Recently, the first prototype of the Kizilelma stealth unmanned combat aircraft developed by Turkey's Baykar Company successfully completed a high-speed taxi test, laying the foundation for its first flight in the next step. The
has many similarities with China's fifth-generation stealth fighter J-20, which has aroused heated discussions. Many netizens called it a "copycat version of the J-20" drone in the discussion. So, how is the performance of Türkiye stealth drone? What do you think about the similarity in appearance of this aircraft to the Chinese J-20 fighter?
The layout of the " canard + small side wing + trapezoidal main wing" of the Turkish Kizilelma UAV is almost the same as that of the Chinese J-20 fifth-generation stealth fighter, and has many similarities with the J-20 in appearance.
Turkey aircraft carrier emergency product
As a country with a weak aviation industry and no independent research and development of advanced jet fighters, Turkey has taken the lead in launching a stealth unmanned fighter jet with certain technical characteristics of fifth-generation fighter , which is indeed surprising. In fact, Türkiye's move stemmed from the helplessness caused 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 was relatively high. It not only had priority procurement rights, but also produced a considerable number of parts for the project. To this end, Turkey has begun to plan its own comprehensive fifth-generation aircraft dream. It not only introduces a large number of F-35As to upgrade its air force, but also prepares 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: the light aircraft carrier, the amphibious assault ship , and the 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. It can park more than ten fixed-wing fighter jets and helicopters, and the hangar below the flight deck can also accommodate up to 25 fighters and helicopters. In addition, the "Juan Carlos I" strategic delivery ship is equipped with a dock cabin and a tailgate at the stern, which can load and stow LCAC large air-cushion landing craft and amphibious armored combat vehicles and other equipment.
The "Anadolu" aircraft carrier is preparing for sea trials.
The "Anadolu" has almost completely inherited these technical features of the "Juan Carlos I", but its most important role is as a platform for the F-35B vertical takeoff and landing stealth fighter. Türkiye's geographical location is very important. It is not only at the junction of Asia and Europe, but also guards two key sea lanes, the Bosporus Strait and the Dardanelles Strait. Well, after having such an aircraft carrier fleet with air stealth offensive capabilities, 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 say in the Mediterranean region. It can be said that it kills multiple birds with one stone.
The "Anadolu" light aircraft carrier began laying the keel in 2018 and was officially launched in 2019. It was originally planned to enter service in 2020. However, the ship's construction has only now entered the sea trial stage after years of stagnation. The root of everything lies in the huge changes that have occurred in the relationship between Türkiye and the United States. In 2017, Türkiye signed a contract with Russia to purchase four S-400 long-range air defense missile battalions. In 2019, Russia delivered a complete set of equipment for the first S-400 long-range air defense missile battalion to Türkiye. This move angered the Americans. After several severe warnings failed, the U.S. government "took a painful blow" and announced that it would seize the first batch of four F-35A fighter jets originally planned to be delivered to Turkey. It also claimed that as long as Turkey does not give up its Russian-made S-400 long-range air defense missiles, the U.S. will never deliver any F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. This means that Türkiye cannot even get F-35A, let alone F-35B.The angry Turkish government immediately announced that it would completely withdraw from the F-35 fighter jet project.
Since then, what kind of carrier-based aircraft to carry has become a big issue in the subsequent design and construction of the "Anadolu" light aircraft carrier. If they are all equipped with helicopters, then the ski-jump take-off deck that has been installed at this time will become completely useless, and it will also occupy a considerable part of the flight deck parking area. If the deck of the ski-jump take-off is dismantled, not only will the amount of work be huge, but Turkey is not willing to let the ship become an amphibious warship that can only carry helicopters. To take a step back, judging from Turkey’s existing aviation industry strength, it is very difficult to develop an advanced jet fighter, let alone a vertical take-off and landing stealth fighter similar to the F-35B. Fortunately, Turkish aviation companies have certain UAV research and development capabilities, so after a change of thinking, it is quite feasible to transform the "Anadolu" into a UAV aircraft carrier, and it may also create a world first. Therefore, the task of developing supporting carrier-based drones for the "Anadolu" was handed over to Baykar Company.
Although the appearance is similar, its performance cannot be compared with that of the J-20.
