Aviation
Türkiye’s homegrown 5th-generation fighter jet named KAAN
The name “KAAN” will be given to Turkey’s homegrown fifth-generation fighter aircraft, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Monday.
The aircraft’s designation was revealed on May 1st in a grand celebration at TAI facilities in the Turkish capital Ankara, which included flyovers by Air Force aircraft, sizable crowds, and the presence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
After the TF-X, also known as the National Combat Aircraft (MMU), successfully completed its first taxi test and made its runway debut in mid-March after its engines were started for the first time, Erdogan made his comments. “Türkiye is now in every field, on land, in the sea and submarine, in the air and space,” Erdogan said at the “Century of the Future” event in the Turkish capital Ankara.
The twin engines of the 21-meter jet, which can each produce 29,000 pounds (13,000 kilograms) of power, enable it to travel at a top speed of 1.8 Mach.
All the technologies and characteristics seen in fifth-generation airplanes are present in KAAN. It will give the chance to strategically strike air-to-air and air-to-ground targets. Its infrastructure for safe data exchange and the use of smart weapons is entirely domestic.
It will improve combat power with accurate and precise firing from internal weapon slots at high/supersonic speed with its high-performance radar, electronic warfare, electro-optics, communication, navigation, and identification capability. Additionally, it has automatic target recognition and detection, multiple data fusion, and artificial intelligence capabilities.
