President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who participated in the "Century of the Future Promotion Program" held at the Kahramankazan Central Campus of Turkish Aviation and Remote Industry (TUSAŞ), announced the name of the National Combat Aircraft (MMU) as "KAAN". Expressing that KAAN was named after Devlet Bahçeli, Erdoğan said, “KAAN and Hürjet are enough to disturb those on the other side of the water.” Erdogan said the ANKA-3 combat drone will make its first flight in the coming days.
President Erdoğan: “Today, we have reached the results that are the symbols of the future to which Veteran Mustafa Kemal pointed out by saying, 'The future is in the skies'. That's why we call it 'Istikbal' today." said.
After coming to the podium, President Erdoğan gave instructions to the pilots of HÜRJET and the National Combat Aircraft (MMU) to act by connecting.
HURJET and MMU took a taxi upon the instruction of President Erdogan.
After HÜRJET came to the stage, MMU with KAAN written on its body completed its taxi at the designated spot in front of the stage.
After KAAN and HÜRJET shut down the engine, President Erdoğan said, “Right now, HÜRJET is before us and our KAAN is in front of us. When I saw both of them in front of me, these lines of Yahya Kemal came to my mind. 'This storm is the Turkish army, O Lord/ This is the army that died for you, O Lord/So that your name will rise with the adhans/Be victorious, because this is the last army of Islam.' I wish good luck to our country, good luck to our nation." said.
President Erdoğan, to whom HÜRJET Test Pilot Ercan Çelik and MMU KAAN's Test Pilot Gökhan Bayramoğlu presented their helmets and veils, presented plaques to the pilots.
Stating that they have been giving good news in the defense industry one after the other in the last months, President Erdoğan said: “Among these is the addition of our TCG Anadolu ship to our navy. There is a successful launch of our IMECE satellite into space. There is the delivery of our Altay tank to our Armed Forces for testing. Our GÖKBEY helicopter is flying with a domestic engine. For the first time, a torpedo has been fired from an unmanned naval vehicle. Thank God, we exist on land, at sea and under the sea, in the air, in space and in every field. Today, we are in front of our nation with a new phase of our projects. Hopefully we will see many more tomorrow.” he said.
“His name is also Devlet Bey”
Noting that he has left behind important milestones in the past days with some critical projects in Turkish aviation, President Erdoğan said, “We took our National Combat Aircraft, which will be the main combat power of our Air Force, out of the hangar and had it built on the runway. We performed the first flight of our country's first manned, supersonic jet aircraft, Hürjet. How did you find it, did you like it? Thank you… These folks do it, do they believe it? We took off for the first time our heavy class attack helicopter Atak-2, which we can call the brother of our Atak Attack Helicopter.” said.
Stating that the Anka-3 Combat Unmanned Warplane made its first march after the world's first flying unmanned fighter aircraft Kızılelma, President Erdoğan said that they will take new steps to crown the proud developments, and they named "KAAN", one of which is named after his father, Devlet Bey. He stated that it was a National Combat Aircraft.
“The Red Crescent and ANKA-3 will make arm flight with KAAN”
Reminding that there are other unmanned warplanes and that Bayraktar Kızılelma took off as the world's first unmanned warplane, President Erdoğan said:
“Anka-3, which will also undertake very important tasks, will hopefully make its first flight in the coming days with our combat unmanned warplane. Kızılelma and ANKA-3 will make autonomous arm flight with KAAN. All of them will perform their duties with our domestic ammunition. Thus, we will raise the standards of armed drones to the highest level worldwide. Hürkuş, which we started to produce for friendly and allied countries, has already turned into an international platform. Soon we are giving first products to Niger and Chad. We also receive happy news from our national helicopter, Gökbey. Gökbey now flies with a turbine engine designed by our own engineers.
