Finally it happened! The Turkish Air Force received the first unmanned aerial vehicle of its own production, Anka. However, the Turks are not going to refuse to purchase Israeli and American drones.
Ankara's growing influence in the Middle East region reflects its desire to produce its own high quality modern weapons. It cannot be ruled out that, having the most powerful and developed military-industrial complex (MIC) in the region, Turkey has set a goal to establish the production of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also called drones. It is quite obvious that over time the Turkish Republic hopes to stop purchasing from the Israelis reconnaissance and patrol drones of the Heron type.
LET PRIMITIVE BUT YOUR OWN
Ankara's growing influence in the Middle East region reflects its desire to produce its own high quality modern weapons. It cannot be ruled out that, having the most powerful and developed military-industrial complex (MIC) in the region, Turkey has set a goal to establish the production of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also called drones. It is quite obvious that over time the Turkish Republic hopes to stop purchasing from the Israelis reconnaissance and patrol drones of the Heron type.
However, the UAV, produced by the Turkish Aerospace Industry (TAP) and named "Anka", is still far from perfect. Not surprisingly, after the interception of the so-called Freedom Flotilla equipped by one of the Turkish extremist organizations by Israeli sailors, the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Turkey, Veci Genul, repeatedly stressed that "this incident will not affect the purchase of Israeli UAVs."
According to the head of the Turkish project for the development of its own drones, Ozkan Ertem, the current samples should be considered as pilot copies that will be improved. It is assumed that the Turkish armed forces will receive drones of their own production only in 2013, and these devices will be qualitatively close to the Israeli ones.
EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON THE CLASS
UAVs have proven their effectiveness primarily in the collection of intelligence information. Unsurprisingly, 43 states are developing drones. You should immediately dot the "i" - TAP is aware of its capabilities and is not developing attacking UAVs like those produced by the United States and Israel. It is not surprising that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan felt uneasy when US President Barack Obama issued an ultimatum demanding that he completely stop anti-Israeli propaganda and change the course of rapprochement with Iran. Otherwise, Washington threatens not to deliver the promised Reaper UAVs to Ankara. The Turkish military intends to use these drones in the fight against Kurdish separatists in the mountains north of Iraq.
For the sake of accuracy, let us note that Anka cannot be called the very first Turkish drone. Back in 2006, Ankara produced Bayraktar, which belongs to the class of microdrones, weighing 3.5 kg and launched from the hand. However, the capabilities of microdrones are very limited. The production of primitive UAVs of the class of micro- and even mini-drones, of course, does not require a powerful production base, and therefore has been mastered in almost 50 countries of the world. Micro- and mini-drones are not produced in serial quantities by Tunisia and Thailand - countries that cannot be classified as technologically highly advanced. As for the midi and heavy UAVs, the United States, Israel and France are in the lead. Over the past 10 years, the Americans have increased the production of drones 136 times: from 50 units in 2000 to 6, 8 thousand in 2010. A special place is occupied by the Jewish state, which in terms of the number of drones produced is second only to the Americans, and in terms of quality it ranks first in the world.
"ANKI" ARE INEXPENSIVE
However, the capabilities of only the first samples of "Anka" are quite impressive. The wingspan of this drone is 17 meters. Consequently, "Anka" is quite comparable to the Israeli "Heron". She is able to spend 24 hours in the air, staying at a speed of 135 km / h at an altitude of up to a thousand meters. The Turkish military intends to use Anka to collect data on Kurdish rebels who have intensified their attacks from bases located in northern Iraq.
Undoubtedly, "Anki" will be cheaper than American and Israeli UAVs of the same class. Therefore, Pakistan and four other countries, whose names Ankara is hiding, have already placed orders for Turkish drones. The head of one of the TAP groups, Remzi Barlas, said that the improved Anka would soon surpass the Israeli Heron. According to Barlas, the installation of an anti-icing system on the Anka, which is absent on the Heron, makes it possible for the Turkish drone to stay in the air for 24 hours.
The Centurion system produced by the German company Thielert aircraft Enginges GmbH was used as the engine for the "Anka". Remzi Barlas considers the advantage of German engines to be the fact that they run on relatively cheap fuel for jet engines. At the same time, Israeli Herons require expensive high-octane fuel. Apparently, Barlas is right, because Iran also buys German engines for its drones. But if such purchases are completely legal for Ankara, then for Tehran, against which the European Union has announced restrictive sanctions, they are not. The German federal prosecutor's office has already launched an investigation into one of the enterprises in the Rhineland, which is suspected of selling these engines to the Iranians. And yet, back in February of this year, Iran announced the start of production of its own UAVs. Moreover, the specialists of the Iranian company Danesh Bonyan have designed and manufactured an engine of their own production for the drone. This was stated by one of the leading specialists of this company, Yusif Abutalibi. Taking into account the fact that Ankara has openly declared itself an ally of the current Tehran ayatollahs, it is absolutely impossible to exclude the joining of efforts of the military-industrial complex of the two countries in creating not only joint models of drones, but also other types of weapons.
A CODES "VROZ"
I must say bluntly: the Turks have caught the trend. They realized that relying solely on foreign military supplies was dangerous. Especially in a region that has long become a boiling point of the world. For the sake of accuracy, we note that geographically Turkey is not located at this very point, but very close to it. By the way, Azerbaijan and India intend to start the production of high-class drones, which are considered to be long-time consumers of Israeli drones. These states have also long ago identified their opponents.
Nevertheless, the situation remains completely ambiguous. After all, cooperation between Israel and Turkey continues not only in terms of delivering UAVs to Ankara, but also in re-equipping Turkish tanks and aircraft with modern radar systems. True, the Turks did not receive software codes for the supplied drones, planes and helicopters from either the Israelis or the Americans. And without such codes, they will not be able, obeying the dictates of time,independently convert existing aircraft and helicopters into unmanned versions with human piloting capabilities. For the same reason, by the way, the use of drones by the Americans in Afghanistan is limited.
THE MAIN THING IS COMMUNICATION
Intelligence assets require operational, reliable communications. It is quite obvious that the widespread use of drones is hindered by difficulties in creating a single information space. After all, the frequency range is clogged, and the volume of information exchange is only growing. It is significant that in 1999 NATO members in the Balkans even had to turn off some of the transmitters of ground forces during communications with the Predator UAV.
The Turks, of course, can develop the production of drones not only for themselves, but also as products for sale. But it will not be able to make them better than the Israeli and American ones in the foreseeable future. Here is how the director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative, Peter Singer, says: “The Turkish military industry has not yet reached the global level. Of course, it is currently dependent on producers from other countries and will, apparently, remain so for a long time."
