Turkey Looks to Speed Up Trainer Aircraft Initiatives
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Turkish officials said the twin crashes were a forceful reminder of a pressing need “to go faster” in selecting a fighter aircraft model based on which Turkey would also build a trainer.
“The new trainer will be constructed to cater for the chosen fighter model,” one senior official said. “The top [defense procurement] management is aware of a need to go faster with both programs. They will go with a ‘priority’ tag.”
Turkey is looking for a commercially available fighter model to build its indigenous program on. It will then build an aircraft to train its pilots for the TX-F, the Turkish fighter.
Military rules out technical problems
Military officials say that ideally by 2017, the Turkish trainer fleet will comprise screeners, the Korean-made KT-1, the Turkish-made Hürkuş, the upgraded T-38 (T-38T) and the F-16. By 2025, the trainer fleet will have the screeners, the Hürkuş, the indigenous trainer designed and developed for the fighter Turkey intends to build, the TF-X, and a combination of the F-16s, TF-Xs and F-35s.
Two Turkish RF-4E reconnaissance jets crashed into a hill on Feb. 27 near Malatya, eastern Turkey, killing all four pilots aboard. On March 5, an F-4E fighter crashed over an electronic warfare test field near Konya in Central Anatolia, killing the two pilots aboard.
To augment its trainer aircraft fleet, Turkey has signed a deal with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) to buy 10 Hürkuş trainers, but is also pushing for a follow-on order from Korean Aerospace Industries for 15 KT-1s in an approximately $150 million deal. In 2007, Turkey and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) signed a contract for the sale of an initial batch of 40 KT-1s, with an option for 15 more. Aviation experts say the Turkish military is not comfortable about the Hürkuş’s delivery schedule, targeted for 2017-2018.
