Recently, the first prototype of the Kizilelma stealth unmanned fighter developed by Turkey's Baykar company successfully completed the high-speed taxiing test, laying the foundation for the next step of the first flight. Because
has many similarities with China's fifth-generation stealth fighter J-20 in appearance, it has sparked heated discussions. Many netizens called it a "copycat version of J-20" drone in the discussion. So, what is the performance of the Turkish stealth drone? What do you think of this aircraft being similar in appearance to the Chinese J-20 fighter?
The layout of the " canard + small side strip wing + trapezoidal main wing" of the Turkish Kizilelma UAV is almost the same as that of the fifth-generation stealth fighter of the Chinese J-20, and there are many similarities with the J-20 in appearance.
Turkey's aircraft carrier 's emergency product
As a country that is not strong in the aviation industry and has not independently developed the advanced jet fighter , Turkey is the first to launch a stealth fighter with certain fifth-generation fighter technical characteristics Unmanned fighter jets are indeed surprising. In fact, Turkey's move stemmed from a helpless move brought about by an unexpected sanction.
It all started in 2002. That year, Turkey officially joined the U.S. F-35 stealth fighter project, and the level of cooperation is relatively high. It not only has the priority to purchase, but will also produce a considerable number of parts for the project. To this end, Turkey began to plan its own dream of a comprehensive fifth-generation aircraft. It not only introduced a large number of F-35A to realize the replacement of its air force, but also planned to purchase a batch of F-35B vertical take-off and landing fighters to establish the first aircraft carrier fleet of its navy. After
, Turkey built its first light aircraft carrier based on the Spanish "Juan Carlos I" strategic delivery ship , which is the "Anadolu". The "Juan Carlos I" strategic delivery ship adopts a very unique design idea, which combines the characteristics of three large warships, such as a light aircraft carrier, amphibious assault ship , and dock landing ship . For example, the ship has a ski-jump take-off deck similar to a light aircraft carrier, and a full-channel straight flight deck similar to an amphibious assault ship, which can park more than ten fixed-wing fighter jets and helicopters. Can accommodate up to 25 fighter and helicopters. In addition, the stern of the "Juan Carlos I" strategic projection ship has a dock and a tailgate, which can load and retract LCAC large air-cushion landing craft and amphibious armored combat vehicles.
The "Anadolu" aircraft carrier preparing for sea trials.
The "Anadolu" almost completely inherits these technical features of the "Juan Carlos I", but its main role is to serve as a platform for the F-35B vertical take-off and landing stealth fighter. The geographical location of Turkey itself is very important, not only at the junction of Asia and Europe, but also guarding the two key sea passages of the Bosporus Strait and the Dardanelles . Then, with such an aircraft carrier fleet capable of stealth attack in the air, Turkey will not only become the country with the strongest navy along the Black Sea coast, but also be able to gain the upper hand in the confrontation with Cyprus and Greece , At the same time, it can also gain more voice in the Mediterranean region, which can be said to serve multiple purposes.
The light aircraft carrier "Anadolu" began laying the keel in 2018 and was officially launched in 2019. It was originally planned to enter service in 2020. However, after years of stagnation in the construction of the ship, it is only now entering the sea trial stage. The root of everything lies in the huge changes in the relationship between Turkey and the United States. In 2017, Turkey signed a contract with Russia to purchase four battalions of S-400 long-range air defense missiles. In 2019, Russia delivered to Turkey a complete set of equipment for the first battalion of S-400 long-range air defense missiles. This move annoyed the Americans. After several severe warnings were ineffective, the U.S. government "pained the killer" and announced the seizure of the first 4 F-35A fighter jets originally planned to be delivered to Turkey, and claimed that as long as Turkey did not give up the Russian-made S -400 long-range air defense missiles, the United States will never deliver any F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. This also means that Turkey can't even get F-35A, let alone get F-35B. angry soilThe Turkish government immediately announced its complete withdrawal from the F-35 fighter program. Since then, what kind of carrier-based aircraft will be carried has become a big problem in the follow-up design and construction of the "Anadolu" light aircraft carrier. If all helicopters are carried, the ski-jump take-off deck that has been installed at this time is completely useless, and it also takes up a considerable part of the flight deck parking area. If the ski-jump take-off deck is dismantled, not only will the amount of engineering be huge, but Turkey will not be willing to make the ship an amphibious warship that can only carry helicopters. Taking a step back, judging from the strength of Turkey's existing aviation industry, it is very difficult to develop an advanced jet fighter, let alone develop a vertical take-off and landing stealth fighter similar to the F-35B. Fortunately, the Turkish aviation company has a certain ability in the research and development of drones, so after a change of thinking, it is still quite feasible to transform the "Anadolu" into a drone carrier, and it is possible to create a world First. Therefore, the task of developing a supporting carrier-based drone for the "Anadolu" was handed over to Baykar. Although
is similar in appearance, its performance cannot be compared with J-20 at all.
