Key Points and Summary: The TAI TF Kaan is designed for manned-unmanned teaming, aligning with next-gen air combat strategies.
Key Questions: While it boasts impressive technology, questions remain about its production timeline, operational effectiveness, and whether it can truly compete with established Western platforms like the F-35.
Turkey’s TF Kaan Fighter: Can It Rival the F-35 and F-22?
Turkey’s new TAI TF Kaan 5th-gen stealth fighter took to the sky for the first time in February of 2024, an event that raised speculation about its ability to rival the US-F35 and F-22 with “sensor fusion, autonomy, supercruise, EW (electronic warfare), precision weapons and next-gen data link technology.”
All of these technological attributes reportedly woven into the new Turkish aircraft appear to mirror those of an F-35, and the external configuration of the TAI TF Kaan looks like a blend or combination of F-35 and F-22 characteristics.
The aircraft’s inlets, rounded front, and curved, blended wing-body shape resemble the F-35, yet its dual-engine design makes the back resemble an F-22.
Advanced Technology
Available specs on the fighter detail a range of areas of technological focus, including critical areas of Integrated Electro-Optical Systems such as Infrared Search and Track (IRST), EW, AESA, Synthetic-aperture radar, and various kinds of RF technologies.
A close look at available information indicates that Turkey intends to replicate or improve upon the F-35s “sensor fusion” computing system designed to aggregate, pool, analyze, and display sensor information from otherwise disparate sources into a single, integrated picture.
Some component technologies are described in a series of published specs and essays by Aselan, a Turkish company focused on advanced military technologies and subsystems. One key area of intended “fusion” for the fighter jet, the Aselan materials indicate, is integrating tactical radio signals and satellite-based communication systems with navigational data, instrumentation, and automatic terrain and collision avoidance systems.
TF-X fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
This is quite similar to the F-35 system, which integrates key avionics data with targeting, sensing, and navigational information.
TAI TF Kaan: Turkish “flying computer”
It makes sense that Turkish developers would also integrate what Aselan calls “mission computing,” designed to generate real-time flight controls and networking technologies.
Many refer to the F-35 as a flying computer, so it would not be surprising if the TAI TF Kaan were modeled after the successful integration of computing and mission systems demonstrated in the F-35.
The Turkish jet is listed as capable of hitting speeds of Mach 1.8, placing the TAI TF Kaan roughly in the same sphere as the F-35 and well below the F-22’s Mach 2.25 speed. The aircraft is also equipped with a suite of countermeasures or self-protection technologies such as a Radar Warning Receiver, decoys, jamming, and Laser and IR threat detection systems.
Loyal Wingman
Alongside these apparent technological synergies, perhaps the most considerable alignment between the F-35 and Turkey’s emerging aircraft pertains to Concepts of Operation such as “autonomous wingman” operations and manned-unmanned teaming.
Like US Air Force initiatives with the F-35, F-22, and 6th-Gen NGAD platform, the new Turkish fighter seeks to enable manned fighter jets to operate in close coordination with groups of unmanned systems.
F-35 Stealth Fighter. Image Credit: U.S. Military.
This concept is something the Air Force Research Laboratory has demonstrated with the F-35 by enabling it to exchange in-flight data with a Valkyrie drone. The manned-unmanned teaming concept is also central to the Air Force’s “family of systems” approach to NGAD, which is already fast-tracking lower-cost combat collaborative aircraft in position to perform high-risk sensing and attack missions.
At the same time, manned fighters operate at a safer stand-off distance.
About the Author: Kris Osborn
Kris Osborn is the Military Technology Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
