Since the birth of the manned-unmanned teaming concept, various studies have been conducted to create an unmanned aerial system that will cooperate with the pilot, perform assigned missions in support of the pilot, and sacrifice itself if necessary to save the pilot and their aircraft. In general terms, this concept is mainly known as Loyal Wingman. Turkiye has created its own indigenous concept. Since the born of the Turkish Fighter KAAN, Turkish Aerospace has put an extensive workload on that concept, and the Otonom Kol Uçucusu (OKU / Autonomous Wingman Concept) was born.
The company’s studies aim to use technology to increase operational efficiency with innovative, sustainable, and original products.
The OKU concept was born to assist the air assets in increasing their air superiority against rapidly changing and developing dynamic operational environments with symmetrical or asymmetrical threats and to assist army and naval forces effectively, which are a part of the joint mission.
The technological developments that occurred in the last twenty years gave the company new capabilities that can be used in air power to gain air superiority. TUSAŞ believes that in the next ten years, there will be a considerable change in the planning of the air operation to apply it on the field, and air forces that have adapted to the new operation concepts will be accepted for their superiority in the operational environment.
Turkish Aerospace has been developing the Autonomous Wingman Concept to initiate new products for the users, with the opportunities created by technological changes.
The Autonomous Wingman Concept is the Turkish Aerospace interpretation of the Manned Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) Concept that technological developments have made possible. It is a framework of the operational concept, technology, and standardisation approach that will enable manned and unmanned systems among the Turkish Aerospace product family to all carry-on operations together.
The essence of the Autonomous Wingman Concept is using technologies that will enable manned and unmanned platforms, which have been developed by Turkish Aerospace, to operate as a team in a way to form a concept of operation. The main focus of the operational concept is creating flight formations and task forces required by operational missions with the cooperation of manned and unmanned aircraft while providing uninterrupted, fully integrated execution of the mission.
The Autonomous Wingman Concept of Turkish Aerospace is designed to overcome the ever-increasing complexity of air operations and threats in the operational theatre while producing suitable products for this concept. Autonomous unmanned aircraft systems can be produced quickly, at low cost, and also can function together with manned combat aircraft. Standardisation of the framework increases the benefit of the concept with direct and dynamic communication, mission integration, mission sharing, and mission flexibility.
Turkish Aerospace uses Artificial intelligence, Autonomy, Sensors and data fusion. Communication, Human-machine interface technologies for this purpose;
By starting the concept development studies with Turkish Fighter, aka KAAN and ANKA III, the basics of the concept in the operational environment and the required technologies were defined. Following the definitions, it aims to implement Autonomous Wingman Concept by meeting the technical requirements.
In light of these purposes, the Autonomous Wingman Concept is stated as increasing the efficiency of the pilot in the operational environment as the decision maker, reducing the risk of the operation and the pilot’s workload. Developing a Turkish Aerospace product and setting the standards for the product family level instead of building a concept on a single platform, expanding the first step taken with KAAN and ANKA III to other platforms.
In this sense, there is the possibility to apply the OKU concept to both manned aircraft such as Hürkuş, Hürjet and KAAN along with ANKA and Super Şimşek UAVs.
This is TurDef’s Exclusive news. It might be republished by referring TurDef.
