Turkey’s Kizilelma Drone Fighter for Aircraft Carriers

 

Turkey’s Baykar Company has begun ground tests of its Bayraktar Kizilelma drone, described as the country’s first unmanned fighter aircraft. Accompanying imagery of the tests, at the Akinci Flight Training and Test Center in the northwestern province of Tekirdag, which included taxi runs ahead of its first flight, provide us with our best look so far at this unique uncrewed air vehicle. This would appear to be aimed at a range of combat roles and which is also supposedly being developed for operations from aircraft carriers.

The Kizilelma meaning Red Apple in Turkish has been developed by Baykar, which is responsible for the Bayraktar TB2 that has seen notable combat success in the hands of Azerbaijan and Ukraine, as well as the larger Bayraktar Akinci. The Kizilelma is a very different proposition, however, claimed to be supersonic, having a degree of reduced-observable characteristics, and tailored for the kinds of air combat missions typically undertaken by manned fighter jets.

The Kizilelma has a canard-delta configuration, of the kind seen on some other reduced-observable combat aircraft designs, including China’s J-20 manned fighter and mysterious Dark Sword drone. The use of canards is a tradeoff between low observability and maneuverability, although some measures can be taken to limit their impact on radar signature. The tail surfaces consist of canted vertical stabilizers.

According to the technical requirements, the Kizilelma should have an endurance of five to six hours, a combat radius of 500 nautical miles, and a service ceiling of 35,000 feet. Maximum takeoff weight is 13,000 pounds. Weapons are likely to include examples of the wide range of air-to-ground precision munitions and air-to-air missiles developed by Turkish industry.

While the first prototype Kizilelma, and other early versions, are expected to be powered by a non-afterburning Ivchenko-Progress AI-25TLT turbofan, this is planned to be replaced on later versions by an afterburning Ivchenko-Progress AI-322F, which should ensure supersonic performance.

This is not something that we see typically in UCAVs, with the possible exception of the MQ-28 Ghost Bat, at least to some degree.

More broadly, it’s unclear if the overall concept of the Kizilelma is based on a ‘loyal wingman’-type drone companion to manned fighters, or if the drone will be controlled from a ground station, or even if it will be expected to shoot down hostile aircraft with some degree of autonomy.  

The first flight is scheduled to take place next year. That goal would seem achievable, based on the fact that a prototype is now undergoing ground tests.

According to Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper, the taxi tests and ground runs have actually been completed, although this can’t be confirmed. In a video posted to his Twitter account, Selcuk Bayraktar, Baykar’s chief technology officer, said that the first takeoff roll test was planned to be conducted at slower speeds but that “we exceeded that limit” and that the “first autonomous taxi and takeoff roll test” had been successfully accomplished.  

The fast and high-flying Kizilelma is planned to have an air-to-air combat capability, as well as conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike operations. Reportedly, the drone will be fitted with some kind of active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar.

Another significant aspect of the Kizilelma is its claimed short takeoff and landing capability, which would allegedly allow it to operate from small-deck aircraft carriers like the Turkish Navy’s Anadolu amphibious assault ship, which features a ‘ski jump’ takeoff ramp at the bow.

Reports from Turkey suggest that the military initially wants to operate smaller Bayraktar TB2 drones from the Anadolu, and it’s unclear what degree of modifications would be required to the ship and to the Kizilelma to allow this larger and heavier drone to go to sea.

Overall, the Kizilelma is an interesting approach to designing a high-speed tactical (UCAV). It seems to combine features typical of reduced signature (rather than low-observable) design with an airframe and powerplant that should ensure a high level of performance.