Ambitious UAV boarding project
According to the vision of the Turkish Navy, the UAVs to be carried by the "Anadolu" light aircraft carrier should refer to the configuration of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier-based fighter jets. With the successive service of F-35C, the carrier-based fighter jets of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier are currently forming a combat mode of stealth fighters and F/A-18E/F non-stealth fourth-generation fighters. Then, according to the cat and the tiger, Baykar also plans to develop two carrier-based drones for light aircraft carriers. The first one is called TB-3, which is the enlarged carrier-based version of the TB-2 reconnaissance and strike drone that made a big splash in the -Naka conflict and . Compared with TB-2, TB-3 has larger dimensions, its maximum take-off weight has increased from 650kg to 1450kg, and its large aspect ratio straight wings can be folded to reduce the occupied deck area. And the most important thing is the second stealth unmanned combat aircraft called MIUS, which is also the predecessor of today's Kizilelma drone.
MIUS is the abbreviation of Turkish "National Unmanned Aircraft System". It is named "country", which shows that the Turkish government attaches great importance to it. The author guesses that the research and development of this aircraft should start after Turkey withdrew from the F-35 project and decided to transform the "Anadolu" into a drone carrier. It is estimated that it will be between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. period. After that, Baykar released the MIUS UAV for the first time in the form of CG video in July 2021, mainly showing the whole process of the aircraft taking off from the aircraft carrier, fighting and landing. In November 2021, Baykar and Ukrainian Motor Sich signed a purchase contract for two small-thrust turbofan engines , AI-25TLT and AI-322F. This means that the most important supporting equipment of the MIUS UAV - the power unit has been finalized.
After entering 2022, the research and development of MIUS UAV began to enter the fast lane: in April, the full-scale model of MIUS UAV was released for the first time; in June, the first prototype for test flight was assembled, and in August Public display at airshows. In September, the first prototype of MIUS UAV successfully completed the engine ground ignition test. After achieving its first high-speed ground run today, the aircraft should be able to make its first flight in 2023 as originally planned, and it already has a new name-Kizilelma. The
TB-2 surveillance drone has become a business card of Turkish drones.
Embarrassing duplicity
From the aerodynamic shape design of the first prototype of Kizilelma, we can see that the reason why the development of the aircraft is so fast is that the imitation ability of the Turkish military technicians is really too strong. This may be their After experiencing many projects such as the T-129 attack helicopter, the "Altai" main battle tank , and the T-300 long-range rocket launcher, it was honed out. The layout of the "canard wing + small side wing + trapezoidal main wing" of the Kizilelma UAV is almost the same as that of the fifth-generation stealth fighter of the Chinese J-20, and the side wing is still the early J-20The shape design of the technology verification machine. This also shows from one side that the Turkish military technicians are very appreciative of the unique wing-surface combination design of the J-20 fifth-generation stealth fighter that makes full use of the vortex boost.
Considering that the Kizilelma UAV will take off from the ski jump deck, and the small turbofan engine thrust provided by Ukraine is also very limited, although the light aircraft carrier "Anadolu" may be equipped with a so-called "pulley-assisted ejection system" However, the machine still needs to rely more on its own aerodynamic design to generate more lift. Therefore, adopting a high-lift-drag ratio wing layout similar to the fifth-generation stealth fighter of China's J-20 is also a very wise choice for Turkish military technicians. In addition, the Kizilelma UAV also has no horizontal tail layout, and the V-shaped inclined double vertical tail can take into account the role of the horizontal tail to a certain extent.
However, Turkish military technicians can "copy" the aerodynamic shape of China's J-20 fifth-generation stealth fighter, but they are helpless with the more high-end DSI inlet technology. Therefore, the Kizilelma UAV finally adopted a conventional air intake with boundary layers on both sides similar to the F-22, also known as a Garrett air intake.
Compare the top view of J-20 and Kizilelma UAV, readers can compare how similar they are.
In addition, from the detailed design of the first prototype of Kizilelma, we can also see that the Turkish military technicians are indeed a very qualified "imitator", including the use of sawtooth on the edges, hatches and seams of many hatches Design, even the tail guard on the outside of the engine. However, more manufacturing processes and detailed designs have also exposed the true level of the Turkish aviation industry. For example, the fusion design and assembly of the fuselage and wings are very rough, the fold lines on the side of the fuselage are not even aligned, and the V-shaped vertical tail The size of the rudder surface actuator is too large, which seriously damages the stealth shape, and the design of the diamond-shaped photoelectric sensor window under the nose is also too simple, and so on.
It should be said that the current state of the first prototype of Kizilelma can only be called a technical verification machine, and there is still a long way to go from a real practical prototype or even a mass-produced model. According to the information released by Baykar, the maximum take-off weight of the Kizilelma drone will reach 6 tons, and the maximum will be 1.5 tons. , guided bombs, , and even air-to-air missiles, and other weapons are likely to have certain air combat capabilities.
The aircraft has a wingspan of about 10 meters, a length of 14.7 meters, and a height of 3.3 meters. Its dimensions are larger than that of the Korean FA-50, and almost equal to that of the "Fierce Dragon" fighter. When equipped with AI-25TLT non-afterburning turbofan engine, Kizilelma UAV can only achieve high subsonic speed, while equipped with AI-322F afterburning turbofan engine, it can barely reach double the speed of sound. Baykar also plans to develop the Kizilelma UAV into a Turkish version of the "loyal wingman", which is ambitious to cooperate with F-16 and TF-X fifth-generation stealth fighters. However, as almost all production facilities of Motor Sich company were destroyed by the Russian army during the war, the engine supply of Kizilelma UAV seems to have become a difficult problem at present.
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