Anka is in the air!

August 30 2010 1

Finally done! The Turkish Air Force received the first unmanned aerial vehicle of its own production, Anka. However, from the purchases of Israeli and American drones Turks are not going to refuse.

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 itself the goal of establishing the production of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also called drones. It is clear that over time, the Republic of Turkey hopes to stop purchasing Heron-type reconnaissance and patrol drones from the Israelis.

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, possessing the most powerful and developed military-industrial complex (MIC) in the region, Turkey has set a goal to establish production of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also called drones. It is abundantly clear that over time, the Republic of Turkey hopes to stop purchasing reconnaissance patrol Drones of the Heron type from Israelis.

However, the UAV produced by the Turkish Aerospace Industry (TAP) concern and named "Anka" is far from perfect. It is not surprising that the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Turkey, Veji Genyul, after the interception by the Israeli sailors of the so-called "Flotillas freedom ”, equipped by one of the Turkish extremist organizations, repeatedly emphasized that“ this incident will not affect the purchase of Israeli UAVs ”.

According to the head of the Turkish project to develop their own drones Ozkan Ertem, the current samples should be considered as pilot specimens, which will be improved. It is assumed that the Turkish armed forces will receive drones of their own production only in 2013 year, and these devices will be close to the quality of the Israeli.

EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON THE CLASS

UAVs have proven their effectiveness primarily in gathering intelligence information. It is no wonder that 43 states are developing UAVs. It should immediately dot the “i” - TAP is aware of its capabilities and is not engaged in the development of attacking UAVs like those produced by the United States and Israel. It is not surprising that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan felt uncomfortable when US President Barack Obama, in an ultimatum, demanded that he completely stop anti-Israeli propaganda and change the course towards rapprochement with Iran. Otherwise, Washington threatens not to deliver the promised Reper UAVs to Ankara. These drones Turkish military intend to use in the fight against the Kurdish separatists in the mountains north of Iraq.

For accuracy's sake, we note that “Anka” cannot be called the very first Turkish drone. Back in 2006, Ankara produced Bayraktar, belonging to the class of microdrones, weighing 3,5 kg and launched from the hand. However, the possibilities of microdrones are very limited. Production of primitive micro and even mini-drone class UAVs, of course, does not require a powerful production base, and therefore it has been mastered in almost 50 countries of the world. Micro- and mini-drones are not serially produced by Tunisia and Thailand - countries that cannot be referred to as technologically advanced. As for midi and heavy class UAVs, the United States, Israel and France are in the lead. Americans over the past 10 years, the production of UAVs increased 136 times: from 50 units in 2000 to 6,8 thousand in 2010-m. A special place is occupied by the Jewish state, which is second only to the Americans in terms of the number of drones produced, and ranks first in the world in quality.

"ANKI" COST CHEAP

However, the possibilities of only the first samples of “Anka” are impressive enough. The wingspan of this drone is 17 meters. Consequently, “Anka” is quite comparable with the Israeli “Heron”. It is able to spend hours in the air 24, remaining at a speed of 135 km / h at an altitude of up to a thousand meters. The Turkish military is planning to use Anka to collect data on Kurdish rebels, who have stepped up 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 hides, 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 Girona, and makes it possible to find a Turkish drone 24 in the air for an hour.

The Centurion system produced by the German company Thielert aircraft Enginges GmbH was used as the engine for Anka. Ramzi Barlas, a virtue of German engines, considers the fact that they run on relatively cheap jet fuel. At the same time, Israeli “Girona” require expensive high-octane fuel. Apparently, Barlas is right, for Iran also buys German engines for its drones. But if for Ankara such purchases are completely legal, then for Tehran, against which the European Union declared restrictive sanctions, is not. The Federal Prosecutor's Office of Germany has already launched an investigation into one of the enterprises in the Rhineland, which is precisely suspected of selling these engines to the Iranians. Nevertheless, in February of this year, Iran announced the start of production of its own UAVs. Moreover, the specialists of the Iranian company Danesh Bonyan designed and manufactured their own engine production for the UAV. This was stated by one of the leading specialists of this company, Yusif Abutalibi. Given the fact that Ankara has openly declared itself an ally of the current Tehran ayatollahs, it is absolutely impossible to exclude the combined efforts of the military-industrial complex of the two countries in creating not only joint samples of drones, but also other types of weapons.

A CODES "ARROW"

I must say bluntly: the Turks caught the trend. They understood that relying solely on foreign military supplies was dangerous. Especially in a region that has long become a boiling point. For accuracy's sake, we note that geographically, Turkey is not at this very point, but very close to it. By the way, the production of high-class drones intends to start Azerbaijan and India, which are considered to be long-time consumers of Israeli drones. These states also identified their opponents long ago.

Nevertheless, the situation remains completely ambiguous. After all, cooperation between Israel and Turkey continues not only in terms of supplies of Ankara UAVs, but also in the conversion of Turkish modern radar systems tanks and airplanes. True, the Turks did not receive from either the Israelis or the Americans the software codes for the supplied drones, planes and helicopters. And without such codes, they will not be able to obey the dictates of time to independently convert existing planes and helicopters into unmanned versions with human piloting capabilities. For the same reason, by the way, the use of drones by Americans in Afghanistan is limited.

MAJOR - COMMUNICATION!

Reconnaissance requires operational reliable communications. It is clear 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 the 1999 year, the NATO members in the Balkans even had to turn off some of the ground force transmitters during communication sessions with the Predator UAV.

Turks, of course, can develop the production of drones not only for themselves, but also in the quality of products for sale. But to make them better Israeli and American in the foreseeable future can not. This is how Peter Singer, Director of the Defense Initiative of the 21st Century, speaks about this: “The Turkish military industry has not yet reached the world level. Of course, it currently depends on manufacturers from other countries and will, apparently, remain so for a long time. ”