Turkish Aerospace (TUSAŞ) demonstrated two new developments integrated into the UAV, ANKA, in the EFES-2022 Allied Joint Live Fire Exercise – Invitex. While adding domestic ammunition under the ANKA, TUSAŞ also brings the target aircraft studies closer to the speed of sound. The supersonic UAV project that TUSAŞ has been working on for a while was also showcased for the first time at EFES-2022.
TUSAŞ Executive Vice President for Unmanned Aerial Systems Ömer Yıldız said that they had delivered 36 ANKA UAVs to the inventory so far, and they have performed more than 120,000 hours of flight. Stating that they will complete their export to Tunisia with the acceptance of the two ANKA UAVs, Yıldız said that they would also send Kazakhstan’s ANKA UAVs on 20 June. Yıldız said, “The tender process in Malaysia continues. The announcement of the decision took more than 1.5 years. We are shortlisted among 12 competitors. We think we are more advantageous. We hope that ANKA will win, and it will be announced in August.”
Pointing out that ANKA has served with the smart mini ammunition MAM-L and MAM-C until now, Ömer Yıldız said, “We have new ammunition. TÜBİTAK-SAGE developed the Kuzgun (Raven). It is heavier than the others. It weighs about 100 kilograms. It can carry a warhead of 60 to 90 kilograms. It has solid fuel propulsion. This ammunition can travel much longer distances with its jet engine propulsion. We will start the tests this month.”
Emphasising that they exhibited ANKA with target aircraft used in the development of air defence systems and training of troops at EFES-2022, Yıldız said that Şimşek was able to introduce himself as an aircraft. Yıldız stated that they have integrated the warhead used in MAM-L into Şimşek and that it can also serve as a loitering monition shortly.
In addition, Yıldız, who informed that they would have another target aircraft flying at 0.9 Mach speed in the first stage, said: “We aim to reach supersonic speed by the end of the year if we solve a few engine problems. Our goal in reaching the supersonic speed is to imitate a missile that can fly at supersonic speed. Experiencing the complex nature of supersonic flight and developing flight control algorithms accordingly.”
