Historic launch from KIZILELMA

The Bayraktar KIZILELMA unmanned combat aircraft, one of the best examples of its kind worldwide, continues to be equipped with highly advanced features. In the test conducted recently, TEBER-82 and TOLUN ammunition were successfully fired from the internal weapons bays.

Defense Industry Expert Ahmet Alemdar, in answering this question, first draws a general framework. He says that internal weapons bays are one of the distinguishing features of 5th generation combat aircraft and new generation unmanned combat aerial vehicles. More precisely, this capability is one of the most important differences separating new generation aerial vehicles from existing 4th generation platforms.

Carrying ammunition or other payloads on the wings of an aircraft is almost a standard practice. Consequently, every element outside the aircraft brings with it the disadvantage of being more visible to the adversary. Not only that. Every external load increases drag and negatively affects flight performance in terms of range, speed, and other factors.

Alemdar points out that when the ammunition is placed inside the fuselage, the platform’s radar cross-section decreases. “In this test firing, BAYKAR not only demonstrated the technology of special coating paint or aerodynamic design. At the same time, a critical combat capability was applied with all of these. In other words, a combat structure that adversary radars could detect later was demonstrated,” he says.

Ahmet Alemdar also underlines that there is a special pylon system developed by ASELSAN for firing from KIZILELMA’s internal bays. He shares the information that thanks to this, not 1 but 4 munitions can be carried on a single pylon. The fact that these munitions can be armor-piercing, concrete-piercing, or capable of electronic warfare is one of the most critical points of the matter.

It’s no secret that the Turkish defense industry is a ‘golden key’ in Ankara’s foreign policy. Alemdar indicates that KIZILELMA’s potential export story will also take shape this way. And he concludes his words as follows:

“KIZILELMA has become even more strategic with its internal multi-pylon system. As it will be remembered, signatures were made for its sale to Indonesia. Thus, it went down in history as ‘the world’s first unmanned combat aircraft sale.’

Many countries are interested in Türkiye’s pet project. In fact, as reflected in the public, there are quite a few requests to partner with the project. BAYKAR will first make this project, developed with its own resources, available to the Turkish Armed Forces, and then to Türkiye’s strategic friends and allies.”

ANEWS wp:paragraph