The name of Turkey’s national fighter jet, known as TF-X, is KAAN, the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, announced on Monday, reports Anadolia.
“Turkiye is now in every field – on land, in the sea and under the sea, in the air and in space,” Erdogan said during an event called “The Century of the Future” organized by the Turkish Aerospace Industry (TAI) in the capital Ankara, where has presented its aircraft, including KAAN.
The fifth-generation KAAN aircraft was developed by TAI with the aim of replacing the Turkish military’s aging F-16 fleet.
With this spacecraft, Turkey will become one of the five countries that have this type of technology, Erdogan said.
“Today we have reached results that are symbols of our future, pointed out by Gazi Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, saying: ‘The future is in the sky.’ That’s why today we say ‘the future,'” Erdogan said.
He considered today a historic day for Turkiye.
“Another historic day for Turkey, its defense industry and air force,” Erdogan said during the address.
He also announced the first flight of the Turkish combat drone “ANKA-3” in the coming days.
“As Turkey grows stronger, we will see peace, justice and equality take root in our region and in the world,” Erdogan concluded.
The plane, for which the project began in 2016, was completed in March.
The 21-meter plane can reach a top speed of Mach 1.8 thanks to its twin engines, each capable of producing 29,000 pounds (13,000 kilograms) of thrust.
KAAN has several features such as high situational awareness, optimized pilot workload, combat damage detection, next-generation mission systems, low observability, precision strike and internal weapons storage.
On the Anadolu Agency (AA) website, only part of the news content is published, which is available to users through our News Flow System (HAS). Please contact us for subscription.
