Mass production of the Add-on armor for the Leopard 2A4 by Roketsan has started.
Turkey Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
More and more customers are coming...
Knocking it out of the park with this one. Will every country that borders Russia on the west get one??!!!
Perhaps...
Not far fetched though. It's the cheapest weapons platform one can buy to effectively counter Soviet/Russian weaponry and their associated (hybrid) tactics, which they've displayed during the last 10 years.
Perhaps...
Not far fetched though. It's the cheapest weapons platform one can buy to effectively counter Soviet/Russian weaponry and their associated (hybrid) tactics, which they've displayed during the last 10 years.
Especially for smaller Eastern European countries this is a far more cost-effective solution at countering Russian armor than investing in dedicated manned attack aircraft/attack helos.
Do you know if they are purchasing the EW suite alongside with the TB-2s?
Not that I know of, but highly unlikely IMO.
Interview with the vice-head of the UAV department of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI)
Important points:
Important points:
- The Anka-S is now called Anka Next Generation, 75 Anka's ordered and thus far 28 delivered (all variants).
- The Anka-NG has improved payload capacity from 250 to 350 kg and a 30+ hour flight endurance thanks to improvements to the wings and engine.
- The Aksungur serial production will have better endurance of up to 60 hours compared to the prototypes 49 hours. The serial production variants will be several hundreds of kilograms lighter and will have more powerful engines. With a 12 MAM-L load it will improve its endurance from 28 hours for the (2) prototypes to more than 30 hours for the serial production. The max ceiling is 45000ft.
- 4 Aksungurs are planned to be serial produced before the end of the year. MTOW is 3300kg and max payload is 750kg.
- There are requests to shift the production of some Anka's into the Aksungur. TAI is currently evaluating these requests.
- The Aksungur can use the ground-station of the Anka. Only 10 hours of additional training is needed for Anka pilots to use the Aksungur. The Anka and Aksungur share a lot of common equipment and thus maintenance is easier.
- The Turkish navy is currently integrating sonobuoys on the Aksungur and they will be ready for use in the next several months.
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IMO, TAI has been severely underperforming with the Anka. Contract signed for the development in 2004, first flight in 2010 that ended in a crash. 11 years later, only 28 have been delivered to the Turkish military. It seems TAI is redeeming itself with the Anka-NG and Aksungur. Not long ago we could see Anka number 59 in production at TAI, so it seems they are ramping up production. Luckily, Turkey has another UAV producer that is more successful..