I would like to ask a question.
Is it true that with Baykar Akinci we are the first country to develop UCAV with air to air combat ability?
There is this {page} I found and people say only US drones have stingers attached to them so far but they too arent properly fit for an air to air combat because of their avionics. They lack AESA radars which are appearently a must for air to air combat.
It seems like Akinci will be the first proper UCAV to have air to air combat ability with its Bozdogan WVRAAM (Within Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile) and Gokdogan BVRAAM (Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile) and national AESA radar.
About General Atomics Avenger(Predator C) (I couldnt quite understand whether it is still under developement):
Now someone in the page talks about Avenger(Predator C) making a test with AESA ''just last year''(his post date: june 2020) but I couldnt find anything about when they implemented it to the drone in any other place.
Also wikipedia page shows no a2a missiles among avengers armament. I digged quite a few places but all it has are air to surface bombs/missiles.
I know AESA radar helps with a lot of things but why didnt they add any air to air missiles? Do they think it is dumb/inefficient?
Well it is not like we will be putting them to down fighter jets, they will be substantial for downing enemy drones/turboprob planes/helicopters.
To my knowledge Akinci will be the first true air to air missile carrier drone and will house AESA radar but that is few years off. It will be used to target hostile drones, helicopters and opportunity aerial targets.
US MQ-9 was tested few years ago with sidewinder & stinger missiles and the test was a success. There was a AESA radar but was mounted as a center line pod on the Sea Guardian variant. And no US doesn't think its dumb, actual reason is they don't need it right now. They tested it and gained the now how.
Avenger or Predator C is fully operational and couple of the produced units house AESA radar, which further descended to the ER variant. The program was halted in February 2012 and the produced units are used as test beds as of now.
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