As you know, we have become one of the three countries in the world that can produce helicopters in this class with our 10-ton Atak-2 helicopter. There are so few countries in the world that are able to carry out the defense industry projects that we have listed one after the other, that we must be well aware of the historical transformation we are going through. As Turkey, without seeing where we came from and where we are going, we must understand the reason for the sneaky attacks we are exposed to on many topics from politics to economy, security to energy. Of course, those who have been selling us airplanes, helicopters and engines for years will no longer wait silently for them to be designed, produced and exported by ourselves. Because they know that soon we will sell these products to them as well.”
President Erdogan signed the KAAN
After his speech, President Erdoğan went to the Hürjet plane. President of Presidency of Defense Industries İsmail Demir presented a gift to President Erdoğan.
Afterwards, President Erdoğan posed for a souvenir photo with the pilots, TAI employees and protocol members in front of Hürjet.
President Erdoğan went to the National Combat Plane KAAN, met with the pilots and had their photos taken.
President Erdoğan, who signed and signed the date May 1, 2023 on the body of KAAN, then went to his cockpit. Having received information about the plane in the cockpit of KAAN, President Erdoğan waved to the journalists and posed. In the cockpit of KAAN, where he sat for a while, President Erdoğan closed the canopy and gave the pilot salute.
5th generation fighter jet KAAN
With KAAN, Turkey became one of the 5 countries that can produce aircraft at this level (5th generation).
The aircraft will be able to cooperate with platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles and “airborne warning and control” and other elements planned to be procured.
Air-to-air combat with new generation weapons, the aircraft that can perform precision strikes from internal weapon slots at supersonic speed, will provide increased combat power with artificial intelligence and neural network support.
Within the scope of this program, world-renowned test centers such as Lightning Test Facility, Radar Cross Section Test Facility and Wind Tunnel Facility are brought to the country.
After the aircraft enters the inventory, it is expected to meet the needs of the Turkish Air Force Command until the 2070s.
Turkey's first jet aircraft HÜRJET
With the jet trainer project HURJET, the design and production activities of a jet plane were carried out for the first time in Turkey.
It is aimed that HÜRJET, which will play an important role in the training process of combat pilots before taking office in the fleets, will be included in the Turkish Air Force inventory instead of the T-38 aircraft used within the scope of jet evolution training and the F-5 aircraft used in acrotim demonstrations.
With HURJET, facilities such as the Iron Bird (Iron Bird) Test Facility, engineering and training simulators, fuel test facility, and bird impact test facility were brought into the country. In addition, capabilities such as canopy mechanism durability, environmental control system and accessory gearbox production are also being developed.
Within the scope of HÜRJET development, the jet aircraft flight control system, flight control computer, “active side stick” and actuator controller development, actuator integration and inertial sensor system were developed with national means and capability acquisition was realized.
The platform will be put into use with domestic and national means to train pilots who will use 5th Generation warplanes, especially the National Combat Aircraft.
ANKA-3 unmanned fighter aircraft
ANKA-3 was developed as the third member of the ANKA family of unmanned aerial vehicles.
ANKA-3, which is faster thanks to its jet engine and has a high payload capacity, will be less visible on the radar with its tailless structure.
ANKA-3, which can detect friendly and enemy air elements, will be able to perform reconnaissance, surveillance and intelligence, attack with different air-ground munitions, and engaged hunting scans with air-air munitions and counter-aircraft.
The ANKA-3 system, which can perform many tasks such as operation and communication relay together with friendly elements, can be controlled with the same ground systems as ANKA and AKSUNGUR.
Heavy class attack helicopter ATAK-2
ATAK-2 was designed with domestic and national capabilities in line with the objectives of increased payload and ammunition capacity, modern avionics systems, reduced logistics costs and high performance.
It is aimed that ANKA-3, which can meet the demands for missions to be carried out in hot and high geographical conditions and adverse weather conditions, will be competitive and innovative compared to similar helicopters with its modern avionics systems.
With the heavy-class attack helicopter, Turkey's experience in attack tactical and reconnaissance helicopters will be deepened.
With the ATAK-2, Turkey became one of the three countries producing helicopters at this level.