Professor Ismail Demir, President of Defence Industries, said that Turkish Aerospace's high-speed target drone Şimşek (Lightning) has been upgraded to a GPS-guided cruise missile. This development will add new capabilities to ANKA UAV that air-launched the Şimşek.
Demir shared a video of the Şimşek drone. The drone was catapulted from the ground station and hit its target, which was floating on water. Demir underlined that the drone flies autonomously via GPS guidance. He also said that it could hit targets at long distances but did not reveal the range.
Şimşek High-Speed Target Drone System program was initiated in 2009 to meet the increased training requirements of the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF). Şimşek target drone has 45 minutes of endurance. It can reach a maximum speed of 350+ knots. The drone had more than 70+ km line of sight Data Link Range. As it flies autonomously with GPS guidance, it would be more appropriate to exceed the LOS limitation.
The Şimşek drone was last spotted beneath the wing of the ANKA UCAV. It is known that it has the air-launched version. Thus, the MALE class UCAV will become the first long-range missile firing platform. ANKA has fired laser-guided Cirit missiles and became the first UAV with missile-firing capacity. The UCAV can also drop mini smart ammunition such as MAM-L and MAM-C.
