Turkish Aerospace Starts Work on Subsonic Drone

Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) is working on creating the country’s first indigenous subsonic drone.

A TAI official was quoted as saying by C4ISRNet that the drone in development is expected to have a maximum speed of Mach 0.7 and to make its maiden flight in February 2023.

The subsonic drone could either be named Goksungur or Simsek. The Turkish word “gok” translates to “sky” in English, and “Simsek” to “thunder.”

This new drone will be able to perform fire support and intelligence gathering missions at a high altitude of 50,000-60,000 feet.

One idea under consideration, the official said, is to use the future system in combined operations with the Aksungur, the largest UAV manufactured by TAI. The first deliveries of the Aksungur to the Turkish military took place in October 2021.

The Aksungur performs long-term surveillance, signals intelligence, maritime patrol and combat missions. It has a wingspan of 24m and a payload capacity of 750kg. It is equipped with the CIRIT mistsile, developed by Roketsan.

The Aksungur could one day launch a smaller version of the drone currently in development, according to the TAI official.