at all, his timelines moved like lines in the sand all the time.

There is a delay, there will be many more delays. We should accept that there will be delays and also demand explanation for the delays. It is billions of our taxpayer money and the most important and hardest undertaking of this country since 1922.

That is why I said “closer”.
During Kotil’s tenure there were delays too. But he did give reasons. His deadlines were too ambitious and aggressive. But during his time:

• KAAN (TF-X): Maiden flight on February 21, 2024.
• Hürjet: First flight on April 25, 2023.
• Anka-3 UCAV: First flight on December 28, 2023.
• T929 Atak 2: First flight on April 28, 2023.

were accomplished . During he was in charge, we were subject to more stringent and widespread hidden embargoes too.

 

[boredaf]

T929 Atak 2: First flight on April 28, 2023.

Mate, please don't count that abomination among the others. That was perhaps the single most blatant propagandization of defence industry I have ever seen. It was clearly not even close to being a ground test unit when it made that flight. And then he promised it would be delivered to army last year, instead of letting it slide into obscurity. He was living in a fantasy world of his own, if he had stayed, none of his deadlines could have ever been made in real world.

 

[2033]

Mate, please don't count that abomination among the others. That was perhaps the single most blatant propagandization of defence industry I have ever seen. It was clearly not even close to being a ground test unit when it made that flight. And then he promised it would be delivered to army last year, instead of letting it slide into obscurity. He was living in a fantasy world of his own, if he had stayed, none of his deadlines could have ever been made in real world.

Crossing the psychological threshold was important. Temel Kotil made significant initial moves. He had to deal with intense criticism from both inside and outside. The current managers are not under that level of pressure

 

[Pilatino]

Mr. Demiroglu said Kaan will be 5.5 at some point. It's better than nothing to start with I guess I'll continue to push for 6th gen labeling harder and harder cuz it deserves that!

 

[Yasar_TR]

Mate, please don't count that abomination among the others. That was perhaps the single most blatant propagandization of defence industry I have ever seen. It was clearly not even close to being a ground test unit when it made that flight. And then he promised it would be delivered to army last year, instead of letting it slide into obscurity. He was living in a fantasy world of his own, if he had stayed, none of his deadlines could have ever been made in real world.

Bro, I agree with you that it was an abomination of a helicopter. But nevertheless it flew to prove a point. You can’t show a single move of this administration related to defence industry, that is publicised, that does not have a political agenda and is not used as a propaganda tool.
That Soviet era Ukranian engine should never have been attached to that modern helicopter. But it happened and served a purpose.
Please don’t take my above two posts as a defence for Kotil. As I said : Better the devil you know. This one has yet to prove his worth. So far nothing positive yet. For the sake of our defence industry, I would love to be proven wrong about him though.

 

[IC3M@N FX]

Today, it hardly makes sense to develop a classic heavy combat helicopter. Turkey primarily needs light and medium combat helicopters that are agile and dynamic, not expensive heavy gunships based on the Apache or Ka-52 models.
The war in Ukraine has clearly shown that heavy combat helicopters are extremely vulnerable. Many Russian helicopters were shot down in ambushes by VSHORAD/MANPADS and, increasingly, by FPV drones. In a battlefield saturated with sensors, drones and air defence systems, large manned helicopters are high-value targets with a high risk of loss.
In addition, the cost-benefit factor is no longer proportional: a modern combat helicopter costs tens of millions of dollars, while it can be countered by comparatively inexpensive drones or portable air defence systems.
The concept is moving towards networked systems consisting of drones, sensor platforms and optionally manned aircraft.
For Turkey, therefore, a focus on light and medium combat helicopters in combination with armed drones, loitering munitions and modern air defence makes much more sense than developing a heavy combat helicopter.

It was right to put the project on hold indefinitely.

 

[Pete Mitchell Maverick]

I don't think a delay of a few months is anything to exaggerate in such a large project. I'd like to remind you that even the F-35 project was delayed for years, and America is a country with decades more experience than us in 5th generation aircraft.

While not a perfect match, a company like Boeing delayed the delivery of its 777X aircraft by 7 years. If even a company that has been producing aircraft for 100 years is experiencing problems, this situation is quite normal for TUSAŞ. After all, it's an expensive prototype, and they want it to take off without any problems.