TAI Şimşek is a
turbojet
The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...
-powered
radio-controlled
Radio control (often abbreviated to RC) is the use of control signals transmitted by radio to remotely control a device. Examples of simple radio control systems are garage door openers and keyless entry systems for vehicles, in which a smal ...
high-speed
target drone designed, developed and built by
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) between 2009-2012 for the needs of the
Turkish Armed Forces
The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; tr, Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri, TSK) are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. Turkish Armed Forces consist of the General Staff, the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Forces. The current Chi ...
.
Şimşek is the Turkish word for "
lightning
Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...
".
Overview
The development of TAI Şimşek started in 2009, and its prototype was presented to public at the
International Defence Industry Fair (IDEF '09) the same year. The UAV made its
maiden flight
The maiden flight, also known as first flight, of an aircraft is the first occasion on which it leaves the ground under its own power. The same term is also used for the first launch of rockets.
The maiden flight of a new aircraft type is alwa ...
on August 4, 2012.
TAI Şimşek simulates enemy aircraft and missiles for
air-to-air,
surface-to-air,
anti-aircraft
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
gunnery and missile systems’ tracking and firing trainings.
It looks like
tactical air-launched decoys (TALD), which are used to confuse and saturate enemy air defense.
TAI intends to further develop the drone to convert into a
cruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhe ...
with "
Human-in-the-Loop" (HITL) guidance capability for use against mobile or fixed
soft targets.
Payloads of TAI Şimşek consists of following features:
*
Passive Radar Cross-Section
Cross section may refer to:
* Cross section (geometry)
** Cross-sectional views in architecture & engineering 3D
*Cross section (geology)
* Cross section (electronics)
* Radar cross section, measure of detectability
* Cross section (physics)
**Ab ...
Augmenter -
Luneburg lens
A Luneburg lens (original German ''Lüneburg lens'', sometimes incorrectly spelled ''Luneberg lens'') is a spherically symmetric gradient-index lens. A typical Luneburg lens's refractive index ''n'' decreases radially from the center to the outer ...
* Passive
IR Signature
* Miss Distance Indicator (MDI)
* Counter-measures Dispensing System
* Tracking Smoke Generator
The drone is launched from a catapult and recovered by parachute. It can take off and can be controlled from navy vessels.
In July 2020
TAI
Tai or TAI may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Tai (comics) a fictional Marvel Comics supervillain
*Tai Fraiser, a fictional character in the 1995 film ''Clueless''
*Tai Kamiya, a fictional character in ''Digimon''
Businesses and organisations ...
launched Şimşek from
TAI Anka integrated arm and made history by launching the target drone from UAV for the first time.
Specifications
References
External links
Launch image of TAI Şimşek
Target drones of Turkey
Simsek
High-wing aircraft
Single-engined jet aircraft
{{Aero-2000s-stub