Bayraktar KIZILELMA’s tests in the sky continue. In this context, Turkey’s first unmanned warplane made its third flight at the AKINCI Flight Training and Test Center in Çorlu, Tekirdağ.
In the third flight conducted under the management of Baykar Chairman of the Board and Technology Leader Selçuk Bayraktar, Bayraktar KIZILELMA successfully completed the Medium Altitude System Identification Test by ascending to an altitude of 20 thousand feet. Bayraktar AKINCI, accompanying the flight test, watched Bayraktar KIZILELMA in the sky with his camera.
“We aim for mass production in 2024”
Baykar Chairman of the Board of Directors and Technology Leader Selçuk Bayraktar made statements about the flight after the successful completion of the test:
“Bayraktar KIZILELMA has successfully completed the medium altitude system identification test. This was the third test we performed. From now on, many tests will continue as part of our development activities. Hopefully, at the beginning of 2024, we aim to start the mass production of KIZILELMA.
In addition, we are preparing for the first flight of Bayraktar TB3, which will be the world’s first SİHA capable of landing and taking off from ships with short runways, whose first flight we are eagerly awaiting. Good luck to all these developments for our country and our nation.”
“Bayraktar TB3 and KIZILELMA at TEKNOFEST”
Selçuk Bayraktar invited all of Turkey to TEKNOFEST: “Bayraktar TB3 and Bayraktar KIZILELMA will hopefully meet our nation at TEKNOFEST, which will take place between April 27 and May 1 in Istanbul. We invite our entire nation to TEKNOFEST, Istanbul, Atatürk Airport, which is the center of the National Technology Move, where the heart of technology beats.”
flew in record time
Bayraktar KIZILELMA project, which Baykar set out with 100 percent equity capital, started in 2021. Bayraktar KIZILELMA, with tail number TC-ÖZB, which came off the production line on November 14, 2022, was transferred to AKINCI Flight Training and Test Center in Çorlu.
After successfully completing the ground tests here, it made its first flight on 14 December 2022. Bayraktar KIZILELMA met with the sky in a record time like a year. It successfully completed the System Identification Test with its second flight on January 23, 2022.
Bayraktar KIZILELMA will be a platform that will revolutionize the battlefield with its landing and take-off capability, especially for ships with short runways.
Bayraktar KIZILELMA, which has been developed to have the ability to land and take off on short-runway ships such as the TCG Anadolu ship, which Turkey has built and is currently conducting cruise tests, will play an important role in overseas missions thanks to this capability.
With this capability, it will have a strategic role in protecting the Blue Homeland.
low radar visibility
Bayraktar KIZILELMA will successfully accomplish the most challenging missions thanks to the low radar signature it will obtain from its design.
Turkey’s first unmanned fighter aircraft, which is aimed to have a take-off weight of 6 tons, will use all nationally developed ammunition and will be a great power multiplier with a planned 1500 kilogram payload capacity. The unmanned fighter aircraft will also have high situational awareness with the national AESA radar.
Balances will change on the battlefield
Bayraktar KIZILELMA, which can perform air-air combat like manned warplanes with aggressive maneuvers unlike unmanned aerial vehicles, will also provide effectiveness against air targets with domestic air-air munitions.
With these abilities, he will change the balance on the battlefield. It will have a multiplier effect on Turkey’s deterrence.
Export record
Baykar, as a result of a competitive process, left its American, European and Chinese competitors behind and started 2023 with the export contract for Bayraktar TB2 of 370 million dollars, with the agreement signed with the Kuwait Ministry of Defense.
Baykar, which has been carrying out all its projects with its own resources from the beginning to the present, has obtained 75% of all its revenues from exports since the beginning of the UAV R&D process in 2003.
In 2021, it became the export leader of the defense and aerospace industry, according to the data of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM). Baykar, whose export rate was 99.3% in the contracts signed in 2022, made exports of 1.18 billion dollars.
Baykar, which is the biggest exporter of the defense and aerospace industry, has a turnover of 1.4 billion dollars in 2022. Export agreements have been signed with 28 countries for Bayraktar TB2 SİHA and with 6 countries for Bayraktar AKINCI TİHA.
