Turkey’s Baykar company flew a new uncrewed fighter drone on Wednesday for the first time and says it could change air power. The Kizilelma drone is as big as an F-16 (more than 48 feet long) but is 6,000 pounds lighter. It’s capable of carrying out air-to-ground and air-to-air missions. It’s also capable of carrier operations. “Our 20-year dream in our national drone adventure has come true today,” said Baykar’s chief technical official Selcuk Bayraktar.
The aircraft is a canard design, uses a Ukrainian-designed Ivchenko-Progress turbofan engine and will carry up to 3,400 pounds of weapons. It’s also stealthy and designed for short-field operations. Turkey is now conducting sea trials of an amphibious assault ship capable of hosting the Kizilelma.
I’m definitely not qualified to comment on the military implications, but there is an old saying that when an airplane looks good, it flies good. This thing looks like a pretty nice airplane. I’m not surprised that it’s lighter than a manned aircraft. No need for pressurization, air conditioning, or other life-supporting systems.
Looks very “Russian-Chinese” latest stealth design driven. Press releases always sound awesome. Will need real world numbers to verify the quality of this platform.
“The Kizilelma drone is as big as an F-16” which means that it’s size despite stealth characteristics will make for one big target. Remember, measures generate counter-measures and so on.
It seems to me that it’s really time to rethink the whole notion of war and armed conflict. And teach peace. And limit the power of individuals, who usually come to it through luck (think of the tech billionaires–which in no way denigrates their intelligence or skills) or intimidation and threat (think of the world’s dictators, drug lords, and dictator wanna be’s). My hunch is that no one in their right mind really wants to be killed or maimed, and given free elections, without gerrymandering and other stuff, we might begin to approach a more rational way of living.
“With God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly”
Les Nessman