Turkish UAV & UCAV Developments

[snne]

MURAD's F-16 version, on the other hand, was tested/is being tested on a transport aircraft (C-130 or a CN-235; I don't know which one). So, the "Radars will be tested on Akıncı first" thing is long gone and rejected by the Air Force quite a while ago. SSB officials can say whatever they want, but the reality is different.

Here's a photo of a console inside the CN-235 that was used as a test-bed.

See below:

Images from the tests of the MURAD-100A AESA radar at ASELSAN facilities.
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Also been tested inflight onboard a transport aircraft, i believe in a similar fashion as to S.Koreans with the radar facing out the rear cargo bay doors
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[had]

Good to know they intend to use a proper airborne radar testbed for the KAAN radar, I missed that. Better late than never I guess, for a fighter which intends (Edit) to be operational (Edit) in 3.5 years.

But be realistic, you can’t finalize an AESA radar by having a console in a transport aircraft, facing the radar out of the cargo bay doors. (S. Koerans might, with much of US help)
In my opinion, the Akinci is the airborne radar testbed for the MURAD-100A. Fine tuning all the different modes like for air-to-air and air-to-ground etc. for the first time and therefore have a base for the KAAN radar.

 

[snne]

Good to know they intend to use a proper airborne radar testbed for the KAAN radar, I missed that. Better late than never I guess, for a fighter which intends to fly in 3.5 years.

Kaan's MURAD-600A is currently in the CDR phase, it is supposed to be fitted on the Kaan and fly in 2026. 2028 is when the delivery of the initial batch of 10-20 planes to the Air Force is going to happen.

 

[snne]

Indeed, because last time I heard, they started the tests last year sometime around late spring or early summer, but afaik, those were more of a fit-checks with a non-functioning engineering sample. Now that they have started releasing videos, we can say that they have begun flight tests with the real radar. Companies release public information either at the very beginning of a project or after a certain milestone is reached. I believe it is the latter in this case.

I think the year long delay happened because they had to change the cooling (but I'm certainly no expert in this topic). I couldn't find specific articles detailing the conversion of an airborne FCR's cooling system from liquid to air.

@stealthflanker any guesses?

 

[Combat-Master]

I think the year long delay happened because they had to change the cooling (but I'm certainly no expert in this topic). I couldn't find specific articles detailing the conversion of an airborne FCR's cooling system from liquid to air.

@stealthflanker any guesses?

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It's still liquid cooled, the air passes through the heat exchanger to cool it down. What's more interesting is that they are using Akinci-A prototype with 2x AI-450C engines to power it, would of expected something little beefier to power MURAD.

 

[Combat-Master]

"Bayraktar KEMANKEŞ 1 - Artificial Intelligence-Based Mini Cruise Missile | Cruise Test"

https://twitter.com/x/status/1896151950737219740

View: https://x.com/BaykarTech/status/1896151950737219740