Date: Issue 122 - May 2023 Update: December 23, 2024
Within the scope of the ANKA-III Program, which was carried out by TUSAŞ using the company's own resources and approximately 200 engineers, the first flight with a scale model was carried out in June 2022, and the name ANKA-III was announced to the public for the first time in December 2022 by Vice President Fuat OKTAY. ANKA-III TİUS/MİUS was publicly unveiled for the first time during the "Century of the Future" Program held on May 1, 2023, at TUSAŞ's facilities in Ankara, Kahramankazan. As part of the "Century of the Future" Program, we had the opportunity to conduct interviews with Ömer YILDIZ, Deputy General Manager responsible for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles at TUSAŞ, and Nevzat POLAT, Systems Engineering Manager at the UAV Office, regarding the ANKA-III TİSU/MİUS and SUPER ŞİMŞEK Programs. We will include the information we obtained from both interviews in this article.
According to the information we acquired, high-speed taxi tests with ANKA-III will commence as of May 2, 2023. The images of the first taxi test were shared with the public on April 25, 2023, and thanks to the readiness achieved within a week by May 1, as well as the availability of autopilot software, the first flight is expected to be made in second week of May. Following the maiden flight, the maneuvering envelope will be expanded in subsequent flights according to a specific timeline, and weapon integration tests will be conducted within 2023. According to the information we obtained, the Turkish Air Force (TurAF) conveyed a series of requests to TUSAŞ after examining ANKA-III, and the changes to address these requests will be implemented on ANKA-III through subsequent discussions.