Any kind of successful weapons and equipment will be imitated, China's J-20 fighter is no exception, at the end of November, Turkey's Bayrakta UAV company's latest model Red Apple UAV is about to make its first flight, its appearance is exactly the same as the J-20, except that there is no cockpit, the size is relatively small, basically the original is copied.
For this drone, Bayraktar did not launch it secretly, since 2021, they have published pictures of the development process. The shape of the red apple is almost the same as that of the J-20, and it was pure white during its development. However, after the launch of the model, people were still a little surprised, because even the livery copied the dark night black of the J-20.
(Red Apple UAV has been white during development)
According to Bayraktar, the Red Apple UAV has a maximum take-off weight of 6 tons and a payload of 1500 kg and can perform air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. Equipped with a wide range of air-to-air and air-to-ground ammunition and equipped with an Active Electrical Scanning Array (AESA) radar.
So can it become a stealthy air superiority drone like the FH97 that China just showed at the Zhuhai air show? In our analysis, this possibility is not very likely. Because although Turkey has been very active in the military industry and equipment exports in recent years, on the whole, it is a country with weak basic industries, no original capabilities, and no ability to provide corresponding core subsystems for advanced models.
(TB2 drone is imported and assembled)
Let's give an example. Turkey's best-selling TB2 drone uses Austrian engines, Canadian photoelectric turrets and American flight control equipment, and is generally an assembled model of Western components. Although it performed fairly well on the battlefield, the issue of localization was not solved. The problem with the Red Apple drone is the same.
In particular, Red Apple certainly does not have Chinese support in stealth design and stealth algorithms. Because stealth algorithms are a country's top secret, currently only in the hands of China and the United States. Neither country will transfer this technology to any country for any reason. Turkey can only use public pictures and public videos for mapping analysis to simulate the aerodynamic shape and stealth characteristics of the J-20.
(Red Apple drone imagination)
As for the composite materials, absorbing coatings and other stealth measures used by the J-20, it is even more not available to Turkey.
We are not saying that the launch of this model is meaningless, even the stealth form factor of the cottage is better than the lack of stealth at all. The radar reflection section of the Red Apple UAV must be much smaller than that of the TB2 UAV, so it can still be used as a semi-stealth UAV in a war where the confrontation intensity is not high and the technical level of both sides is not strong.
(engines supplied by Ukraine for red apples)
In addition, according to the data released by the Turkish side, the Red Apple UAV uses the advanced AI-25TLT turbofan engine provided by Ukraine, and the maximum flight speed can only reach 900 kilometers per hour, which means that it does not have the characteristics of supersonic cruise like the J-20. But for a company like Bayrakta, which relies on processing and assembly to manufacture drones, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Because the flight control of high-speed UAVs is very difficult, if the flight speed is controlled below high subsonic speed, it may be easier to deal with specific tactical details such as flight control information transmission and ammunition delivery.
At present, the biggest risk of red apple drones is not necessarily stealth, but the supply of engines, Ukraine is at war, although the motor sich plant has not been directly destroyed by Russia, but production and development have certainly not been carried out normally. In particular, Russia has focused on cracking down on Ukraine's electricity supply in the past month, which makes it difficult for the high-power-consuming manufacturing industry to continue. If you can't get enough engine products, then the Red Apple drone may suffer the same fate as Turkey's TAI gunship, only having a prototype, but it is difficult to enter mass production, let alone export.
The emergence of red apple drones has also put forward an interesting idea for China's military trade industry, if in the future we also develop some stealth drones similar to the J-20 for export, such as FH97 models, then will the J-20 become a sales advantage for them?