Turkey's Kaan jet: a rival to the U.S. F‑35 or just hype?
Commenting on the development of the Turkish 5th generation Kaan aircraft, Temel Kotil—the CEO of the Turkish TAI consortium—argued that it is better than the F-35. Although the aircraft is undoubtedly a significant success for Turkey, it is worth verifying its creators' declarations. Does Kaan have an edge over the F-35?
Wirtualna Polska journalist Norbert Garbarek recently presented Temel Kotil's belief that Kaan has advantages over the F-35. The TAI CEO argued that the Turkish aircraft carries more armament than the F-35 and has an advantage over the American machine in the form of two engines.
These statements were analyzed by Defence24 author Maciej Szopa. Has Turkey indeed built a better combat aircraft than the United States?
A reliable comparison at the current stage of work is impossible. While the F-35 has operational readiness in many countries and is ordered in hundreds, the Turkish design – although it has already made its first flight – is currently in the prototype stage.
What’s more, Temel Kotil's words about the payload difference are not precise. The F-35 carries a limited – among other things, due to stealth requirements – payload of weapons, housed in internal bays (in a configuration with weapons on external racks, the machine is easy to detect).
F-35 and Kaan - differences between the aircraft
The payload weight of the F-35 is significantly higher than the data provided by the Turks and amounts to about 8,200 kilograms. The payload capacity of the Kaan – although officially stated to reach 10,000 kilograms – is yet to be verified.
The second – alleged – advantage of the Turkish aircraft is said to be its two engines. Twin-engine designs do indeed have a different characteristic compared to single-engine ones, and two engines are typical, among other things, for naval or specialized air superiority aircraft.
In the case of the Kaan aircraft, the use of two engines seems to be not so much a chosen option as a necessity. This results from the fact that Turkey most likely has issues with sufficiently efficient propulsion units. The way around this limitation in this case turned out to be the use of two propulsion units from the F-16, specifically General Electric F110 engines.
