Turkey’s Baykar company flew a new uncrewed fighter drone on Wednesday for the first time and says it could change air power. The Kizilelma drone is as big as an F-16 (more than 48 feet long) but is 6,000 pounds lighter. It’s capable of carrying out air-to-ground and air-to-air missions. It’s also capable of carrier operations. “Our 20-year dream in our national drone adventure has come true today,” said Baykar’s chief technical official Selcuk Bayraktar.
L'aereo è un canard design, utilizza un motore turbofan Ivchenko-Progress progettato in Ucraina e trasporterà fino a 3.400 libbre di armi. È anche furtivo e progettato per operazioni a corto raggio. La Turchia sta ora conducendo prove in mare di una nave d'assalto anfibia in grado di ospitare la Kizilelma.
