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

[Boykaz]

Kızılelma A, B, CA, CB, and O. There are so many variants, I wonder what's going to happen.

 

[Kaan Azman]

Where deez photos from?

 

[TheInsider]

CA, CB should be carrier-based variants of A and B. O should be the redesigned monster version. A is the usual subsonic variant(Mach 0.6-0.9, B will be transonic (Mach 0.6-1.2), O should be the big supersonic variant with 20k lb class engine. Big Kızılelma will be supersonic and will have supercruise capability.

 

[Pokemonte13]

A: single engine (TF10000)
B: twin engine (TF10000)
O: single large engine

 

[TheInsider]

A: single engine (TF10000)
B: twin engine (TF10000)
O: single large engine

Huge doubt.

 

[MonteCarlo]

WATCH: Sudan Army’s AKINCI drone shot down yet another Chinese-made CH-95 drone supplied to the RSF terror group by the UAE.

Noone can tell me that is Eren. Question is that is it Sungur or Cirit? Should be fourth confirmed air to air kill of AKINCI that is more than some long standing fighter jets. Definitely very good combat experience

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2074495485708992612

 

[Saithan]

Interesting how cancerous UAE are.

 

[MonteCarlo]

Anka-3 fly by during the Nato summit TAI tour

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2074521666974093354

 

[TR_123456]

Interesting how cancerous UAE are.

Never changed was always the same and not only against us but to other GCC countries,Iran,Pakistan etc.
Remember the story about the scorpion and the frog or the farmer and the viper.

 

[Sanchez]

Kızılelma S5 from today. Production is moving ahead.

 

[Pokemonte13]

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

 

[Turkic]

Kızılelma S5 from today. Production is moving ahead.

View attachment 81353

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

 

[fushkee]

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

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

 

[MonteCarlo]

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

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

 

[Sanchez]

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

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

 

[MonteCarlo]

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

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2074582744189767998

 

[dBSPL]

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.

 

[Mis_TR_Like]

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.

Cool to see Kızılelma next to Kaan and Anka 3.