Ömer Yıldız, Deputy General Manager of TUSAŞ UAV systems, said: "We also conducted a maximum flight test with AKSUNGUR. Our prototype aircraft, although slightly heavy, remained in the air for 49 hours. Our serial production planes will be a few hundred pounds lighter, so we aim to stay in the air for 60 hours with them. Our prototype aircraft, along with 12 MAM-L's, remained in the air for 28 hours. This will be extended for another two or three hours with our mass-production aircraft."
4 also announced that mass production of the UAV will end at the end of the year.
Let me correct the last paragraph if you don’t mind;
He also said that mass production will start before the end of the year for Aksungur.
The key point here is ; When the interviewer asked if only 28 Anka’s were delivered out of 75 ordered, if there are requests to convert the orders to Aksungur, Mr Yildiz concurred that it was the case and they were evaluating this request accordingly.
Another important point was, the top altitude of the aircraft to be 45000ft after making the craft lighter and fitting a new more powerful engine.
Most interesting is the fact that no new ground station is needed for Aksungur, if you already have Anka ground stations. Also Anka pilots only need an extra 10hour instruction to be qualified for Aksungur. Most avionics and equipment are of the same ilk as Anka. Therefore maintenance is no different once you are trained on Anka.
Also as per Anka-S , Aksungur has Satcom system installed.
Apparently Turkish Navy is already in the process of integrating Sonobuoys to Aksungur. Before the end of the year or even within next few months we should be in a position to be listening to sonobuoys.
I personally would like to see ORKA lightweight torpedoes being launched from this craft.
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