Turkish Aerospace, which has a wide range of airborne manned and unmanned platforms in development, is showcasing its might at the ongoing SAHA Expo. Speaking to Daily News at the show, Dr Mehmet Demiroğlu, General Manager, Turkish Aerospace, outlined the progress with current programmes and interest from export customers.
“From an end user point of view, customers want to feel cared for. When they buy a platform, it needs to be available when they need it. As a result, logisitics support is very important and this is something we place a lot of emphasis on. Our customers are very happy with the quality of our products, price and logistics support.” Demiroğlu said. The airframer is now making best efforts to reduce its manufacturing costs, further improve quality and expedite deliveries to meet growing customer demand.
Q. What are the latest developments at Turkish Aerospace?
As you are aware, two days ago our Hurjet Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) went supersonic for the first time. This is the first time in our history, that an indigenously designed and developed Turkish aircraft has crossed the speed of sound. This is an incredible thing for us and is a step forward for the programme. In addition to this, the ANKA-III our advanced Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) recently completed a successful test with a Tolun precision munition which has been developed by Aselsan.
This is another major milestone for the programme. We are happy with the progress in the design and development of this UCAV and are in discussion with the Turkish Air Force on how they can utilise it during testing starting from next year. Our other UAV programmes continue to do well not only in terms of production and development but also in terms of interest from the end users from different countries is increasing.
Our T-129 ATAK helicopter is a combat proven platform and countries that have already received helicopters exported by us are looking at additional helicopters to increase their squadron strength. There are also other potential customers that we are in contact with and are in negotiation for new orders. So, we are happy with the success of the ATAK helicopter programme.
Q. What are the developments in the Hurjet and Hurkus programme?
Hurjet is another success story, we already have signed a contract with the Turkish Air Force. Many other nations are very keenly interested and closely watching this programme and we are working with two of them, to a level that we are discussing as to when we can sign the contract. We are about to start advanced negotiations with these customers for these platforms. Hurkus also receiving a lot of interest, after our signing of the contract with Turkish Air Force for 55 aircraft. We will also make the maiden flight of the second Hurjet prototype before the end of this month. We will also look to have an armed variant of the Hurjet later.
There is a huge need for this kind of aircraft in the training area and we are seeing a very high potential for that platform. We are going to deliver the first Hurkus to the Turkish Air Force next year and the following year we will commence deliveries of Hurjet. The numbers may differ but we will begin deliveries with an initial batch of 3-4 aircraft next year and increasing the following years.
Q. How are some of your other important programmes progressing?
We are going to deliver the first Gokbey helicopter to our Gendarmerie. The Gokbey has been certified by Turkish military authorities and is the first helicopter designed, developed and manufactured by Turkish Aerospace. We are continuing with the development of our 10-tonne class helicopter and will have the maiden test flight for this helicopter in 2026.
We are focussing more the development of the utility helicopter now as compared to the ATAK 2. These are both being developed as platforms that will have a lot of commonalities. They will share whatever can be shared such as the rotor system, drivetrain, avionics and pretty much everything that can be share on a helicopter will be shared. The ATAK 2 helicopter development is one step behind and we did this starting of this year because of the need for the utility helicopter, for which we plan to begin deliveries by 2028.
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