Turkish Air Force places first orders for Hürjet Block 1 jet trainer a…

Türkiye has placed four new contracts for domestically developed aircraft, including the first for the Hürjet Block 1 jet trainer (pictured here) and for the T625 Gökbey helicopter. (Turkish Aerospace)

Türkiye has placed its first contracts for the domestically developed Hürjet jet trainer aircraft and Gökbey helicopter.

A signature ceremony for these and two other manned aerial platforms was held with participants from Turkish Aerospace (TA), the Defence Industry Agency of Türkiye (SSB), the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and the Ministry the Interior on 18 April.

The contract for the procurement of 12 additional Hürjet advanced jet trainer aircraft will see these new Block 1 aircraft supplement four Block 0 planes ordered in December 2022. The Hürjet will replace the Northrop T-38 Talon jet trainer in Turkish Air Force (TuAF) service, and the Northrop NF-5 Freedom Fighter used by TuAF demonstration team Türk Yıldızları.

For the Gökbey, 20 of the T625 helicopters were ordered. Of these, seven are for Land Forces Command, four are for the TuAF, three are for the Gendarmarie, three are for the coastguard, and three are for the Turkish police service.

Further, 40 new Hürkuş Bs were ordered, with Haluk Görgün, the president of SSB, saying the first batch of 15 trainer aircraft under construction is scheduled to be delivered to the TuAF between May and September 2025 with deliveries to run through to June 2027. These additional aircraft are to address the developing needs of the TuAF.

Finally, Phase 1 Stage 2 of the Kaan national combat aircraft project was signed. According to the project plan, this stage consists of detailed design and qualification of the aircraft, and is expected to run till 2029. Two more prototype Kaan aircraft will be constructed by 2026.