Imo main job of a MALE drone is recon then it is to provide air support in places you have the air superiority be it by exploiting the gaps in enemy AD or operating in areas you have total air superiority. The success TB-2 had against Russian systems was an anomaly and should not be regarded as its main function albeit it can be replicated if certain conditions are met(EW support, good intel etc). This does not mean it is a bad or outdated concept but trying to shoehorn it into the role it was used in Libya, Syria and Azerbaijan in a peer to peer modern combat would be ineffective. Helicopter is a good comparison in that regard T-129's are extremely useful in counter-terrorism operations however no one would expect it to operate in contested air space and take out enemy AD. It is better to leave TB-2 as is or make it more useful in stand-off roles by integrating more sensors and long range missiles and give the task of operating in contested air space and gaining air superiority(which should be top priority anyway) to actual fighter jets.
I like the way you approach this. You are correct in thinking that this drone should operate in airspaces where total air superiority is gained.
But TB2 stands for
Tactical Block. It is not a standard MALE drone. It is built to fight.
Tactical in armed forces means taking immediate combat actions in the battlefield front.
So this plane’s
Primary job is battlefield combat action. Not reconnaissance. So it should be made to perform what it was built for. If it has deficiencies in that field, then those shortcomings need to be addressed.
We have enough drones for reconnaissance, and similar platforms for stand off missile launching with more payload capacities, like Anka-S, Akinci and Aksungur.
