Turkish drones have vision problems
The Bayraktar Akinci (Bayraktar Akinci), a Turkish-made unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), successfully launched an LGK-82 laser-guided missile developed by the national company Aselsan (Aselsan). This was reported on Saturday, July 1 by the Anatolian Agency.
According to him, on July 1, the drone took off from the Chorlu airbase in Tekirdag province in northwestern Turkey and launched a laser-guided cruise missile at an altitude of more than 9.1 thousand meters, accurately hitting the target of a conditional enemy. This kind of ammunition, previously used by manned aircraft, was tested for the first time on UAVs.
THERE WILL BE NO REVOLUTION
In recent years, Turkey has established the production of combat drones not only to meet the needs of its armed forces, but also for export. At the moment, six states are already operators of Turkish Bayraktar TB-2 UAVs: Azerbaijan, Qatar, Libya, Morocco, Poland and Ukraine. Drones of this type have been used in combat operations in Nagorno-Karabakh, Syria and Libya.
However, despite Turkey's progress in developing unmanned aerial vehicles, it will face challenges in developing effective air-to-air capabilities for its unmanned aerial vehicles.
It is assumed that the new Turkish Bayraktar Akinci drone and the upcoming Kizilelma (Red Apple) unmanned fighter will be compatible with Turkish air-to-air (AAM) missiles, which could potentially make them less vulnerable to enemy aircraft. However, experts in the field of unmanned aviation believe that their capabilities will remain limited and are unlikely to revolutionize the conduct of aerial or unmanned warfare.
Turkish pro-government newspaper Sabah reported in early June that Baykar Defense (manufacturer of Akinci and Kizilelma) and the Institute of Research and Development of the Defense Industry (Sage) The Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council (Tubitak) is working together to develop new types of missile weapons. It is reported that the last of these organizations is at the final stage of development of the Bozdogan (Merlin) and Gokdogan (Peregrine) missiles, superior in their combat capabilities to the available samples.
Turkey widely exports its Bayraktar TB2, which has been successfully used in various conflicts, the latest of which is Ukraine. However, Bayraktar TB2 does not have the capabilities to use air-to-air missiles. This means that it is vulnerable when operating in airspace where air supremacy has not been achieved. In addition, the crisis in Ukraine revealed obvious shortcomings of the electronic stuffing of this drone within the framework of the electronic warfare systems used.
Akinci – a much larger, well–armed and modern drone - could theoretically be less vulnerable to enemy aircraft if it is armed with Bozdogan and Gokdogan missiles. But despite the progress made, Turkey is likely to find the development of effective air-to-air missiles for its unmanned aerial vehicles too difficult.
BLIND AND CLUMSY
In the early 2000s, the United States armed some of its MQ-1 Predator UAVs with a short-range Stinger missile, which proved to be extremely ineffective. For example, an Iraqi MiG-25 fighter jet quickly shot down one of these drones in 2002 after it fired one of its Stinger missiles and missed.
"The main problem when equipping remotely piloted unmanned aerial vehicles, such as the MQ-1 Predator or Bayraktar TB2, with air-to-air missiles for self-defense is that the sensors on the aircraft give the remote crew a very limited field of view. This means that while they may be well aware of what is happening around the UAV in the field of view of the sensor ball (usually aimed at the ground), they are not able to reliably detect or track aircraft around them. In addition, due to the limitations of the airframe design, the delay of the control signal and the placement of antennas, remote-controlled drones, such as the TB2 or MQ-1/9, cannot maneuver aggressively, which does not allow them to reliably deliver an effective missile strike on an enemy fighter or evade a missile strike on them," states Justin Bronk, Senior Researcher in the Military Sciences Group of the British Royal United Institute for Defense Studies (RUSI).
Bronk believes that the Kizilelma jet unmanned fighter is "a potentially promising project, since it will be a real unmanned combat aircraft (UCAV), designed for survivability and lethality in contested airspace (unlike TB2)."
