TAI Aksungur


The TAI Aksungur is an unmanned combat aerial vehicle built by Turkish Aerospace Industries for the Turkish Armed Forces. Using existing technology from the TAI Anka series of drones, it is the manufacturer's largest drone with payload capacity for mission-specific equipment. It is intended to be used for long-term intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance, electronic warfare, signals intelligence, maritime patrol and drone strike missions. TAI planned to integrate weapon packages and put the Aksungur into production in early 2020. The first unit was delivered to the Turkish Naval Forces on 20 October 2021. The aircraft used common avionics architecture and ground segment with TAI Anka and TAI Anka-3. The aircraft is capable of conducting autonomous operations including automatic take-off and landing.

Development

Aksungur, Turkish for gyrfalcon, is classified as a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle. It is designed and manufactured by Turkish Aerospace Industries for tactical surveillance and reconnaissance missions of the Turkish Armed Forces. The Aksungur has twin turbocharged engines with a twin boom configuration.
Developing the UAV took 18 months. The airframe, wing and landing gear are new designs, while control systems are from the existing TAI Anka family of drones. A new turbodiesel engine is also in development for the programme, with initial flight tests of the airframe using an existing engine. Two prototypes were manufactured for testing purposes. Its maiden flight, displaying automatic takeoff and landing capabilities, took place on 20 March 2019, and lasted four hours and twenty minutes. Reportedly, a second test flight of three hours was performed on 3 April the same year. It was introduced at the 2019 International Defence Industry Fair in Istanbul, Turkey, on 30 April. CNN Türk reported ongoing flight tests in July 2019, with the manufacturer anticipating a total of 50 to 60 tests by the end of the year. The UAV is planned to go into series production by the first quarter of 2020.

Design

The aircraft is long and high when resting on its landing gear. The high-mounted wings have a slight dihedral angle and a wingspan of. The wings end with small winglets. The centralized fuselage is under the wings and houses avionics, camera and sensors systems, with a chin-mounted camera blister. Fuel is stored in the fuselage and wings. A turbocharged engine is mounted under each wing, with the engine nacelles each extending backward into a tail boom. These tail booms terminate in vertical stabilizers, with a horizontal tailplane joining them. The tricycle landing gear retracts into the engine nacelles and the nose of the aircraft while in flight.
The aircraft is powered by two forward-mounted TEI-PD170 dual-turbocharged diesel engines developed by Tusaş Engine Industries, equipped with three-bladed propellers in a tractor configuration. According to the manufacturer, these enable the Aksungur to cruise at a maximum speed of and carry a maximum payload of to an altitude of, or ascend to with a payload. The aircraft's designed maximum payload is 375% greater than that of its predecessor; its maximum takeoff weight is. It is rated to stay aloft 12 hours as an attack aircraft or maritime patrol aircraft and 24 hours during signals intelligence missions.
Remote control of the UAV is performed by DO-178B compatible software on DO-254 compatible ground control station and hardware using double backed-up encrypted digital data link. Optional beyond-visual-range operation flexibility is available via communications satellite.
TAI expects to integrate weapon systems typical of F-4 and F-16 fighter aircraft onto Aksungur in the last quarter of 2019.
Three hardpoints are situated under each wing for attaching external payloads, such as munitions or sonar buoys. These hardpoints are rated for loads of. Proposed armaments include TEBER-81, TEBER-82, LUMTAS, MAM-L, Roketsan Cirit, MAM-C, HGK-3, KGK, and miniature bomb.

Operational history

In October 2022, Turkey deployed Aksungur drones in the Aegean Sea to place Sonobuoy in order to find Greek submarines.
In November 2023, a Turkish Navy Aksungur, serial TCB883, crashed in North Iraq.
In May 2024, a Turkish Army Aksungur was shot down by PKK at Qandil Mountains region of Iraq during an anti-terror operation of the Army.
In August 2024, another Aksungur drone was shot down by Iraqi Army Pantsir Air Defence system in Kirkuk.

Operators

Chadian Air Force released footage of its Aksungur fleet in April 2024.

Future operators

Specifications