Turkey’s Baykar begins designing AI-powered combat drone

ANKARA, Turkey — A Turkish drone maker has begun the conceptual design phase of what it hopes will become the country’s first combat drone.

Haluk Bayraktar, the general manager of Baykar Savunma, said Feb. 28 that the aircraft is the firm’s “top priority program.”

The privately owned company will complete the conceptual design phase by 2023, the centennial of the Turkish republic, he added.

The planned drone will fly at an operational altitude of 40,000 feet. The artificial intelligence-powered aircraft will be able to perform missions for five hours, and will be connected to a satellite communications data network.

The fighter aircraft is expected to reach a cruise speed of 0.8 Mach and carry a maximum of 1 ton of ammunition. It would be used in close air support, strategic assault, hostile air defense system attack and missile assault missions.

Baykar’s program comes as Turkey faces uncertainties about its new-generation fighter requirements. The United States suspended Turkey’s partnership in the Joint Strike Fighter program that builds the F-35 due to Turkey’s purchase of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system.

Turkey is also running an indigenous fighter jet program, the TF-X, but this ambitious project has been crawling over technological snags and financing constraints.

BAE Systems helped TF-X with its conceptual design phase under a $125 million program, but Turkish authorities are yet to select an engine, which must come before additional progress is made in the design phase.

Burak Ege Bekdil was the Turkey correspondent for Defense News.

土耳其安卡拉——一家土耳其无人机制造商已经开始了其希望成为该国首款作战无人机的概念设计阶段。

Baykar Savunma 的总经理 Haluk Bayraktar 于 2 月 28 日表示，该飞机是公司的“首要项目”。

他补充说，这家私营公司将在 2023 年，即土耳其共和国成立一百周年之际，完成概念设计阶段。

计划中的无人机将在4万英尺的作业高度飞行。这款人工智能驱动的无人机能够执行长达5小时的任务，并将连接到卫星通信数据网络。

该战斗机预计巡航速度可达0.8马赫，最大载弹量为1吨。它将被用于近距离空中支援、战略突击、敌方防空系统攻击和导弹突击任务。

拜卡尔的这项计划正值土耳其面临新一代战斗机需求不确定性之际。由于土耳其购买了俄罗斯制造的S-400防空系统，美国暂停了土耳其参与联合攻击战斗机（JSF）项目（该项目旨在建造F-35战斗机）的合作。

土耳其也在推进一项名为 TF-X 的国产战斗机项目，但这项雄心勃勃的项目一直受到技术难题和资金限制的困扰。

BAE Systems 在一项价值 1.25 亿美元的计划下帮助 TF-X 完成了概念设计阶段，但土耳其当局尚未选定发动机，这必须在设计阶段取得进一步进展之前完成。

布拉克·埃格·贝克迪尔是《防务新闻》的土耳其记者。