TAI Anka

The TAI Anka is a family of medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries for the Turkish Air Force and export. The drone is named after Phoenix, a mythological creature called Zümrüd-ü Anka in Turkish. Envisioned in the early 2000s for aerial surveillance and reconnaissance missions, Anka has evolved into a modular platform with synthetic-aperture radar, precision-guided munitions and satellite communication. The aircraft is also equipped for electronic warfare (EW) and signals intelligence (SIGINT) missions. The aircraft used common avionics architecture and ground segment with TAI Anka-3 and TAI Aksungur. The aircraft is capable of conducting autonomous operations including automatic take-off and landing. The basic version, Anka-A is a unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aerial vehicle used only for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance missions. Introduced in 2010, Anka granted its first contract in 2013 from Turkish Air Force. The Force requested further studies in advanced uninterrupted intelligence, reconnaissance and communication technologies. The aircraft was set to a long development phase to introduce national mission computer, national flight control system, synthetic aperture radar, indigenous engine and friend or foe identification system. Anka-B made its first flight in 2014 and completed factory tests in 2015. In 2017, Turkish Aerospace Industries introduced Anka-S and the aircraft entered service with the Turkish Air Force. Turkish Aerospace Industries offers the aircraft in two versions, Anka-B and Anka-S. Anka-I was developed specifically for Turkey's National Intelligence Organization for signal intelligence. Anka has accumulated more than 90,000 flight hours as of March 2021.

Summary from Wikipedia, photo via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA.