Turkish Defence Ministry released photos from the delivery ceremony, which was conducted in the Turkish Naval Aviation Command. After delivery, the drone inventory of the Turkish Navy increased to 20, two Aksungur UCAVs, ten TB2-BAYRAKTAR UCAVs, four ANKA-S UAVs, and four ANKA-B UAVs.
Turkish Aerospace CEO Temel Kotil remarked in a February interview on TV that a total of five Aksungur UCAVs have been delivered and will be used by the Turkish Navy, the Turkish Air Force, and for special missions.
As previously reported by Naval News, the Turkish Navy has acquired its first Aksungur UCAV on 20 October 2021.
With its large payload capacity, Aksungur can undertake continuous multi-role intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and assault missions and give operational flexibility outside the line of sight with its SATCOM payload. Due to its high endurance of flying there is a major expectation from Aksungur UCAV to boost the Turkish Navy’s reconnaissance capabilities.
Turkish Aerospace has currently been working on delivering Anti-submarine Warfare (ASW) capability to Aksungur. After completing the project, Aksungur will launch and monitor sonobuoys and share the information gained from sonobuoys with other ASW assets in the area. The exact timetable is yet to be known; according to the statements of TAI officials at different times, TAI expects to carry out the actual sonobuoy launch in the first half of 2022. If TAI’s goal is met, Aksungur will be the second operational UAV to launch a sonobuoy. General Atomics’ MQ-9B SeaGuardian deployed and released sonobuoys in early 2021.
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
About Anka:
Anka is a medium altitude, long endurance UAV program (MALE). The UAV program is a three-aircraft prototype development project that aims to design and develop all ground systems according to defined requirements and complete prototype and development testing. The program includes “concept design,” “preliminary design and development,” and “testing and evaluation” phases. During the development phase, a system integration laboratory (SEL) has been established to develop, interconnect and integrate all systems.
ANKA is a combat-proven platform that performs in operations including GNSS denied and other electronic warfare environments. ANKA has accumulated 90,000+ flight hours (March 2021) with high mission availability and has taken its rightful place in multiple end user´s inventories.
Technical Information:
- Wing Span: 17.5m
- Horizontal Length: 8.6m
- Height: 3.25m
- Endurance: 30+ hours, with 350+ kg of external payload 12 hours at 25 kft
- Engine: 1 x PD-170 Dual Turbo Diesel Engine
- Max Takeoff Flight: 1700 kg
- Mission Altitude: 18,000 – 23,000 ft
- Service Ceiling: >30.000 ft
Payload Options:
- ISR Payloads: EO/IR/LD/LRF Camera, SAR/GMTI-ISAR Radar, Wide Area Surveillance Camera
- Electronic Warfare: ESM / EA (Electronic Support Measure and Electronic Attack), ComJam (Communication Jamming)
- Weapons: Precision Guided Bombs, Laser Guided Rockets, Anti-tank missiles
- Operation Support: Wideband SATCOM up to 20 Mbps, PLS (Personnel Locator System), VHF/ UHF Radio Relay, Digital Data Recorder, Remote Video Terminal, Redundant Narrow Band
Satellite Transceiver, Communication Pod, MALD (Miniature Air Launch Decoy)
