Turkey to make two engine fighter aircraft

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Turkey to make two engine fighter aircraft

Turkish Government is set to bring about some changes in its military air crafts. This time the government has the intention of introducing the home made two engine military fighter planes. This was revealed by no other personality than the country’s undersecretary of Defence Industries procurement Agency.

The introduction of the indigenous air force fighter jet will be completed in the year 2023. The technology for the manufacture of the fighter jet will be comprised of home groomed technology.

This new Turkish Government initiative was signaled in the city of Ankara in the 15th of December 2010. The government has already taken the bold step by appointing an indigenous Aerospace company the Turkish Aerospace Industries to coordinate all the efforts towards achieving this noble objective.

The minister indicated that the government is deeply committed to the programme by allocating the sum of twenty million U.S. dollars as the cost of the project for the first two years.

The indigenous company which was assigned the responsibility of driving this project to its logical conclusion was mandated to source the engines of the aircraft from any of the reputable foreign manufacturers. The TAI has already started the preparatory processes of making the dream become a reality.

If everything goes on as planned it is possible that the new fighter jet would available for use for the country’s air force around the year 2023. The new air craft when finally put in place will replace the aging McDonnell Douglas F-4s and the Lockheed Block 30s, all belonging to the Turkish air force. This is part of the plan of the government to re-equip the military around the year 2023.

The new planes will be used along the other planes already at the possession of the air force. It is part of the 100 planes planned for the military. It will add to the already existing fleet like the F-35A among others. It is part of the policy to make the air force combat ready.

The government may be responding to a similar initiate by other countries like the South Korea. This was revealed by the Turkish minister of defence Vecdi Gonul.

He said that the country is ready to corporate and collaborate with other countries to make their dream of bringing local content to the military hardware become a reality. They are borrowing from a similar concept in South Korea called the KF-X programme.

He said that Indonesia is also experimenting with the same type of programme and expressed the country’s interest in cooperating with them.

This development is definitely not cheering news to the manufacturers of fighter Jets Company like the Euro fighter which has a high hope of landing a lasting deal with Turkey.

The government may be responding to the development in other countries. The defence minister Vecdi Gonul says Ankara is aware of South Korea’s plans to field a new fighter jets through its own KF-X programme.

In the mean time the SSM has shifted its earlier decision of purchasing 109-aircraft utility helicopter. The source close to the SSM revealed that the rival product Augusta Westland AW 149 and Sikorsky S-70 Black were very expensive adding that a renegotiation will begin in March 2011.

Turkey to make its own fighter jet | Turkey Defence

 

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Turkey again confirms buying 100 F-35 jets

Turkish defense minister has said that the Turkish Air Force is planning to buy around 100 F-35 Lightning II aircrafts.

Turkey is a member of the US led nine-nation F-35 consortium and has stated their plans to reinforce their Turkish Air Force with around 100 JSF’s. Vecdi Gonul, the Defence Minister of Turkey has responded to the questions surrounding the purchase and has stated that the maximum number of aircrafts to be bought would be 116.

He said “The original plan is to buy 100 aircraft, however, there is an option to buy an additional 16, if needed.”

The members of the JSF consortium are the United States, Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, Britain, Denmark, Norway, Canada and Australia. The Turkish Air Force has also revealed their plans of buying 30 F-16 Block 50 fighters from the JSF’s top producer – The Lockheed Martin.

Turkey confirms buying 100 F-35 JSFs | Turkey Defence

 

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F-35 complex composite structure delivered by TAI

Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc (TAI) has delivered a prototype of its first major structural element for the F-35 aircraft’s centre fuselage – the composite air inlet duct.

The prototype all-composite air inlet duct reflects the growing maturity of TAI’s composite manufacturing processes, and the steady evolution of its role as a second source supplier of centre fuselages for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme.

Northrop Grumman awarded a $28.4 million contract to the TAI in 2009 to produce the air inlet duct at its composites manufacturing facility in Ankara, Turkey.

“TAI has progressed steadily in learning the high-precision manufacturing processes required to produce parts for the most capable multi-role fighter in the world,” says Mark Tucker, vice president and F-35 programme manager for the Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems sector.

“Its continued success helps us ensure a smooth transition from our current rate of completing approximately two centre fuselages per month to an eventual rate of one centre fuselage per day.”

According to Tucker, the destructive test article will be used to validate the quality of TAI’s composite manufacturing processes. Deliveries of production quality inlet ducts are expected by the end of 2010.

Northrop Grumman provided composites manufacturing training sessions over the last two years to the TAI’s engineers and manufacturing specialists. The training was held at Northrop Grumman’s Advanced Composites Center in El Segundo, the training included rigorous classroom and hands-on work to teach the TAI employees how to fabricate an F-35 inlet duct from start to finish.

TAI is a second source supplier of F-35 air inlet ducts and centre fuselages to Northrop Grumman. The TAI will produce inlet ducts to support both the current production of centre fuselages on Northrop Grumman’s F-35 assembly line in Palmdale, California, USA, and the 400 complete centre fuselages that it will produce in Turkey.

F-35 complex composite structure delivered by TAI | Turkey Defence