Şimşek Era in the Blue Homeland

Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ) announced that the target drone Şimşek was used on Turkish Vessels in the Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan) 21 naval drill conducted recently. Şimşek is indigenously designed and produced by TUSAŞ.

TUSAŞ said, “High-Speed Target Drone Şimşek continued to serve as a target drone in the Blue Homeland exercise.” Şimşek conducted a total of eight sorties during the exercise that took place in the Eastern Mediterranean and North Aegean Seas. The company stated that “Şimşek has made a significant contribution to the air defence and close air defence firing of the ships in a realistic threat environment.”

Şimşek Era in the Blue Homeland

ŞİMŞEK High-Speed Target Drone System program was initiated in 2009 to meet theincreased trainingrequirements of the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF).

The system will meet the requirements of high-speed target drone simulating enemy aircraft and missiles for air to air, ground to air, anti-aircraft gunnery and missile systems’ tracking and firing training. The open architecture design of the ŞİMŞEK High-Speed Target Drone System allows modifications with respect toend-userrequirements.

ŞİMŞEK System, general features:

45minutes of endurance
Max. Speed 400 kts
Mission altitude between 1000ft (350m) to 15000 feet (4500 m) (ASL)
50 km LOS Data Link Range with GCS
Catapult launch
Parachute recovery on land or at sea
Ability to take-off and control from Navy platforms
Structure manufactured with advanced composite technology
Compatible with military standards
Full autonomous flight mode with Waypoint / Heading / Speed / Altitude hold modes including take-off and landing with indigenous "GCS Flight Control System" and "Autopilot System"
Preprogrammed flight ability to assign waypoints and change during/before flight
Return Home & Fail-Safe Modes for automatic recovery to a predefined return home point
Record and playback of real-time coded digital flight data telemetry
Ability to recognize and load digital maps

Payloads: