As of: February 24, 2024, 5:00 a.m
By: Erkan Pehlivan
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The “Kaan” fighter jet completes its maiden flight.
Before the local elections in Turkey, the aircraft is primarily intended to give President Erdogan a boost.
Ankara – Turkey wants to produce its own so-called 5th generation fighter jets.
That is why the “Kaan” is considered a prestige project for the Turkish defense industry.
The plane took off for the first time on Tuesday (February 20).
The Kaan is also an alternative to the American F-35.
However, Turkey was excluded from the F-35 program after it acquired the Russian S-400 air defense system.
Now Ankara even has problems buying F-16 fighter jets from the USA.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government were all the more pleased.
“Today we witnessed one of the proudest days of the Turkish defense industry,” Erdogan wrote on X, announcing further tests for the Kaan.
“A historic day for the Turkish defense industry!
The Turkish 5th generation stealth fighter jet has successfully completed its maiden flight.
We are proud of everyone involved,” his Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek also wrote on X.
Kaan – Western technique modified in Turkey
But there is also criticism of the Kaan, especially because it is initially just a prototype and doesn't contain a lot of Turkish technology.
The Kaan was designed by BAE Systems from Great Britain and its software comes from the French company Dassault, explains security expert Özge Kilinc in an interview with
fr.de
from
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
“The F110-GE engines come from the USA, which are also installed in the F-16 fighter jets.” Western technologies are installed in the Kaan that were only modified in Turkey.
Kilinc was editor-in-chief of the former military magazine
Turkish Defense
and a reporter for the former industry magazine
Savunma ve Havacılık
.
The “Kaan” fighter jet is supposed to save the local elections for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
© dpa/Marton Monus
Currently the prototype is not yet a 5th generation fighter aircraft.
It is still visible on the radar screen and still does not meet the other requirements for it, says the expert.
“It is not easy to immediately produce a fifth generation fighter aircraft if you have not previously produced first, second, third and fourth generation fighter aircraft.
This all looks like election propaganda.”
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Kaan will not be able to replace F-16 from the USA
In addition, the Kaan will not be able to replace the existing F-16s or those ordered from the USA so quickly.
“Ultimately, just ten machines will be manufactured by 2029,” says Kilinc.
That will prove difficult.
It is not yet clear whether the Kaan will have its own engine by then, for example, or whether a foreign company will supply it.
Other experts are also skeptical as to whether the Kaan is a fifth-generation miracle weapon.
Because of the cockpit design, the desired semi-stealth capability of the Kaan probably cannot be achieved, writes Remzi Barlas, who was previously chief engineer for drones for the state aviation group TAI (Turkish Aerospace Industries), in a post on Linkedin.
This is also the company that received the order for the Kaan.
Barlas was fired from the state-owned company and later had to go to prison for two months.
He was accused of “espionage”.
The engineer had made himself unpopular because he accused the government of favoring the “Baykar” company when building military drones.
Incidentally, the company belongs to the family of Erdogan's son-in-law Selcuk Bayraktar, which also builds the famous "Bayraktar-TB2".
Turkish technology for Kaan is not fully developed
“It is unclear when ASELSAN’s Active Electronic Scanning Array (AESA) radar, which is the backbone of the aircraft’s main strike capability, will reach full capability.
Two F-110 engines, which are also used on F-16 aircraft, have been temporarily deployed to Kaan/MMU, but it is not possible to achieve the range and load capacity originally targeted for the aircraft with these engines,” said Barlas .
It currently appears to be impossible to procure an engine with the performance intended when the aircraft was designed.
“Even if an engine is found for this aircraft, initial operational capability will be achieved in ten years at best,” says Barlas.
“Considering that domestic engine development at TEI (TUSAS Engine Industries Inc.) will continue for many years, the more likely period is around 15 years.”
Arms industry as an advertising platform for Erdogan
The Kaan will be presented ahead of the upcoming local elections on March 31st.
All the more reason why political calculations are suspected in the performance of the Kaan.
“The defense industry was Erdoğan's main propaganda platform in the last elections.
The first flight of the Kaan aircraft was postponed several times.
The reason for these postponements was that the first flight should take place before the elections.
Although the flight is technically problematic, it is important for propaganda,” says Turkish investigative journalist Cevheri Güven, who lives in exile in Germany.
And Erdogan has a lot planned.
On April 1st, the metropolis of Istanbul and the capital Ankara should be back in the hands of his AKP.
(erpe)