"Military Sub-plane" author: Zidian
On November 20, Turkey's domestically produced "Red Apple" stealth drone conducted its first run-and-run test. To be honest, drones are not cutting-edge technology these days, and this news is not big news. But I believe that the vast majority of netizens are the same as military mushrooms, seeing this all-black, uniquely shaped stealth fighter, the first reaction is: How does this aircraft look exactly the same as the J-20?
"J-20 Youth Edition"
From the overall shape of the "Red Apple", the aerodynamic layout of this UAV is indeed very similar to the J-20, both using the same canard layout and wing-body fusion structure, and the tilting vertical tail is also very similar. Of course, if we look closely at this drone, we can still see many differences from the J-20.
Apparently, as a drone, the plane does not have a cockpit. The sides of the fuselage also do not use the DSI air intakes of the J-20, but two F-22-like air intakes. From the second half of the fuselage, it can be seen that the "Red Apple" uses a single release bureau, only one engine, and does not use the J-20's full-motion vertical tail, and there is no ventral fin under the belly. Although it looks very similar at first glance, it is already a big difference for a precision weapon such as an aircraft.
▲ "Red apple" still looks relatively rough
In fact, this is not the first time that a similar design has appeared. South Korea's KF-X fighter has a similar design to the J-20 in the demonstration stage, and when the United States developed the F-35 fighter in the 90s of last century, there were many schemes and even demonstrators with almost the same layout as the J-20, and the US military's next-generation fighter FA-XX also adopted a similar layout.
▲ As early as the 90s of the last century, the United States studied models with a similar layout
From the appearance, the "Red Apple" drone clearly pays great attention to stealth capabilities, from the hatch to the engine nozzle, the serrated design on the fuselage can be seen everywhere. But perhaps Turkey does not have DSI intake technology at all, and in the important engine intake design, the "Red Apple" has abandoned stealth performance.
▲A model of the "Red Apple" on public display
Moreover, this plane has always given military mushrooms an awkward feeling, which is not pleasing to the eye. Whether it is the lines of the wing-body fusion, or the layout of the fuselage, wing, side strip wing, canard and vertical tail, it always gives a sense of incongruity. An excellent aircraft must be a good-looking aircraft, because the shape design directly affects the aerodynamic level of the aircraft, which requires long-term development experience and a lot of tests and simulation calculations to obtain by designers. And Turkey's weak aviation industry cannot meet this demand, so the "ugly" aircraft will inevitably be.
▲ This prototype is equipped with an AI-25TLT engine
From the layout of the aircraft, the "Red Apple" is undoubtedly an unmanned fighter, not a traditional Chada integrated UAV such as the TB-2. Such a design is actually quite radical, you know, so far no country has developed a practical unmanned fighter, at most only at the prototype stage. More importantly, the status and use of unmanned fighters in future air combat is not clear, and the direction of development is difficult to determine. Although Turkey has also developed many advanced UAVs, the span is too large to develop unmanned fighters.
▲ Ukrainian AL-332-25 engines are no longer available
The bigger problem is that the engine used in the "Red Apple" is the Ukrainian AI-322-25 engine, which has good performance, but the problem is that Ukraine's military industry has long blown Russia to the sky, including the Motor Sich company that develops aircraft engines. Even if there is a truce between Russia and Ukraine in the future, Turkey will not be able to get more engines from Ukraine.
For the level of the aviation industry in Turkey, it is basically impossible to develop a suitable engine. It is not impossible to buy engines from other countries, but it will also be necessary to significantly modify the aircraft itself, and it will definitely be no work in a few years. Therefore, this "red apple" can only be a technical demonstrator in a few years, and it is unlikely to enter active service.
The future is uncertain
According to official Turkish propaganda, the "red apple" is designed to replace the F-35B and will be carried on Turkey's domestic amphibious assault ship, or, according to Turkey's own words, the carrier-based aircraft on the "world's first unmanned aircraft carrier". In the eyes of the military mushroom, this is even more outrageous. After all, the Red Apple is a jet unmanned fighter, and it is difficult to land on an amphibious assault ship without the short / vertical takeoff and landing capabilities of the F-35B.
▲ An amphibious assault ship built by Turkey itself
But judging by the current prototype, the "Red Apple" does not have a short / vertical take-off and landing structure installed at all. Even if the take-off and landing performance of this UAV is very superior, it can complete takeoff and landing on the ski-jump deck less than two hundred meters long on the amphibious assault ship, but there is no blocking cable on the ship, which will greatly affect the operation of the flight deck, and the practicality is probably very low. It is not so much that Turkey really wants to let the "red apple" on board, but rather that it is gambling with the United States, saying that "it does not need the United States, and it can also make stealth carrier-based aircraft on its own."
▲ This model still looks very beautiful, much more pleasing to the eye than the prototype
Overall, the design of the "red apple" is likely to refer to the J-20, but the Turkish research and development team is obviously impossible to obtain any technical data of the J-20, and it is certainly impossible to say that it is a copycat. And judging by the current situation, this prototype is still relatively crude, and mass production is even more far away.
