On 14 December 2022, Baykar Technology (BaykarTech) announced that it carried out the maiden test flight of its unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), the Bayraktar Kızılelma.
BaykarTech’s CEO, Haluk Bayraktar, said that the company lifted the Bayraktar Kızılelma from the drawing board and into the skies in a record time of just one year. The company’s CTO, Selçuk Bayraktar, said that with the Kızılelma, Türkiye “has stepped into the domain of unmanned fighter aircraft, which is ushering in the future of air combat. It has opened the doors to this new world.”
Undoubtedly, the Kızılelma’s flight signifies a key breakthrough for BaykarTech, Türkiye’s wider aerospace industry, and, not least, Türkiye’s airpower growth.
Background on the Bayraktar Kızılelma
The origins of the Kızılelma date back to at least 2015, if not earlier. Türkiye’s government set a goal for the country’s defence industry to design and develop a robust ecosystem of drones.
One of these drones was to be a jet-powered platform designed for high-risk missions, such as suppression and/or destruction of enemy air defence systems (i.e., SEAD and DEAD).
BaykarTech had committed itself to developing such a drone.
The early design proposals had centered on a jet-powered platform called Muharip İnsansız Uçak Sistemi (MİUS). The MİUS had a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 3,000 kg to 4,000 kg, a payload of 1,000 kg, an endurance of 4 to 5 hours, a flight ceiling of 40,000 ft, and cruising speed of Mach 0.8.
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