Ambitious drone shipboard project
According to the Turkish Navy's vision, the drones to be carried by the "Anadolu" light aircraft carrier should refer to the configuration of the US Navy aircraft carrier's carrier-based fighter jets. With the successive entry into service of the F-35C, the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier-based fighter jets are currently forming a mode of operating in conjunction with stealth fighters and F/A-18E/F non-stealth fourth-generation fighters. So, following the example of a cat, Baykar also plans to develop two carrier-based drones for light aircraft carriers. The first one is called TB-3, which is an enlarged ship-based version of the TB-2 integrated surveillance and attack drone that had previously made a splash in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Compared with TB-2, TB-3 has a larger overall size, the maximum take-off weight has increased from 650 kilograms to 1450 kilograms, and the large aspect ratio straight wings can be folded to reduce the occupied deck area. The most important thing is the second stealth drone fighter 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 speculates that the research and development of this aircraft should have started after Turkey withdrew from the F-35 project and decided to transform the "Anadolu" into a drone aircraft carrier, which is estimated to be between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. Afterwards, Baykar Company released the MIUS drone for the first time in July 2021 in the form of CG video, which mainly showed the entire process of the aircraft taking off from the aircraft carrier, combating and landing. In November 2021, Baykar Company signed a purchase contract with the Ukrainian Motorsich Company for the AI-25TLT and AI-322F small thrust turbofan engines . This means that the most important supporting equipment for the MIUS drone, the power unit, has been finalized.
After entering 2022, the research and development of MIUS drones began to move on the fast track: in April, the full-size model of the MIUS drone was made public for the first time; in June, the first prototype for test flight was assembled and publicly displayed at the air show in August. In September, the first prototype of the MIUS UAV successfully completed the engine ground ignition test. After achieving its first high-speed ground roll, the aircraft should be able to make its first flight in 2023 as originally planned, and it already has a new name - Kizilelma.
TB-2 integrated surveillance and combat drone has become a business card of Turkish drones.
An embarrassment of duplicity
From the aerodynamic shape design of Kizilelma's first prototype, we can see that the reason why the aircraft was developed so quickly is mainly because the imitation ability of Turkish military technicians is indeed too strong. This may be honed by them after experiencing many projects such as the T-129 attack helicopter, "Altai" main battle tank , and the T-300 long-range rocket launcher. The layout of the "canard wing + small side wing + trapezoidal main wing" of the Kizilelma UAV is almost the same as that of the Chinese J-20 fifth-generation stealth fighter, and the side wing adopts the appearance design of the early J-20 technology demonstrator.This also shows from one side that Turkish military industry technicians are very satisfied with the unique wing combination design of the J-20 fifth-generation stealth fighter that fully utilizes vortex increase.
Considering that the Kizilelma UAV takes off from the ski jump deck, and the small turbofan engine provided by Ukraine has limited thrust, although the "Anadolu" light aircraft carrier may be equipped with a so-called "pulley-assisted ejection system", the aircraft still needs to rely more on its own aerodynamic design to generate more lift. Therefore, adopting a high lift-to-drag ratio airfoil layout similar to that of the Chinese J-20 fifth-generation stealth fighter is also a very wise choice for Turkish military industry technicians. In addition, the Kizilelma UAV also has a layout without a horizontal tail. 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 the Chinese J-20 fifth-generation stealth fighter, but they are powerless with the more high-end DSI air inlet technology. Therefore, the Kizilelma UAV finally adopted a conventional baffle-type air inlet with boundary layers on both sides similar to the F-22, also called a Garrett-type air inlet.
Comparison of the top view of the J-20 and the Kizilelma UAV. Readers can compare how similar the two are.
In addition, from the many detailed designs of Kizilelma's first prototype, we can also see that Turkish military technicians are indeed very qualified "imitators", including the sawtooth design of many door edges, hatches and seams, as well as the tail protector 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 integration design and assembly of the fuselage and wings are very rough, the fold lines on the side of the fuselage are not even aligned, the V-shaped vertical fin's rudder actuator is too large, seriously damaging the stealth appearance, the design of the diamond-shaped photoelectric sensing window under the nose is also too crude, etc.
It should be said that the current status of Kizilelma's first prototype can only be called a technical verification machine, and it is still far away from a truly practical prototype or even a mass-produced model. According to the information released by Baykar Company, the maximum take-off weight of the Kizilelma UAV will reach 6 tons, and the maximum bomb load is 1.5 tons. Its belly is equipped with a built-in bomb bay, which can be equipped with air-to-ship missiles , air-to-ground missiles , guided bombs and even air-to-air missiles . It is 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 overall dimensions are larger than the South Korean FA-50 and almost the same as the "Fierce Dragon" fighter jet. When equipped with the AI-25TLT non-afterburning turbofan engine, the Kizilelma UAV can only achieve high subsonic speeds, but when equipped with the AI-322F afterburning turbofan engine, it can barely reach double the speed of sound. Baykar also plans to develop the Kizilelma drone into the Turkish version of the "loyal wingman" to operate in conjunction with the F-16 and TF-X fifth-generation stealth fighters, which is very ambitious. However, as almost all the production facilities of Motor Sich Company were destroyed by the Russian army during the war, the supply of engines for Kizilelma drones seems to have become a difficult problem at present.