For the country of Turkey, many netizens may not know much, and even many people do not even know where Turkey is. Therefore, many people lack concepts about Turkey's military strength and military industry. In fact, Turkey has a fairly complete military industry, from tanks, artillery, warships, aircraft, and even developing its own next-generation fighters.
▲ Turkey attaches great importance to the independent production of weapons and equipment
In terms of military strength, Turkey has the second largest military in NATO, with an active military strength of more than 500,000. In addition, Turkey is also the NATO country with the largest number of tanks, with more than 4,000 tanks in service, almost the combined tanks of the US and Russian armies. Of course, in terms of quality, Turkish tanks are mostly lagging behind, but they are also quite amazing.
In terms of the navy, Turkey has a self-built amphibious assault ship "Anadolu", which is still in sea trials and is expected to enter service soon. In addition, the main ships of the Turkish Navy are mainly frigates, which can not only meet the needs of its own navy, but also export to Pakistan and other countries. In terms of the Air Force, Turkey has a large fleet of 240 F-16 fighters, has the independent production capacity of F-16 fighters, and has also developed a large number of UAVs, including the famous TB-2 UAV.
▲TB-2 UAVs have become a classic product of Turkey's arms trade
In the military industry, Turkey's main object of cooperation is South Korea. South Korea is involved in the development of Turkey's next-generation main battle tank Altay and next-generation fighter TF-X. However, South Korea is not Turkey's only partner, and countries such as Italy, Spain, Ukraine, China and Russia all have different levels of military cooperation with Turkey.
▲Turkey and many countries have in-depth military cooperation
Don't buy the best, only buy the best one
As a major country in the Middle East and a historical power, Turkey pays more attention to the experience accumulated in the development process of weapons and equipment than to separate arms purchases, so Turkey's cooperation projects are mainly based on technology transfer and joint development. Through arms purchases, Turkey has obtained ballistic missile and long-range rocket artillery technology from China, stealth fighters and new main battle tank technology from South Korea, large warship construction technology from Spain, and helicopter technology from Italy, greatly enriching its military industrial category.
▲ Turkey's weapons are not the best, but the price is really affordable
Although these things are not the most advanced in the world, they can be thoroughly eaten by Turkey itself and do not need to be subject to others. In fact, in the later stage of cooperative research and development, Turkey often either starts from scratch by itself, or thinks that the partner's plan does not meet its own needs, and abandons cooperation and comes out with an identical thing again, which is really not very generous.
The TF-X fighter will make its first flight in March next year
As a NATO country, on the one hand, Turkey can obtain advanced weapons and equipment from the West, on the other hand, Turkey has good relations with China, Russia and other countries, and has acquired a lot of weapons and equipment, and then imitated and integrated them into its own products. In general, the development of Turkey's military industry is quite fast, and in a short time the transformation from an arms importer to an arms exporter has been achieved.
In general, the new weapons and equipment previously developed and manufactured by Turkey are mainly tank fighting vehicles, small frigates and relatively simple amphibious assault ships, and the technical content is relatively low. But with the success of drones and cooperation with South Korea to develop the next-generation fighter KF-X, Turkey has also begun to try to develop its own aviation industry. Although Turkey eventually withdrew from the KF-X and switched to developing the TF-X on its own, according to Turkish official announcements, the first prototype of the TF-X will be completed in 2023 and make its first flight in March of that year.
Although slightly later than South Korea's KF-21, Turkey's next-generation fighter is also progressing quite quickly. More importantly, compared to the KF-21, a medium fighter, the TF-X is a heavy stealth fighter similar to the J-20 and F-22. Compared with the "stealth unmanned carrier-based aircraft" in the propaganda, the military mushroom believes that the "red apple" is likely to be a "loyal wingman" developed with TF-X.
Although the first flight of the TF-X is imminent, this new aircraft with a huge span will certainly not be able to enter service in a short period of time, and it will take a long time to test and fly to complete the design. If the international situation changes, Turkey can buy a new stealth fighter, and the immature TF-X may even be completely abandoned. And the future of the "red apple" is probably even more unclear.
To some extent, Turkey's military industry is like a copy of China's military industry in the 70-80s of the last century, the products launched have obvious imitation and "copycat" traces, and the performance is not the most advanced in the world, but the price and cost of use are not high, and the core technology can basically be in their own hands.
In the past few decades, some people have been keen to "find a father" for domestic weapons, and must find a "prototype" for the weapons and equipment independently developed by the mainland, so as to show that these weapons are "copied", and the classic theory of these statements is "looks alike". Although it is not possible to say plagiarism, these domestic weapons more or less do imitate similar foreign products.
Now, it is finally the turn of foreign weapons and equipment to "copy" domestic weapons, although they are only similar in appearance, but it also shows that domestic weapons have matured and are recognized by the international market. After all, have you ever seen someone imitate an Indian-made aircraft?