photo: Turkish Aerospace Industries
The first flight of the newest ANKA-3 drone with a Ukrainian engine took place in Turkey.
Source: Bloomberg, “European Truth”
Details: ANKA-3 was developed by the state-owned Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) and is equipped with an engine from the Ukrainian enterprise Ivchenko-Progress.
The debut flight lasted more than an hour, during which the drone reached an altitude of 2.4 kilometers and a speed of 150 knots.
The development of ANKA-3 has been shrouded in secrecy, with TAI first releasing photographs of it in March this year.
The drone is designed to perform reconnaissance, observation and combat missions. It will be able to fly at altitudes of up to almost 12 kilometers and stay in the air for up to 10 hours, carrying a payload of up to 1,200 kilograms.
The development of new drones is one of the priorities of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is seeking to develop Turkey's defense industry, in particular to modernize its aging air force.
According to the agency, the debut flight of the Turkish-made Kaan fighter is scheduled for January.
Let's remember: Earlier it became known that Turkey applied to the United States for permission to jointly produce GE Aerospace engines, which are used in F-16 aircraft, because it wants to install them on fighters of its own production.
The media also reported that Erdogan, during a visit to Berlin in November, could ask German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to lift the ban on the sale of at least 20 Eurofighter Typhoon fighters.
