The Turkish manufacturer of combat drones Baykar presented at the TEKNOFEST KARADENİZ exhibition in Samsun a prototype of the Bayraktar Kızılelma (Red Apple) attack jet UAV.
This was reported by the Turkish news agency Anadolu and a number of specialized mass media.
According to Baykar Teknoloji Technical Director Selcuk Bayraktar, Kızılelma is the future of military aviation. It is capable of "aggressive maneuvering", has a developed system of artificial intelligence, and it needs a minimum strip length for takeoff. This drone can take off from the deck of a light aircraft carrier.
Before the presentation, Selchuk Bayraktar showed on Twitter the Kizilelma prototype, which became the second model of this UAV. He wrote that the engineers completed this prototype and prepared it for the first flight.
Kızılelma is positioned as a deck-based supersonic UAV with a turbojet engine. It is currently known that it can carry 1,500 kg of payload (weapons, devices, etc.). Its declared maximum speed is 900 km/h. The flight range is 930 km, and the operating altitude is 10,668 m. It can operate in the air for five hours.
The first flight of Kızılelma is expected to take place in 2023.
- Earlier it was reported that Kızılelma will be equipped with Ukrainian engines. In 2021, Baykar Makina ordered AI-322F and AI-25TLT jet engines from the Ivchenko-Progress state enterprise.
- At the same time, it was reported that these UAVs are being built under the flagship landing ship TCG Anadolu (still under construction), which should become the worldʼs first aircraft carrier for drones.