Turkish Aerospace exhibited the Aksungur MALE UAV fitted with various types of payloads including the sonobuoy pod for anti-submarine warfare (ASW). The pod on the drone was a model of the sonobuoy system which is currently under development.
Aksungur is a high-capability drone developed by Turkey’s defense industry and currently used by the Turkish Armed Forces. Since October 2021, the Turkish Navy has been operating Aksungur. Its long endurance in the air, which exceeds 60 hours, makes it useful not only for ISR missions but also for anti-submarine warfare.
Turkish Aerospace has been working on outfitting Aksungur with a sonobuoy monitoring and launching system for about 2 years in order to increase Aksungur’s efficiency in ASW. The project is divided into three phases. Aksungur is expected to gain sonobuoy monitoring capability in the first phase, which means it will be able to collect data from sonobuoys and relay it to the control station without processing. The second phase involves processing the data collected from the sonobuoys. In the third phase, it will be able to launch a real sonobuoy, monitor and process the data, and relay it to the other naval units.
The most surprising development about Aksungur is the addition of a torpedo to the drone. Naval News learned that Turkish Aerospace is working on mounting a very light torpedo on the drone. Turkish Aerospace officials claim that after fitting sonobuoys and torpedoes to Aksungur, it will be able to conduct Maritime Patrol Aircraft efficiently. The officials didn’t reveal details about the project but claimed that they are exercising the options for the details of the new capability.
Here is the video coverage of Aksungur at NAVDEX 2023:
About Aksungur:
Derived from TAI’s combat-proven ANKA UAV, AKSUNGUR is a Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) class UAV System, capable of performing day and night Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and strike missions with EO/IR, SAR and SIGINT payloads, and a variety of air to ground weapons. ANKA-AKSUNGUR is powered by two PD-170 twin-turbocharged diesel engines enabling long-endurance operations up to 40,000ft.
Thanks to the know-how gained from ANKA, TAI developed the Aksungur in 18 months. It made its maiden flight in 2019 and has reached 1000 flight hours since then. During trials, it carried out the live firing at 20,000ft altitude and hit the naval target successfully with a KGK-SIHA-82 guided munition at a range of 30km in the Black Sea on 25 April.
Technical Information:
- Wing Span: 24m
- Horizontal Length: 11.6m
- Endurance: >50 hours, with 750 kg of external payload 12 hours at 25 kft
- Engine: 2 x PD-170 Dual Turbo Diesel Engine (170 Horse Power each)
- Max Takeoff Flight: 3300 kg
- Service Ceiling: >40.000 ft
Weapons package:
Aksungur has 3 hardpoints on each wing with 500 kg, 300 kg and 150 kg capacities.
- Teber 81 and 82 guidance kits for laser-guided Mk 81 and 82 bombs
- MAM-L (16 km) and MAM-C (30 km) smart munitions
- L-UMTAS laser-guided missile
- Cirit laser-guided missile
- KGK-82 Wing Assisted Guidance Kit
- Small diameter bombs
