President of Defence Industries İsmail Demir has announced the plans to land and take-off Hürjet (Advanced Jet Trainer and Light Attack Aircraft) from TCG Anadolu. ( Multipurpose Amphibious Assault Ship / former Landing Helicopter Dock/LHD) He also mentioned that STOVL (Short Takeoff Vertical Landing) Harriers are considered ineffective and costly. No further information was shared. Further information came from Turkish Aerospace (TUSAŞ).
Today Yasin Kaygusuz, TUSAŞ System Engineering Manager has talked to Yıldız Üniversity, Defence Industry Summit. Kaygusuz stated that they have conducted a study to see if Hürjet could land and take-off from a short runway. He underlined that they need more developed landing gear. Kaygusuz reminded Hürjet’s main goals and added, “we have seen that Hürjet may land to an aircraft carrier in case Turkey needs. The requirement should be specified. We cannot decide on our own.”
Kaygusuz’s words “short-runway” and “more developed landing gear” indicate that the naval version of Hürjet is envisaged as a conventional aircraft carrier version unlike F-35B or AV-8B Harrier II.
On the other hand, TCG Anadolu is built with a ski-jump and lacks a catapult system. It is not clear whether Hürjet naval variant is calculated for catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery operations from aircraft carriers.