Nevertheless, in order for Kizilelma to fully realize its potential, it must "not only have effective stealth properties, sensors and weapons (such as the new Bozdogan and Gokdogan missiles), but also be highly automated in flight to effectively counteract hostile interference of the remote control signal and aggressively maneuver without fear of losing the orientation of the antenna from the ground the control station... This is not an easy task, which is likely to challenge Turkey's dynamic but relatively inexperienced combat aircraft development industry," says Justin Bronk.
Thus, British military analysts are not too confident in the potential of the Turkish engineering school.
EXPERTS AND OPINIONS
Samuel Bendett, a researcher at the Center for Naval Analysis, believes that a much more promising scheme is when "relatively large unmanned aerial vehicles" will be armed with missiles, which have a speed comparable to helicopters. "There are projects aimed at turning unmanned aerial vehicles into hunters for enemy drones. Before the events in Ukraine, the Russian Orion unmanned aerial vehicle was tested in the Crimea against a slow-moving helicopter-type UAV, so such a military drone can be turned into a hunter for enemy drones. Specifically, this test was conducted using air-to–surface missiles, but it was an obvious response to the acquisition of Bayraktar TB2 by Ukrainians," the expert believes.
Bendett also stressed that "the Russians are testing the possibilities of hunting drones on small drones." The researcher believes that "the use of missile destruction of air assets on larger unmanned aerial vehicles is also possible against a certain type of unmanned aerial targets, but it depends on the power of the ammunition and the characteristics of the carrier drone."
James Rogers, associate professor of Military Studies at the American University of Southern Denmark, recalls that the ability to deploy air-to-air missiles has traditionally not been a strong point of attack drones. "In fact, over the past 20 years, UAVs have mainly been used by leading countries from a military point of view against less prepared non-state actors who did not have a particularly effective echeloned air defense system. Simply put, until recently, drones were operated in airspace where air supremacy was ensured and there were few obvious threats, so there was no particular need for air-to-air missiles. Today, the situation is starting to change: more than 100 countries and more than 50 non–state actors are deploying various types of weapons systems in the airspace," says the military analyst.
Rogers also noted: "The fighting in Ukraine has clearly demonstrated that it has become more difficult to ensure air superiority, given the various types of aircraft that challenge control of the skies." And although Akıncı armed with Bozdogan and Gokdogan missiles can provide limited-scale protection against other UAVs and manned aircraft, this will not necessarily make Turkey a pioneer or a world leader in this particular field. Such a system is likely to be acquired by medium and small countries, while the United States continues to lead in the field of high-tech unmanned air-to-air systems.
One such example is the LongShot program developed by DARPA. "A long-range Shot missile launched from a larger aircraft (probably a bomber) will extend the range of traditional combat aircraft and missiles by being fired a long distance towards an enemy aircraft, where it will then hit the enemy with its missiles. The key point here is that the flight crew and bombers can be at a safe distance, without threat from the enemy," Rogers believes.
He also believes that the future, in which drones will participate "in maneuverable, fast air battles in the style of Top Gun on the battlefield," is probably still far away. "In fact, in the near future, when drones engage enemy aircraft, it will be more like moving at the speed of an attack helicopter and less comparable to a jet fighter. This is true even taking into account the development of jet UAVs, such as Kizilelma, which are unlikely to have the adaptability and agility of a highly qualified pilot of an expensive F-35," says the military scientist.
BUT THERE IS STILL A PROSPECT
Despite the controversial discussion among military experts, experts in Germany are calling on the government to abandon the purchase of Israeli multi-purpose Heron-TP UAVs (manufactured by IAI) in favor of Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones. It seems that we may be talking about buying a batch of 60 aircraft. The reason is the higher efficiency of Turkish–made UAVS. According to German experts, it is much more difficult to detect such a UAV than the Israeli Heron-TP.
In conclusion, we note that in addition to Bayraktar TB2, Turkey is making attempts to promote the entire range of UAV products to foreign markets. It is quite reasonable to expect that in the near future Turkish aircraft will be able to compete with such Middle Eastern manufacturers as Israel and such world leaders in this field as China.
Vasily Ivanov
Vasily Ivanovich Ivanov is a journalist.
